Medeski, Martin and Wood spent New Years Eve far from home, performing at Tokyos Differ Ariake. Part of the groups brief Japanese run, which also included performances in Osaka and Sapporo, MMWs performance marked its long awaited return to the far east. While overseas, on December 30, MMW also performed a surprise show at Tokyos JZ Brad. The groups performance was a wedding reception for the promoter and president Taichi of LCE who brought MMW to Japan for its recent outing. ‘He has shared us with the right audience and we have been working with him ever since,’ Billy Martin told Jambands.com/Relix. ‘Before that, maybe eight years ago, we were working with an older promoter who just put us in jazz clubs. It wasnt the right audience for us. Its not easy to find our niche. This promoters take on it is more like Sun Ra, Sex Mob, Skerikhe really seems to know how to pick the right sort of bands to represent that spirit.’ MMW performed an acoustic set for about one hour, with Sex Mobs Steve Bernstein joining in on slide trumpet. MMW performs next January 12 at Fort Collins, COs Aggie Theatre.