JACOB FRED JAZZ ODYSSEY
The Sameness of Difference

Hyena Records

Dunno why, but I found it well nigh impossible to get into the Jacob Fred Jazz Oddessey’s previous Hyena release Walking with Giants. It just didn’t connect despite repeated listenings. Though the group displayed superior musicianship and was very tight as a unit, having played an average of 200 live shows annually for several years straight, I couldn’t really get excited about the record. So there were no high expectations when the latest JFJO release, The Sameness of Difference, hit my mailbox.

But it was clearly wrong not to expect great things from these guys. Sameness of Difference is a post-modern jazz masterwork, a disc that will still seem fresh in five years even though it also seems right in the present moment. The difference partly due to the fact that JFJO covers a variety of well-known popular and jazz compositions and intersperses these with their original compositions on this new disc. The group’s take on these compositions is both hip and unique, and it demonstrates very well the creative dynamic at work in the band. That kind of signpost comparison was unavailable on Walking With Giants, because that CD featured all original compositions. On Sameness we get some solid slices of JFJO compositions, including “Slow Breath, Silent Mind,” “The Maestro,” and “Santiago.” Some of these are compositions that the group has been playing (and playing with) live for some time now, and I think that the group benefited from the recording of Walking With Giants and is now more comfortable with the recording process.

One cannot help but think that producer Joel Dorn’s suggestion that the band record an album’s worth of jazz standards was the missing piece needed to bring the band to full maturation in the studio. The concept eventually loosened up to include covers of music of all kinds of styles and genres as well as some original material. The balance is great, because hearing the way the trio deconstructs some of the familiar material offers fresh insight into their original compositions and they way they perform together. There is a bit of contrast between the group’s more jagged compositional style juxtaposed with the melodic beauty of Bjork’s “Isobel,” Charles Mingus’ sense of musical history and sense of humor on “Fables of Faubus,” Neil Young’s tragic romanticism on “Don’t Let It Bring You Down.” Next to these shadings, the frenetic “Halliburton Breakdown” or the meditative “Slow Breath, Silent Mind” provide additional textures that balance the recording perfectly.

Once again Brain Haas is playing exclusively acoustic piano here, and once again he proves an inventive player, with gobs of technique as well as a really keen sense of musicianship that allows a judicious use of that technique. Bassist Reed Mathis, with his bag of sonic tricks, is The Edge of Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey, and he is very successful here at using those effects to add texture to the recipe, but not to over spice it. The soaring meditation of the Hendrix classic “Have You Ever Been to Electric Ladyland” is well-served by Mathis’ “guitar” work, and it says a lot that there’s nothing gimmicky about it. “Slow Breath Silent Mind” is classic JFJO, and the version here begins softly but restlessly before building to a majestic plateau that slowly descends into stillness.

Everything here is handled with taste and aplomb, presenting the band in the best possible light. For that reason, Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey’s The Sameness of Difference is highly recommended. Seemingly it would be impossible to predict what this group will do next time out in the studio, but based on this release, I’ll have much higher expectations when their next CD hits the mailbox.