Medeski Martin Metzger & Cline – Phish After-Party

Famed keyboardist JOHN MEDESKI is not easily contained to a single project or genre; he is credited on over 300 works to date, most notably as one third of the groundbreaking trio, Medeski Martin & Wood.

Equally comfortable behind a Steinway grand piano, Hammond organ or any number of vintage keyboards, Medeski is a highly sought after improviser and band leader whose projects range from work with John Zorn, The Word (Robert Randolph, North Mississippi Allstars), Phil Lesh, Don Was, John Scofield, Coheed & Cambria, Susana Baca, Sean Lennon, Marc Ribot, Irma Thomas, Blind Boys of Alabama, Dirty Dozen Brass Band and many more. Classically trained, Medeski grew up in Ft.Lauderdale, FL where as a teenager he played with Jaco Pastorius before heading north to attend the New England Conservatory. He released his first solo piano record, A Different Time, on Sony’s Okeh Records in 2013, and current projects include a new album in the works with his band MadSkillet (Terrence Higgins, Kirk Joseph, Will Bernard), and HUDSON (a collaboration with Jack DeJohnette, John Scofield & Larry Grenadier), plus a documentary on Medeski Martin & Wood.

Join us for an official Phish After-Party at Sony Hall featuring Medeski Martin Metzger & Cline.

Following the Phish show, these four improvisational heavyweights bring a late-night set of exploratory jazz, groove, and psychedelic improvisation perfect for the after-show crowd.

This special late-night performance is part of the Phish After-Party Series Summer 2026 and will be live streamed on Volume.com.

$1 from every ticket sold will be donated to the WaterWheel Foundation, Phish’s long-running charitable organization supporting environmental conservation, social justice, and community causes.

Come keep the night going in the heart of Times Square.

A true guitar polymath, Nels Cline’s recording and performing career spans jazz, rock, punk and experimental music with over 200 recordings, including 30 as a leader, to his credit. His many accolades include being anointed by Rolling Stone as both one of 20 New Guitar Gods and one of the top 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.

Born in Los Angeles on January 4, 1956, Cline and his twin brother, drummer Alex, formed a teenage rock band called Homogenized Goo, inspired by the groundbreaking psychedelic guitar work of Jimi Hendrix’s “Manic Depression,” Jeff Beck’s solo on The Yardbirds’ “Happenings Ten Years Time Ago,” George Harrison’s playing at the end of the Beatles’ “Strawberry Fields Forever” and Pete Townshend’s feedback squalls on “I Can See for Miles.” Later rock guitar influences for Nels included Steve Howe from Yes, Jan Akkerman from Focus and Roger McGuinn from The Byrds. “I just loved psychedelia — reverse guitar stuff, Indian-type drones, distortion and feedback. It all created a sense of the mystery and magic of sound that maybe set the stage for me to not to just play straight rock my whole life.”

Electric Miles Davis, specifically In a Silent Way, Bitches Brew, Live/Evil, On the Corner and Get Up With It, would open the door for Cline to some new musical horizons, along with late period John Coltrane, Pharaoh Sanders and Albert Ayler. Nels and his brother Alex would eventually come under the tutelage of such West Coast free jazz icons as multi-instrumentalist Vinny Golia and bassist-pianist-composer Eric Von Essen, who played duets with Cline on the guitarist’s first recording, 1980’s Elegies. There followed a series of recordings with New York avant-garde alto saxophonist Tim Berne (The Five Year Plan, 7X, Spectres) and with Berne’s mentor Julius Hemphill (1984’s live Georgia Blue) before Cline hit a prolific streak in the ‘90s with a string of releases by the Nels Cline Trio. The guitarist’s 1999 release, Interstellar Space Revisited (The Music of John Coltrane), his explosive duet with drummer Gregg Bendian, gained a lot of critical attention in the jazz world. He followed with a string of eight uncompromising releases through the 2000s for the Cryptogramophone label, including 2002’s debut by the Nels Cline Singers, Instrumentals, and their 2004 follow-up, The Giant Pin, that put him on the avant-garde map.

Cline’s profile was elevated to a whole other level after joining Wilco in 2004, subsequently appearing on 2005’s Kicking Television: Live in Chicago in 2007’s Sky Blue Sky, 2009’s Wilco (The Album), 2011’s The Whole Love, 2014’s Alpha Mike Foxtrot, 2015’s Star Wars, 2016’s Schmilco and 2019’s Ode to Joy. For his ambitious 2016 Blue Note debut, Lovers, Nels defied all expectations by delivering a sumptuous chamber- orchestra feast of mood music that was an unapologetically romantic paean to the Great American Songbook, inspired by his muses Bill Evans, Jim Hall, Gil Evans, Jimmy Giuffre, Sonic Youth and Henry Mancini. For his 2018 follow-up on Blue Note, Currents, Constellations, he pared it down to a quartet, dubbed The Nels Cline 4, and showcased a tight two-guitar interplay with his six-string partner Julian Lage on some heated collective improvisations across a wide range of moods. His 2016 double album debut on Blue Note, Lovers, was called “quietly ravishing” by The New York Times, “stunning” by Downbeat and “wildly inventive” by Rolling Stone while his 2018 follow-up, Currents, Constellations, was called “vibrant, adventurous...a skronking, shredding, shapeshifting good time” by Stereogum. Joined by his upstart crew of Skerik, Brian Marsella, Trevor Dunn, Scott Amendola, and Cyro Baptista, The Nels Cline Singers took things up a notch on 2020’s Share the Wealth, his third Blue Note release. His latest project, Nels Cline : Consentrik Quartet, featuring Ingrid Laubrock, Chris Lightcap, and Tom Rainey, will release their self-titled album on March 14 via Blue Note Records.

Scott has performed, recorded, and toured with artists including: John Mayer, John Scofield, Warren Haynes, Nels Cline, Anders Osborne, Phil Lesh, Shooter Jennings, LaLa Brooks (of the world famous Crystals), & many others from a variety of genres. He’s performed extensively all over the United States, Europe, Japan, and Australia and has performed and recorded with projects of all styles, and is a first call player in many artists, producers, & engineers phone books. Appearances include The Montreux Jazz Festival (Switzerland), The Newport Folk Festival, The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, as well as famous and historic venues worldwide; Carnegie Hall, Ancient Belgique (Brussels, Belgium), Jazz at Lincoln Center, The Blue Note New York, The Ryman Auditorium, Red Rocks Amphitheater, and Jazz at Lincoln Center.

Scott is a full time member of the critically acclaimed, increasingly popular Joe Russo’s Almost Dead. His various part time projects include the Gypsy Jazz influenced The Showdown Kids, and WOLF! (Royal Potato Family Records), an instrumental guitar trio whose music has been featured on the hit television series Z-Nation. In addition, Scott has made various appearances on national television, including appearances on Good Day New York and a featured duet with Nicole Atkins on the season 1 finale of Cameron Crowe’s Showtime series ‘Roadies.’

His overall approach is aimed at serving the integrity of the song & group while expressing his unique voice through his guitar. His style combines a lyrical, melodic sound and sensibility that shows a deep understanding of the instrument’s history, while at the same time has an edginess that is unmistakably Metzger’s own.