Walking With Giants (Bonus Dvd)

Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 17, 2004)
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: Sin-Drome Records
• ASIN: B0002NY8RG
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #103,036 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Music For the Far Corners of Your MIND, August 17, 2004

By 

Robert Pawn (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Walking With Giants (Bonus Dvd) (Audio CD)

Jacob Fred's new record is quite simply breathtaking! This is music that finds its way into your psyche. The compositions are intelligent and bold, but the explorations that occur within are what's truly at the heart of this acoustic-based record. These guys masterfully utilize harmonics, tonality and melody. I recommend this highly to anybody who's a fan of Medeski, Martin & Wood, EST, Brad Mehldau, Jason Moran & The Bad Plus. I'd also recommend it to those old line jazz fans (who are still open to new music) of Horace Tapscott, Cecil Taylor and Thelonious Monk. Finally, this is a cool CD if you're just looking for some good jazz to mellow out with at the end of the day.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A monster jazz piano trio comes into its own, November 4, 2004

By 

Jan P. Dennis "Longboard jazzer" (Monument, CO USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Walking With Giants (Bonus Dvd) (Audio CD)

There's no Jacob or Fred, but it's jazzy, odd, and we're certainly at sea. Staking their claim as the most extroverted, if not loudest, working jazz piano trio, JFJO has released a remarkable disc. I read somewhere that these guys do over 250 live gigs a year. Well, lemme tell ya something: it's paid off. Big time.

Not only do these risk-taking, demonstrative musicians serve up a tasty gumbo of hard-swinging rockish post-bop, they also seem so absolutely locked into each other as to appear either psychic or demented. Or both. Yet with all the swirling, mind-boggling trick-rhythms, all the weird effects Reed Mathis achieves with his bass octave pedal (sounding like a cross between clarinet, fuzz-tone e-guitar, and electric viola), all Jason Smart's controlled-violence kit bashing, there's a melodic underpinning that situates the proceedings in very listener-friendly, if somewhat alien, territory.

Hipper than MMW, louder than The Bad Plus, wider-ranging than just about any other jazz piano trio, these guys have taken some giant steps to the forefront of modern jazz trio music. Check 'em out.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars jazz with some progressive flair, December 12, 2006

By 

Anthony Cooper (Louisville, KY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Walking With Giants (Bonus Dvd) (Audio CD)

"Daily Wheatgrass Shots" kicks things off with a short jaunty Bad Plus-esque (The Bad Plus didn't invent Bad Plus-eque, but you get the idea) tune. That song is just a feint, the Jazz Odyssey is interested in a different sound. The CD gets to it's main point with "Nibbles", which has an angular rhythm and melody, and pitch-shifted acoustic bass. The Jazz Odyssey, true to its name, plays jazz, but it does so with a jam-band mentality. There's a fair amount of whimsy, psychedelia & showing off. Sometimes it sounds like they've lost track of what they're trying to do with a particular song. This may bother some more than others. My favorite songs are "Nibbles", "Muppet Babies", "Sean's Song", "Calm Before The Storm", and "Perfect Wife's Flannel PJ's". My CD also came with a DVD showing a few songs, not on the CD, live. I've watched it perhaps twice, it's difficult to devote two senses to a jazz DVD.