Customer Reviews

Walking With Giants (Bonus Dvd)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

"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.

I just bought "The Sameness of Difference" which is a great collection of songs, some an original take on Classic rock standards, and so I thought, I'll go buy the one that came out before it.

If you're into the Jazz side of Jacob Fred, this is an EXCELLENT place to start. The disc includes a bonus DVD of Jacob Fred playing at Yoshi's, and the CD is excellent quality Jazz. This is where Jazz is going. Jacob Fred have carved out an audience ranging from the Jam-band crowds to old Jazzers searching for a new voice for Jazz. We need more fresh blood in the Jazz arena.

This is an incredible value, if you enjoyed Sameness of Difference or if you want a good example of Jacob Fred, featuring Brian Haas on piano, Jacob Smart on Drums and Reed Mathis on bass and octave (higher) bass, then I suggest Walking With Giants is an excellent place to start, along with Sameness of Difference. This is a band that has continued to operate under the radar for about 10 years, and they have been playing live all this time, and now really have something to say.

Check 'em out!

JFJO is awesome. I'm a musician and I love the free-exchange of ideas through improvising. I can dig a very dissonant sound. If you find humor in totally over-the-top riffs, and you can dig dissonance, this album and a JFJO live performance will do some magic for you. The included DVD extra puts this disc into a "must-buy-if-I-like-jazz" category.

The best way I can describe it is it's deeply rooted in jazz, it throws modern genres into the mix, and has a supremely heavy emphasis on improvisation, allowing each member the total freedom to change direction and feel of any number at any moment. Don't expect pocket grooves; the music is very frantic and tangential. But it's totally rewarding, watching these guys totally succumb to the moment live is inspiring. They are monsters, changing tempos and bouncing new ideas around with great finesse. Jason Smart is a really nasty drummer. He's great at ghosting ideas on the drumkit from Haas or Mathis, and he plays with great versatility.

I recommend laying down while listening or, if you're feeling saucy and want to press some buttons, driving grandma home from a bridge game with it on. "This is crazy music!"

This album is a recipe for disaster. First you have a band that is heavily rooted in improvisation attempting to record a studio album. That in and of itself can be a daunting task. If you don't believe me go ask the Grateful Dead, Phish, or any number of other bands who repeatedly failed to match what they are capable of stage with what they do in the studio. On top of that JFJO is typically an electric band and here they've decided to record an "acoustic" album. Acoustic is in quotes simply because Reed Mathis may be playing acoustic bass, but it would be hard to tell on many of the songs because he continues to use his trademark barrage of effects including an octave pedal to obtain his unique sound.

Thankfully this album is not a disaster at all. That is attributable to the fact that the members of Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey are skilled composers as well as improvisors. Compositions such as the title track Walking With Giants and Calm Before the Storm deserve a place in the pantheon of modern jazz tunes. While a strong set of compositions may be the saving grace here the playing is of course top notch. As any road hardened band will tell you trying things out on stage is the best way to figure out what is going to work in the studio, and JFJO did just that by playing a number of acoustic shows before recording this album. As well as playing acoustic shows on dates between the sessions that made up this album. This is not their first acoustic album, but by recording an acoustic studio album JFJO was more albe to show their jazz roots and solidified their ground in that idiom. For those people new to the band this is a fine place to start, and for long time fred heads this is a wonderful way to see the link between JFJO and the masters of jazz and is yet another aspect to dig of this contiually exciting band. The bonus DVD makes this a bargin and gives those new to the band a chance to see what JFJO does best, and this is play live in front of an audience. Fred heads should get it just for the DVD if nothing else.

3 1/2


Darting in, out, and around all kinds of brilliance, the exciting jazz jammers can't seem to glue it all together in an undeniably consistent manner.

JFJO has traditionally been placed in the jamband arena because "jamming" is a large part of their schtick. This album proves that they are among the best around in the jazz world today. They are an incredibly talented band. You should buy this album because it is an incredibly beautiful, original statement and the bonus DVD is wicked cool.