Avant-garde jazz trio Medeski Martin & Wood [ tickets ] hit the road earlier this year with a new philosophy that will see them play three US tours and end up with three new albums.

Each Viva La Evolution Tour starts with the bandmates going into the studio for no more than a week to write and rehearse new material. From there, they go directly to the road for two weeks, playing only the new pieces of music in a specific region of the US. The compositions will be developed spontaneously on stage and then recorded immediately after the trek.

MMW launches a run of festival shows this week that stretch through early July. The guys will then segue into Viva La Evolution Tour Part 2, which kicks off July 11 in Masontown, WV, and focuses on the Southeast. They've also booked a gig at the Whistler Music Festival in British Columbia. Details are listed below.

The fruit of their labors will be released as "The Radiolarian Series," which will be available in a signed, limited-edition, eco package, according to the band's website.

In the midst of writing, touring and recording, Medeski, Martin & Wood will take time out in August to run a summer music camp at the Full Moon Resort in New York's Catskills Mountains. The Aug. 5-10 program will offer musicians of varying ages and levels an opportunity to live and study with the band, and take part in intensive workshops and seminars. Performances and jam sessions will fill the evenings.

Keyboardist John Medeski, drummer Billy Martin and bassist Chris Wood have been playing together since 1991 and have long been a favorite in the jam-band community. In 2006, the trio launched its own imprint, Indirecto Records, and released "Out Louder," a four-way collaborative effort with guitarist John Scofield.

In January, MMW veered off in a new direction, releasing its first album of children's music, "Let's Go Everywhere." The disc, which includes kid-friendly titles such as "Pirates Don't Take Baths," "Hickory Dickory Dock" and "Cat Creeps," features vocals from Wood's and Martin's children along with classmates and friends. A couple of songs from the set are streaming at MMW's MySpace page.

The busy band is already looking to next year, when it will join a slew of acts including Les Claypool, Galactic, Michael Franti, Ivan Neville and Grace Potter and the Nocturnals on Jam Cruise 7, which leaves from Fort Lauderdale, FL, Jan. 4 and visits Belize City, Belize and Costa Maya, Mexico.

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