Jazz Articles about Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey

like 924

Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey: Three-Way Street

by Paul Olson
January 9, 2006

There's no better gigging band than the Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey. The trio of pianist Brian Haas, bassist Reed Mathis and drummer Jason Smart ought to be a great live band--Haas and Mathis have been playing together for well over a decade (Smart joined the band more recently) and have, year after year, maintained a tour schedule that would crush a less hardy group.JFJO started out in Tulsa (Mathis and Haas still reside there when not on the ...

like 281

Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey: The Sameness of Difference

by Paul Olson
October 8, 2005

The whimsically titled Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey (there's no one by that name in the band, and the “Jazz Odyssey comes from the execrable free jazz piece in This Is Spinal Tap) occupies a rather unique place in the jazz world. Electric bassist Reed Mathis, pianist Brian Haas, and drummer Jason Smart aren't the most improvisational band around; instead they concentrate on brilliantly arranged songs--the “jazz in their music grows from their breathing, vital interplay and their shifting, roiling rhythm.

like 116

Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey Live and Electric in Saratoga

by R.J. DeLuke
July 1, 2005

Songs from the Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey sometimes seem to be works in progress, which is good. That's what improvisational music should be. Fresh ideas. Different slants. But the young men that make up the band are also works in progress. They've been working together for a long time, but they're going to get better.

The band visited E. O'Dwyer's, curiously enough, just a small bar in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., on June 23. The visit was pretty much unheralded ...

like 281

Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey: Symbiosis Osmosis

by Mark Sabbatini
February 11, 2005

Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey Symbiosis Osmosis Kufala Recordings 2005

How can you not love these guys? Actually, it's not that hard if you're a fan of Kenny G or George W. Bush. Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey's Symbiosis Osmosis opens with a song dedicated to the president called “Dubya! Stop Lying!" It's followed by another that pianist Brian Haas--a recent co-founder of “The Dead Kenny Gs"--introduces as “We're Not Scared Of You Because ...

like 200

SXSW at the Elephant Room

by Mark Sabbatini
November 28, 2004

Among all the voices clamoring to be the “new direction of jazz," the Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey is one of a relative few that can speak with authority.

The Tulsa-based trio made their debut on the Downbeat critics poll last fall in the “Rising Star, Electric Band" category, a testament to their perseverance and development since they've spent the past decade wowing the progressive coffee house crowd. They are unmistakably part of the avant-garde scene that sometimes indulges ...

like 229

Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey: Walking With Giants

by Mark Sabbatini
September 9, 2004

Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey Walking With Giants Hyena Records 2004

For some reason applying the label “breakthrough album" here feels like I'm cheating the band.

The Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey has a number of outstanding studio and live albums to their credit--not to mention a huge amount of free online music (see www.jfjo.com )--but this may be the one that gets them out of the “deserving wider recognition" category.

like 465

Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey: Walking With Giants

by Dennis Cook
August 24, 2004

Walking With Giants Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey Hyena Records 2004

They are content to be where they are, talking or not talking.Their breaths together feed someone whom we do not know. Poet Robert Bly talks of a “third body" shared in common, an “other" that love and commitment bring into being. It's hard to imagine a more apt metaphor for the Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey. Three people, feeding something ...