Medeski Martin & Wood eye West Coast trek

Experimental jazz trio Medeski Martin & Wood will undertake a West Coast tour the latter half of next month behind the band's recently released box set, "Radiolarians: The Evolutionary Set."

The group kicks off the outing Feb. 17 in San Diego and has lined up 10 cities on the trek, which concludes Feb. 27 in Seattle. Tickets for all shows are currently on sale; details are shown at right.

MMW produced the two-year "Radiolarian Series" in an unusual manner, convening periodically for brief writing retreats and performing only that new material on tour, then subsequently recording the material immediately after getting off the road. The band repeated the processes three times while touring in different regions of the US and South America. The three original albums were released over about a year's time, culminating in last August's "Radiolarians 3."

The new box set compiles the three "Radiolarians" albums in the same package for the first time, and the double-vinyl LP set features a selection of songs from the albums hand picked by MMW. The accompanying 70-minute live release was recorded during the "Radiolarians" tours.

For the 10-track remix CD, MMW enlisted the creative talents of several DJs and producers, including Dan The Automator, DJ Spooky, DJ Logic, DJ Olive and Scott Harding.

The "Evolutionary Set" box also includes the Martin-directed feature film "Fly in a Bottle," which "provides an extremely intimate portrait of the band," according to a press release. The film, the first such work in the group's history, shows the band working in the studio and on the road. The DVD also includes the music video for "Amber Gris," the esoteric "Incant to Chantes Des Femmes" (directed by Grey Gersten) and an experiment with time-lapse film entitled "CW."