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Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey
Biography
When 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.
Selected Discography