JACOB FRED JAZZ ODYSSEY

Event information

Jazz / Electronica / Psychedelic USA band formed in 1994, playing The Fleece as one of only four debut dates in the UK as part of their European Tour.

Brian Haas - Piano / Rhodes / Moog
Reed Mathis - Bass / Guitar / Lap Steel
Peter Tomshany - Guitars
Chris Combs - Guitar / Lap Steel
Josh Raymer - Drums

JFJO is pianist Brian Haas, drummer Josh Raymer, and bassist/effects wizard/guitarist Reed Mathis. To say that JFJO's music transcends boundaries and expands minds is an understatement. Since 1994, JFJO has brought their impressionistic and improvisational vision from the USA's Midwest Bible-Belt to many of the world's finest music festivals and clubs. Music listeners are blown away by JFJO's instrumental creativity, musical risk, and near telepathy on stage. In the past 18 months, JFJO has travelled to Europe three times for two dozen performances and have played at major jazz festivals all over the world. In 2007 JFJO worked on their fourteenth album, their fourth with Brooklyn-based Hyena Records, to create their most unique album yet.
The Sameness of Difference was released in the Fall of 2005 and recorded in collaboration with acclaimed producer Joel Dorn. A 13 track collection of both covers and originals, it is a living, breathing testament to the 13 years that the ensemble has spent together. Throughout the album, the band explores their influences and offers interpretations of music by The Flaming Lips, Charles Mingus, Neil Young, Brian Wilson, Dave Brubeck, The Beatles, Bjork and Jimi Hendrix.

On JFJO's follow-up, Tomorrow We'll Know Today, a digital exclusive collection of live recordings from Europe and America, JFJO is found pushing their music even further. Improvisations such as "Nightlight" and "Gypsy Tea" create ambient sonic tapestries based on melody and sweeping tonal textures that sound like nothing you have ever heard.

JFJO move crowds in small jazz clubs, big rock clubs and performing arts theaters. They have been celebrated by the jazz world - playing regularly at NYC's Blue Note, in some of Europe's biggest jazz theaters, and appearing in major magazines such as MOJO, New York Times and Downbeat--but they also have found success in the jam and indie rock scenes, playing large festivals and performing with the likes of STS9 and Les Claypool.
2008 will find JFJO at such prestigious festivals as Guinness Cork Jazz Festival in Ireland, the 40th Umea International Jazz Festival in Sweden, and the prestigious Newport Jazz Festival.
Year after year, they've maintained a tour schedule that would crush less dedicated musicians.

No, there is no member of the ensemble named Jacob Fred. The group's name came about in 1994 when JFJO was a septet and the name reflects the sense of humour in their approach to making music. 'Jazz Odyssey' comes from the scene in the hilarious mockumentary, 'This is Spinal Tap,' in which the rock group loses a member and must improvise their normally rocking performance with free-jazz and fusion. 'Jacob Fred' was a high-school moniker of Brian Haas. Once, when high-schoolers did not have cell phones and homes had just a single land line, Jacob Fred was Brian's CB radio handle and his nickname when girls' parents answered the phone late at night. The group also goes by the names The Fred and JFJO.

2008 has found JFJO on a vigorous album release tour here in the states, where they were re-interpreting the material from their new album 'Lil Tae Rides Again.' Both the album and performances have been receiving rave reviews. 'Lil Tae" received an incredible 4-star review in the June '08 Downbeat Magazine amongst many others. JFJO's recent record release tours have garnered rave reviews from that of SF Weekly, LA Weekly, The Village Voice, and Under the Radar amongst others.

Just last month JFJO made their debut at the prestigious Newport Jazz Festival . Performing to a full crowd the band had the audience completely engaged, prompting a instantaneous standing ovation upon the set's finale.
A few JFJO mentions from JVC Jazz Festival Newport,RI:

http://thephoenix.com/Boston/Music/66191-State-of-the-art/

http://www.projo.com/news/content/JAZZREV10_08-10-08_ATB63UJ_v8.3cd55bc.html


In the same week the band also performed to a magnificent crowd at the renowned Lincoln Center in NYC as part of a tribute to the legendary producer Joel Dorn. JFJO was one of the last artists to work with Joel. In his honour, the band played a medley of Rashaan Roland Kirk songs, an artist whom Joel was famous for working with.

A JazzTimes review of the show can be found here: http://www.jazztimes.com/reviews/concert_reviews/detail.cfm?article=10528

And a few shots from August tour: http://www.flickr.com/photos/12923733@N08/

In July JFJO played to an incredible crowd at the 2008 Dfest Music Conference and Festival. Check out the review and video footage below! JFJO played in front of over 10,000 people!
Check out this raving review of JFJO at Dfest , as well as a video clip of the show:
Video : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjaC6K_b-EY
Article : http://www.urbantulsa.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A24411

JFJO just returned to Oklahoma from their 2nd tour of the West Coast in 2008. After a handful of dates in the OK region in the coming weeks, JFJO heads east for performances at The Regatta Bar in Boston, Chris' Jazz Cafe' in Philly, & The Blue Note in NYC. Then the band returns to Europe, where they will be playing at Guinness Cork Jazz Festival in Ireland and the 40th Umea International Jazz Festival in Sweden amongst other performances. The tour will culminate in London with a performance on Halloween.

'Rich Mahogany' - a collection of live tracks recorded in Sept.2007 http://www.mediafire.com/?evldenv4u2j

Mix of JFJO doing 'standards' http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=b635a046a00a39ad4012e8015643d9c80690821e94b7d908

Reviews:

"As abstractly hallucinatory as it may sound on disc (or wherever), expect material from the Tulsa keyboard trio's most recent album, Lil Tae Rides Again, to unfold gloriously onstage. Expectations, though, are hardly the stock in trade of keyboardist Brian Haas, guitarist Reed Mathis, and drummer Josh Raymer's intensely improvisatory head-fuckery, which embraces Beatles covers, free jazz and just about everything in between." - The Village Voice

"'Lil Tae Rides Again' bathes in electro-blackness, a blood-red island in a skewed fantasy. Gorgeous or beastly, it sticks to your shivering bones." - Under The Radar Magazine

"Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey step through the looking glass to emerge from the shadows of their disparate rock and jazz influences with something wholly fresh. Producer Tae Meyulks transforms these sessions into a sonic wonderland." - The Absolute Sound

"'Tether Ball Triumph' layers shimmering, overlapping melodic fragments over hushed drum 'n' bass rhythms. The eerie 'Santiago Lends a Hand' sounds like a lullaby for the post-apocalypse before ominous, lurching beats come to the fore. One of the few uptempo pieces here is the dub-tinged 'Discovering the Time Capsule,' where sweet, nostalgic accordion sighs waft through thick, metallic piano chords — imagine Tortoise in waltz mode." - SF Weekly

"Delicious postmodern jazzitude from the Tulsa-based piano trio." 4 of 5 stars. - Mojo (UK)

"A breadth and vision nearly untouched in modern jazz except by the likes of Wayne Shorter and Bill Frisell." - Signal to Noise

"In my humble opinion, one of the most fascinating trios currently walking around on God's green earth." - SlagwerkKrant (NL)

"....powerfully evocative, making the listening experience alternately trying and transcendent." - Bass Player Magazine

"It swings, it sways, but the jazz trio form in their hands has an almost primitive, inside-your-head, idiosyncratic quality to it that suggests the three are truly one." - Downbeat Magazine

"Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey weave the kind of impressionistic, imaginative new jazz that shatters any kind of identity, much less categories and classifications." - Chicago Sun Times

"JFJO burns with a quiet intensity rather than dramatically explodes. The musicians play with a coiled looseness, improvising with quicksilver yet deliberate force. You can hear the band's power and inventiveness creatively eroding structure, and the tension produced from that is exhilarating. If JFJO isn't moving jazz forward, it is shifting its center of gravity interestingly askew." - Jazz Times

"...truly intoxicating." - East Bay Express

“Clearly, keyboardist Brian Haas and bassist Reed Mathis could be considered masters of their respective instruments, but they avoid exhibitionistic soloing in favor of sonic ambience and subtle group meditations. Structure and context is the name of the game...” - ‘4 stars' - Downbeat Magazine


Ffi: http://www.myspace.com/jacobfredjazzodyssey and http://www.jfjo.com/info.php