Medeski Martin & Wood [ tickets ] will bring their eclectic jazz-funk fusion to the Midwest this spring, and the trio is lining up dates through the summer.

The latest Medeski Martin & Wood release is last year's "Uninvisible," which marked the group's third effort with producer/engineer Scotty Hard (The Word, Prince Paul, Deltron 3030, Wu-Tang Clan).

Rather than composing pieces in advance for "Uninvisible," the band developed the songs during extensive improv sessions at its Brooklyn studio.

"There's something for us about the first time you play something," Wood said in the band's biography. "Some of these tunes sound better if we just keep the original time we played it instead of learning what we did. "

Other musicians were brought in during subsequent recording sessions to flesh out the music before Hard and the band edited and mixed the final album.

Though there is no singing on the album, MMW did employ vocalists. Crash Test Dummies frontman Brad Roberts added hums and other flourishes to "Where Have You Been," and Col. Bruce Hampton tells a story on "Your Name Is Snake Anthony."

Keyboardist John Medeski, drummer-percussionist Billy Martin and bassist Chris Wood have also been involved in many other musical projects of late.

Medeski recently curated the album "None but the Righteous," a collection of guitar works by speed-metal purveyors Sacred Steel, and Medeski and Wood appear on the latest Gov't Mule and Chocolate Genius albums.

Martin will release his second "illy B Eats" remix album on April 1. The CD is a compilation of remixes based on drumbeats from his vinyl-only album "illy B Eats--Groove, Bang & Jive Around."