Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey

by Alex HendersonWhen novices discover the experimental music of the Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey, they are surprised to learn that there is no one named Jacob Fred--the group's name is meant to be clever and ironic. Novices also learn that the Tulsa, OK outfit's mildly avant-garde blend of jazz, rock and funk draws on a wide variety of influences; JFJO has been influenced by everyone from electric Miles Davis and Jimi Hendrix to Sun Ra, John Coltrane, Cecil Taylor, Larry Young and John Scofield. Often quirky, eccentric and abstract, JFJO favors an inside/outside approach but is usually more inside than outside. JFJO isn't atonal free jazz, but at the same time, no one will mistake the Oklahoma residents for retro-boppers who play a lot of Tin Pan Alley standards. JFJO was formed in Tulsa in February 1994, which is when Brian Haas (keyboards, piano) joined forces with Reed Mathis (electric bass). Both Haas and Mathis had been classically trained in their pre-JFJO days; Haas, in fact, had played Beethoven's "Second Piano Concerto" with the Oklahoma Philharmonic when he was only 17. But even though playing with a classical orchestra when he wasn't old enough to vote looked good on a resume, Haas realized that he didn't want to be a full-time classical pianist--he found the European classical tradition to be rigid and yearned to play music that satisfied his need to improvise. So he made jazz his main focus, and after meeting Mathis, Haas learned that the fellow Tulsa resident had similar tastes. Although both wanted a jazz-oriented approach, neither were jazz snobs--both of them also appreciated rock and funk. After forming JFJO, Haas and Mathis became a fixture on the Tulsa scene (where they played mostly instrumental music but sometimes featured rappers). Haas and Mathis have always been the core of the group, although JFJO has had different lineups along the way. Improvisers who were with JFJO in the ?90s included trumpeter Kyle Wright, trombonist Matt Leland, percussionist Matthew Edwards and drummer Sean Layton, all of whom have since left the group. JFJO's debut album, Live at the Lincoln Continental, came out in 1995 and was followed by Live in Tokyo in 1996. The group's best known and most widely distributed ?90s release, however, was Welcome Home, a live album that was recorded for Accurate in 1998. That CD was followed by Mama's House and Bloom in 2000 and Self Is Gone in 2001. After that came All Is One: Live in New York City, which was recorded live at New York's Knitting Factory in March 2002 and released by Knitting Factory Records four months later.