BY THOMAS CONNER
© Tulsa World There's an element of jazz — real jazz — that's rarely discussed at charity benefit galas and music company board meetings. You won't hear it in much of the music masquerading as jazz — not lounge, not swing, certainly not "smooth jazz." It's psychedelia. You might only have heard the term applied to rock 'n' roll — the droning, sitar-drenched stuff from the late '60s. But while psychedelic rock 'n' roll tried to blast open the doors of perception, inventive and free jazz tries to create its own keys. Creative bandleaders such as Charles Mingus and Thelonious Monk, as well as sonic pioneers from Ornette Coleman to Cecil Taylor, pushed the boundaries of music back to expose new ways of producing and perceiving the music, new vistas of expression, undiscovered countries. More dopey-eyed people said, "Wow, man," at a righteous Mingus performance than any Captain Beefheart show. The music of Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey is an excellent reminder of this. Built on firm foundations of traditional jazz, funk and even rock, Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey often bounds off on enthralling collective improvisations, and the result is often very "Wow, man." "Jazz has always been psychedelic," said Brian Haas, the band's own Master of Space of Time behind the Fender Rhodes keyboard. "Psychedelic — that is, activating the psyche, dealing with the intangible instead of the tangible," added Reed Mathis, Jacob Fred's bass player. Besides being a seven-piece group of well-trained musicians, mostly from the esteemed jazz program at the University of Tulsa, Jacob Fred's music often receives more comparisons to fringe rockers than the jazz artists in which the band's innovative creations are so rooted. "Even more than Medeski, Martin and Wood, the comparison we hear most is Frank Zappa," said trombone player Matt Leland, son of local keyboard wiz Mike Leland. "Mostly that means they're saying, 'Whoa, that's really out there.' Zappa's probably the only really crazy music they've ever heard." More exploratory listeners will have the chance this week to hear Jacob Fred's brand of crazy music. The Tulsa-based tribe releases its third CD, "Welcome Home," via a Massachusetts-based independent record label, Accurate Records. The label distributes its records nationally through the Warner Bros. Records network, meaning "Welcome Home" should be available at any record outlet coast-to-coast. Take Three "Welcome Home" is the band's third full-length disc. The first two, with the cheeky titles "Live at the Lincoln Continental" and "Live in Tokyo," were recorded live at the Eclipse and Club One in Tulsa. For the third outing, the members of Jacob Fred set out to record their first-ever studio record. That's not what they ended up with. The reason is simply stated. "It sounded like poopy," said guitarist Dove McHargue. The band spent several months in a studio with local producer and punk rocker Martin Halstead (N.O.T.A.), slaving over a hot mixer and trying to pin down the explosive — and often psychedelic — Jacob Fred chemistry. Only rarely did the results live up to the band's standards and expectations, so the bulk of the recordings were scrapped. "Welcome Home" features two studio tracks, a righteous ballad called "Road to Emmaus" and a talkie courtesy of drummer Sean Layton's affected drawl, "Stomp"; the other six instrumentals were captured once again at Tulsa's Club One. "It was necessary that we do this," Mathis said of the studio experience. "We learned many of our strengths and weaknesses. The things we are familiar with as mainly a live band simply weren't there in the studio ... It was getting ridiculous doing 11 takes of one tune. We set up for two nights in the club and had a finished album." "It's much easier to present this music when you're thinking about the audience and not about your own critical ears," said trumpeter Kyle Wright. "It's just not time for us in the studio yet," Mathis said. When will it be time for a Jacob Fred studio record? "When we can find a studio that can hold 500 patient people," McHargue said. So, for now, the third Jacob Fred CD is another snapshot of the band's carefully reckless evolution. JFJO, Not MMW, OK? After this week's two Tulsa CD release parties, Jacob Fred again will take to the road for a tour stretching from Boston to Los Angeles. The word is out ahead of them, too. This month's Down Beat magazine — the cornerstone news source for jazz — sports a feature article on the band. That article's chief comparison of the band is not, of course, Zappa. It's Medeski, Martin and Wood, a more revisionist acid-jazz organ trio that also debuted itself to the nation via Accurate Records. Jacob Fred members maintain that the only thing they have in common with MMW is a spirit of innovation. "It's the things MMW and us avoid that groups us together," Mathis said. "It's not what we have in common, really. The thing we really have in common is that we're both unclassifiable bands." "MMW," a song on "Welcome Home," makes light of the perceived link. In this case, the MMW marks the order of solos in the song: McHargue, Mathis and Wright. On tour, the band proudly carries the banner for Tulsa music. Or is that Texas? There's a goofy story behind the new album's name. Mathis explained: "We went to Chicago, and the paper mentioned us, saying, 'avant-garde sounds from Texas.' The next week in Austin, they'd somehow picked up on that, and a flier for our show said they were welcoming us home." Haas continued, "So in the show we said, 'It's great to back. This next song is called "Welcome Home."' And Kyle went into an improv thing." "So now anytime we make up a song on stage — total improvisation — we call it 'Welcome Home,'" Mathis said. Celebrating its new and nationally released CD, "Welcome Home" on Accurate Records, Tulsa's own Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey has scheduled two shows this week for its hometown friends. Fans of all ages can catch the band's unique funk-jazz at 8 p.m. Tuesday at Living Arts of Tulsa, 19 E. Brady. Admission is $5 ($3 for Living Arts members) at the door. The second show — 21 and over — kicks off at 9 p.m. Thursday where most of the new CD was recorded: Club One, 3200 Riverside Drive It's $5 at the door, too. Comments are closed.
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Thomas Conner
These online "clips" reproduce a self-selection of my journalism (music etc) during the last 20+ years. It's a lotta stuff, but it only scratches the surface. I do not currently possess the time or resources to digitize the whole body of work. These posts are simply a bunch of pretty great days at the office. Archives
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