Jazz Odyssey (no puppet show)
Each generation gotta have its own jazz. And not repackaged/reworked olde jazz to make a kid feel all historically k'nektid -- thanks for the underwear, too, Mama -- but new jazz, the way Diz, Miles and Trane were once new. The way Bird took off on Gershwin in the '40s. That's what Tulsa's Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey are about: improvising on the music they grew up with, like Bjrk, the Flaming Lips and Jimi Hendrix. (The trio features no Jacob or Fred, and “Jazz Odyssey" was Spinal Tap's wank-o-rama when the 'Tap needed a “change of direction," so you know the J-Freds are not posing for a statue.)
Odd how long it took for jazzers to update the database of “standards" -- till the mid-'90s, when Cassandra Wilson started singing her childhood memories of Van Morrison and the Monkees. Odder how long it took for Brad Mehldau (1999), the Bad Plus (2000) and Judith Owen (2005) to pick up the flag and jazzify Radiohead, Nirvana and Deep Purple. (But the original prophet Cassandra didn't get quick uptake from the Trojans, either.) Not so odd is the new jazz's distance from bebop: about the same as the distance between “Last Train to Clarksville" and “My Funny Valentine."
Each generation gotta have its own jazz. And not repackaged/reworked olde jazz to make a kid feel all historically k'nektid -- thanks for the underwear, too, Mama -- but new jazz, the way Diz, Miles and Trane were once new. The way Bird took off on Gershwin in the '40s. That's what Tulsa's Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey are about: improvising on the music they grew up with, like Bjrk, the Flaming Lips and Jimi Hendrix. (The trio features no Jacob or Fred, and “Jazz Odyssey" was Spinal Tap's wank-o-rama when the 'Tap needed a “change of direction," so you know the J-Freds are not posing for a statue.)
Odd how long it took for jazzers to update the database of “standards" -- till the mid-'90s, when Cassandra Wilson started singing her childhood memories of Van Morrison and the Monkees. Odder how long it took for Brad Mehldau (1999), the Bad Plus (2000) and Judith Owen (2005) to pick up the flag and jazzify Radiohead, Nirvana and Deep Purple. (But the original prophet Cassandra didn't get quick uptake from the Trojans, either.) Not so odd is the new jazz's distance from bebop: about the same as the distance between “Last Train to Clarksville" and “My Funny Valentine."
For more information contact All About Jazz.
