Christopher Barry Wood (born November 25, 1969) is an American bass

Bass (instrument)

Bass describes musical instruments that produce tones in the low-pitched range. They belong to different families of instruments and can cover a wide range of musical roles...

 player, best known for playing with the avant-garde jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

-funk

Funk

Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...

 trio Medeski Martin & Wood

Medeski Martin & Wood

Medeski Martin & Wood is an American jazz trio formed in 1991, consisting of John Medeski on keyboards and piano, Billy Martin on drums and percussion, and Chris Wood on double bass and bass guitar....

 (MMW).

Biography

Born in Pasadena, California, Wood formed MMW in 1991 with John Medeski

John Medeski

Anthony John Medeski is an American jazz keyboards player and composer. Medeski is a veteran of New York's 1990s avant-garde jazz scene and is known popularly as a member of Medeski Martin & Wood...

 and Billy Martin

Billy Martin (percussionist)

Billy Martin is an American jazz drummer, best known as a member of jazz-funk trio Medeski Martin & Wood.-Biography:Before becoming part of Medeski, Martin & Wood, Martin was part of the New York City Brazilian scene in the 1980s. He performed regularly with Pe De Boi, Batucada and several Bob...

.

Wood also collaborates with his brother Oliver Wood as The Wood Brothers

The Wood Brothers

The Wood Brothers are musician siblings Chris and Oliver Wood from Boulder, Colorado. Chris is a founding member of Medeski Martin & Wood, and Oliver played second guitar with Tinsley Ellis before forming King Johnson....

. Their debut release, entitled Ways Not to Lose, was produced by John Medeski

John Medeski

Anthony John Medeski is an American jazz keyboards player and composer. Medeski is a veteran of New York's 1990s avant-garde jazz scene and is known popularly as a member of Medeski Martin & Wood...

.

Wood plays both upright and electric basses. One technique he uses on the upright bass involves using a drumstick as a slide near the bridge of the bass. Wood bows between the drumstick and the bridge to produce a high-pitched, warbling sound, similar to a theremin

Theremin

The theremin , originally known as the aetherphone/etherophone, thereminophone or termenvox/thereminvox is an early electronic musical instrument controlled without discernible physical contact from the player. It is named after its Russian inventor, Professor Léon Theremin, who patented the device...

. Wood is also known to insert a sheet of notation paper behind and between the strings of his bass which creates a unique "snare bass" sound, an adaption of a technique devised on the double bass

Double bass

The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...

 by Bertram Turetzky

Bertram Turetzky

Bertram Turetzky is a contemporary American double bass soloist, teacher, and author of The Contemporary Contrabass , a book that looked at a number of new and interesting ways of playing the double bass including featuring it as a solo performance vehicle with no other instrumental...

. This is featured on the Medeski, Martin, and Wood recording of "Paper Bass" on the album "Friday Afternoon in the Universe" (1995).