Tulsa, Okla.--a town not known as a musical hotbed--has churned out some of the freshest jazz thrown down in recent years, courtesy the Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey. Welcome Home showcases a band that strives to maintain jazz's position as an experimental art form, keeping it from becoming a stale lesson in musical history.
When thinking about jazz, names like Davis, Coltrane and Mingus spring to mind--each has come to define it. JFJO seeks to refute the idea that these artists are the limiting factor in the genre.
The band is constantly weaving popular music from the last 20 years into the fabric of its tunes. Welcome Home is predominantly concerned with grooves that have traditionally been the province of funk and hip-hop artists and the odd time signatures that have come to characterize jazz.
From the fat and loose sound of Reed Mathis' bass to the oft-times spacey feel of Brian Haas' Rhodes piano to the drawled rap of Sean Layton on "Stomp", JFJO manages to capture a sound that ranges well beyond the standard boundaries.
The band feeds upon styles that once fed on jazz to help set the stage for artists who would later operate within the other genres. In doing so, JFJO returns jazz to its origins.
--Brian Gettler