Shack-Man is the fourth album by experimental jazz-funk trio Medeski Martin & Wood, released on October 15, 1996 via Gramavision. It is widely regarded as the band's commercial breakthrough, peaking at No. 7 on the Billboard Contemporary Jazz Albums chart and introducing the trio to a broader audience — particularly listeners in the emerging jam band world. True to its title, the album was recorded in a remote, solar-powered plywood shack in the Hawaiian jungle in June 1996, and that distinctly lo-fi, back-to-basics environment is audible throughout the record's rough, tactile sound. The lineup is the classic trio of John Medeski on an arsenal of keyboards — Hammond B-3 organ, Wurlitzer electric piano, clavinet, Pianet T, toy piano, and synthesizer — Billy Martin on drums and percussion, and Chris Wood on acoustic bass, electric bass, and guitar.Musically, Shack-Man plants itself squarely in the intersection of 1970s soul-jazz, funk, and psychedelia, updating those vintage sounds with a 1990s hip-hop-influenced rhythmic sensibility. As Elusive Disc puts it, the album "brought the '70s soul-jazz beloved by the band firmly into the '90s, propelled by Medeski's simultaneously nostalgic yet forward-thinking excursions on the Hammond B-3." The eleven tracks — including originals like "Dracula," "Bubblehouse," "Lifeblood," and "Night Marchers" alongside a reworking of the traditional "Is There Anybody Here That Love My Jesus" — favor groove and collective interplay over technical showboating, with the Los Angeles Times noting the "infectious beats and often amazing interplay" sparked between Martin and Wood. For many fans and critics, Shack-Man remains the defining statement of what Medeski Martin & Wood were at their most focused and irresistible.
