Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey
Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey is a band founded in Tulsa, Oklahoma consisting of Brian Haas on piano, Josh Raymer on drums, Chris Combs on lap steel, and Jeff Harshbarger on double bass. To say that JFJO’s music transcends boundaries and expands minds is an understatement. JFJO’s music generates an all-encompasing sensory experience for the listener. Since 1994, the JFJO collective has brought their impressionistic and improvisational vision from the Midwest’s Bible-Belt to many of the world’s finest music festivals and clubs. Music lovers are blown away by JFJO’s instrumental virtuosity and creativity, musical risk, and near telepathic communication on stage. Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey is the evolution of an ongoing musical discourse that’s been developed during 16 years of touring. Starting out in Tulsa, OK as a funky octet with MCs and horns, JFJO became an instrumental trio in 1999 and a quartet at the end of 2008. The band is known for having invented it’s own improvisatory language, one which has permeated JFJO’s sound regardless of it’s configuration.
Over the past 16 years JFJO has become one of the foremost contemporary jazz bands in the world. In that time the band has released over 18 records and toured the top venues of the world such as the Damrosch Bandshell at Lincoln Center in NYC, Blue Note NYC & Milan Italy, Yoshi’s in Oakland, Bimhuis in Amsterdam and the Jazz Bar in Edinburgh, Scotland to name a few. JFJO has also frequented the jazz festival circuit, performing across the globe from Berlin to Brazil to Finland and back. The band recently performed some of their highest profile festival performances to date, such as the prestigious Newport Jazz Festival, and the Cork Jazz Festival in Ireland, where the band won a Guinness Jazz Award. These four musicians are musical chameleons who can move crowds in small jazz clubs, big rock clubs and performing arts theaters. Flourishing in the “jam” scene as well, the band has opened for Mike Gordon of Phish, Sound Tribe Sector Nine (sts9), Les Claypool, and held main-stage slots at many of the scene’s largest festivals. Due to their genre-bending sound, the band is known for drawing it’s audience from a wide range of demographics.
In April 2009 JFJO released the EP ‘One Day in Brooklyn’. The EP was released on September 1st and marks the debut of the new quartet lineup in the studio setting. In addition, the EP is the first release on JFJO’s new record label, Kinnara Records, which is distributed by Sony Red/MRI. The new quartet lineup, album, and tour have received rave reviews from Billboard and Downbeat to the New York Times and the LA Weekly. A description of JFJO’s quartet sound is in order for those yet to hear the new lineup — this is after all a band once described by Signal To Noise as having “a breadth and vision nearly untouched in modern jazz except by the likes of Wayne Shorter and Bill Frisell.” With the addition of Combs on lap steel and Jeff Harshbarger on upright bass, JFJO has perhaps invented its own genre: Red Dirt Jazz. This new sound is equal parts earthy and nimble, pastoral and sweeping, elegant and rollicking. JFJO is tapping into their birthright, drawing upon “The Tulsa Sound” born of hometown heroes like Bob Wills, JJ Cale, and Leon Russell. These roots grow up into a jazz foundation that’s built firmly upon the likes of Duke Ellington, John Coltrane and Thelonious Monk.
“The Sensation of Seeing Light” is the latest studio track from Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey. The song will be released as an exclusive 7" vinyl single for Record Store Day on April 17th, 2010. Listen to it by clicking here. Please let me know if you’d like your own copy of this limited-pressing 7" vinyl and I will send a copy to you in the mail. The single is the first chance to take a listen to JFJO’s latest studio work and will feature the song “The Sensation of Seeing Light” on Side A, with a remixed version of the track from our friend Dylan Golden on Side B. The song will also appear on the band’s upcoming full length LP release “Stay Gold”, which is set for release as both CD & double 12" vinyl on June 22nd, 2010. Both albums will be released on JFJO’s record label Kinnara Records and exclusively distributed in partnership with the Royal Potato Family by MRI/RED.
Highlighting their vast array of musical influences, the band is in the midst of executing their largest project ever entitled ‘LUDWIG’, consisting of JFJO’s innovative reinterpretations of Beethoven’s 3rd & 6th symphonies. Reconstituted in a modern light, JFJO brings Beethoven to life in a new and exciting manner. Channeling the spirits of not only Beethoven & Karajan but Led Zeppelin & Radiohead as well, Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey are turning Beethoven’s 3rd & 6th symphonies into modern music for today’s audiences. The band has taken ‘Eroica’ & ‘Pastoral’ and transformed the symphonies into contemporary music for the young and old alike. In June 2010 the band will debut the world premier of the ‘Ludwig’ project live at the 2010 OK Mozart festival with a 45 piece orchestra.
Having completed their album release tour the band has returned to Tulsa to begin the process of laying down tracks for their next Kinnara Records release, a full length LP highlighting the wealth of new compositions being created by this fertile quartet. After 16 years JFJO’s music continues to offer a unique and different sound that exhibits a rare form of abstract yet accessible musical freedom and inquiry. Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey has blossomed into one of the most visionary and fearless bands touring the world today.
