Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey Heads West, Heads East, Jumps The Pond

America's favorite mind-bending, hallucination-inducing jazz trio from Tulsa, OK, the Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey, gets back to business in February 2006 with a string of tour dates on the Left Coast, a run of high profile appearances on the East Coast and a jump over the Atlantic for a stretch of shows in Europe. Highlights will include two nights at Cafe Du Nord in San Francisco on February 17 & 18 and two nights at The Blue Note in New York City on March 10 & 11. The European leg of the treck will be JFJO's first official tour of the continent, including performances at Bimhuis in Amsterdam, The Netherlands and Turku International Jazz Festival in Turku, Finland. All of this in support of their latest release, The Sameness of Difference, on HYENA Records.

Released in October 2005, The Sameness of Difference was produced by acclaimed record producer Joel Dorn. In addition to five original compositions, the album features eight interpretations of songs outside the JFJO canon, including “The Spark That Bled" by The Flaming Lips, “Isobel" by Bjork, “Don't Let It Bring You Down" by Neil Young, “Fables of Faubus" by Charles Mingus and “Wonderful" by Brian Wilson. While JFJO has been known to perform jazz standards in the “live" setting, this marks the first time they've explored outside material in the studio.

To date, The Sameness of Difference has been received warmly by music critics around the country. The Chicago Sun Times declared, “On The Sameness of Difference, Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey weave the kind of impressionistic, imaginative new jazz that shatters any kind of identity, much less categories and classifications." And the New Times states: “This Tulsa trio is the sonic equivalent of Silly Putty, able to stretch into weird, warped experimentations or snap back into delicately pointed hooks. The Sameness of Difference finds acrobatic keysman Brian Haas sticking to his piano's pristine, acoustic tone, while Reed Mathis orbits on bass, tweaking the instrument until it sounds like a sitar pining for an oasis."

JFJO's west coast tour dates in the U.S. will include special guests, The Dead Kenny Gs, who are comprised of JFJO's own Brian Haas on keys, the irrepressible modern tenor giant Skerik on saxophones and the multi-dimensional big beat master Mike Dillon on percussion. The Dead Kenny Gs tour sparingly, so every show is a rare opportunity to witness their very own rendering of musical madness. JFJO drummer Jason Smart will also pair with freestyle poet Al Howard for a collaboration dubbed, Echoes Consciousness.

Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey's Winter 2006 tour dates are:

February 14 / Winstons / San Diego, CA
February 15 / The Palmer Room / West Los Angeles, CA
) February 16 / Moe's Alley / Santa Cruz, CA
February 17 / Cafe Du Nord / San Francisco, CA
February 18 / Cafe Du Nord / San Francisco, CA
February 19 / Six Rivers Brewery / McKinleyville, CA
February 21 / Mobius / Ashland, OR
February 22 / Luna Jazz / Eugene, OR
February 23 / The Goodfoot Lounge / Portland, OR
February 24 / Tractor Tavern / Seattle, WA
February 25 / The Nightlight Lounge / Bellingham, WA
March 8 / Casadesus Hall / Binghamton, NY
March 9 / Regatta Bar / Boston, MA
March 10 / Blue Note / New York, NY
March 11 / Blue Note / New York, NY
March 17 / Lantaren / Rotterdam, The Netherlands
March 18 / Sugar Factory / Amsterdam, The Netherlands
March 21 / Stadtgarten / Cologne, Germany
March 22 / Bimhuis / Amsterdam, The Netherlands
March 24 - 27 / Dates TBA / Italy
March 29 / Rytmihairioklubi @ Juttutupa / Helsinki, Finland
March 30 / Turku International Jazz Festival / Turku, Finland
April 7 / The Parking Garage / Norman, OK
April 8 / Cain's Ballroom / Tulsa, OK

(((Upcoming On HYENA)))
February 15, 2006
Gospel Music/Various Artists
March 14, 2006
Dr. John/Right Place, Right Time: Live At Tip's Mardi Gras '89
April 4, 2006
John Ellis/By A Thread
Rahsaan Roland Kirk/Brotherman In The Fatherland
April 24, 2006
Skerik's Syncopated Taint Septet/Husky