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By Dennis Cook
JFJO by Jeffree Lerner |
In Taoism there's the concept of the unclouded mirror, where one's purpose is reflected with clarity, absent the bias of personal judgments, fears and desires. It represents a state of pure being that fully accesses our inherent reasons for existing in this time and place. Lofty as this idea seems it is the heart of the Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey.
"Thinking is one of the worst things a musician can do on stage. It means you're not playing music you're thinking," says pianist Brian Haas, one-third of the bravest, strangest trio to bitch slap the calcified face of jazz in a decade. "The main thing is to be as open as possible to anything. If I catch myself thinking I do mantras to make myself stop. It's all about an absence of thought. That's the way to let the higher shit through."
The once Tulsa, Oklahoma rooted group has developed into an international affair, taking their unique hybrid of burly jazz chops, 21st century composition and genre nullifying hyperactivity everywhere from Amsterdam to Rio and back to prestigious U.S. spots like NYC's Blue Note [where they play their last dates until March '07 this week]. In an era of extreme commercial specialization, JFJO remain elusively, even sometimes frustratingly, individual, a band beyond categorization at the crossroads.
So You Say You Want An Evolution
Jason Smart - JFJO by Maarit Kytöharju |
"Jazz is just a groove. It has to grow, be wider than the way it sounded in the '30s or 60s or any one era," offers drummer Jason Smart. "There are a lot of bands consistently helping it to grow like Dave Holland and Wayne Shorter, MMW, Brad Mehldau – all these different things filed under 'Jazz' but to different degrees they are and are not jazz."
From album to album and gig to gig, JFJO constantly redefine their terms, and in the process stretch the often-inflexible jazz genre. Their horn-laden 1999 studio debut, Welcome Home, bears little resemblance to recent two-fingered salutes to orthodoxy like their rock covers rich The Sameness Of Difference or recent pulsating live jewel Tomorrow We'll Know Today, which frequently hews closer to Boards of Canada or Tortoise than bebop. If there is one constant in their work it is change fueled by three deliriously restless imaginations.
"Our music is about being open to whatever presents itself. We try to keep ourselves stimulated, not just with new songs but new approaches, trying to get our music closer to a pure thing than an ego-driven display. More selfless, less personal," says bassist Reed Mathis. "If we've had any mission statement it's to be unconventional in the best way, to find something novel at all times even if no one notices or cares, to do it just for our own spiritual jollies, to be experiencing discovery as often as possible. That leads to a new way to play jazz, a new way to improvise."
JFJO |
"Jazz means something very different to every single person on Earth," continues Haas. "We should just be called the 'Jacob Fred Music Odyssey' or 'Jacob Fred Life Odyssey.' We're just trying to evolve and be better people every day. It's a very simple thing. All three of us are individually tired of ourselves being un-evolved. So, it's really a very personal thing for us. We three are learning to evolve and we're lucky that we have this music to help us through this process. I'd be doing the same basic process if I were a construction worker or a landscape architect or an accountant. God willing, I'd still hopefully be evolving."
Smart interjects, "We've even talked about calling ourselves 'JFJO' on our next album and not even mentioning 'Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey.' It's so long and hard to remember. We're trying to come up with tactics to get new people interested. I think we could maybe have gotten more attention if we did the exact same thing we do but called it 'adventurous rock' from the beginning."
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If I catch myself thinking I do mantras to make myself stop. It's all about an absence of thought. That's the way to let the higher shit through.
-Brian Haas |
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Photo by Josh Miller
The Architecture of Notes
There are many technically gifted musicians out there, especially in the jazz field which has always prized macho skill displays. What separates the wheat from the proverbial chaff is an artist's compositional talents. Jacob Fred has been crafting the new millennium's fresh standards for some time. Blithe charmers like "Thelonious Monk Is My Grandmother" and "Skeeball Over The Ocean" or dense tonal clouds like "Slow Breath, Silent Mind" or "Hover" contain all the inspirational dynamite of Dave Brubeck's "Take Five" or Kenny Clarke and Dizzy Gillespie's "Salt Peanuts," ageless springboards for instrumental imagination. Unfortunately, thus the jazz establishment has yet to dip their beak into these refreshing waters. The loss is theirs.
JFJO by Zack Smith |
"The more you hear, the more you know," observes Mathis, who describes his composing style as "melodic lyricism." This idea is not always easy to convey to others. "Some of the greatest music ever is coming out today. There's nothing as inspirational as hearing music that takes a cool angle you never thought of before. I can set out to deliberately rip something off but what comes out doesn't sound like what I tried to rip off. It's just a new song by Jacob Fred."
Smart continues, "I have decent harmonic knowledge but I think about it in a strange way that tends to be a lot simpler than the tunes Reed or Brian can write, which come from a deeper harmonic place. I think a bit more conceptually. Steve Reich is very important to me, his whole 'phasing' concept especially. Not a lot of rock or jazz bands use those techniques. I can't write a raging bebop tune with a million chords but I work with what I've got. It's more about textural things for me. It's more about dynamics, tempos, shifting Jackson Pollock kinda colors. That's the way I see and understand it."
Conceptual play – freely tossing around ideas - is central to Jacob Fred. They're unafraid to engage big ideas even if they ultimately find those ideas have wrestled them to the ground rather than the other way around.
Brian Haas - JFJO |
"Composing takes discipline, and that's something I'm constantly refining and exploring. You have to learn your instrument as a craft before it becomes an art. It's the same way with composition," says Haas. "Sometimes the composition flows and it's effortless art. But, sometimes when I'm composing on the piano at home I'm cruelly reminded it's a craft. I'm learning to practice composing like I practice piano. That's something I never did before. In the past, I thought, 'When inspiration comes I'll just sit down and write a great tune.' Sometimes that would happen and sometimes it wouldn't. What I'm trying now is what Coltrane did."
"We did years of showing our chops off and it got so stupid," adds Mathis. "If you go back to say Duke Ellington's great years it's not soloist-based music. It's harmonic narrative. Then you hear post-Aphex Twin electronic music and it's very much the same thing – emotional narrative through rhythm and harmony. It's not even really about melody. It's a narrative in sound. That seems to me the modern idiom for instrumentalists."
The Unfolding Now
The other side of the JFJO coin is their uncanny knack for satisfying improvisation. Where many improvs feel like exercises in noodling, what they do is closer to spontaneous composition, a birthing of newfangled beasts hairy with unfettered provocation.
JFJO |
"Night to night, tour to tour, we try to refine what we do, say more with less like a Thelonious Monk or Miles Davis," says Smart. "One note with the right placement, played with the right feel, can say more than some ripping chops guy burning around."
One hears their group chemistry most clearly in these unpremeditated exchanges. Smart comments, "Before I joined [JFJO] I was craving people who were fearless and make things up on the spot. It's unreal how 'In The Moment' they both are. Reed is just the best bass player I've ever gotten to play with consistently. Just the way we hook up is such a natural, beautiful thing. It's hard to describe how important he is musically in my life. Brian brings out an energy that's inspiring. The road can drag you down but he always comes to play. He never phones it in. He's always focused and tries to do his best. I really respect that."
"Both [Brian and Jason] are really confident improvisers," continues Mathis. "If I have a fault – one of many – it's indecisiveness. I can sit and ponder my options for years. These guys are so decisive they just plow ahead. That puts me at ease. Jason always has your back. He'll never drop you. Brian will never let you get too comfortable. So, together it's perfect. As a trio there are three elements. It's kind of a magic number. If there were two guys setting up and supporting things the way Jason does it might be too static. Or if there were two guys constantly pulling the rug out like Brian it would be too chaotic. I'm in a good position between the two. I remember going to see MMW back in the day and Chris Wood was set up in the middle. He'd spend the whole time with his head on swivel going back and forth between Billy [Martin] and John [Medeski]. And he was doing that musically too, kind of mediating. In a trio that's sort of what the bass does."
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We're just trying to evolve and be better people every day. It's a very simple thing. All three of us are individually tired of ourselves being un-evolved. So, it's really a very personal thing for us. We three are learning to evolve and we're lucky that we have this music to help us through this process. I'd be doing the same basic process if I were a construction worker or a landscape architect or an accountant. God willing, I'd still hopefully be evolving.
-Brian Haas |
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Different Sandboxes
After years of non-stop touring, the trio has been spending a chunk of their musical time apart lately. Haas has toured both solo and with the Dead Kenny Gs, a madhouse combo with saxophone wunderkind Skerik and percussion genius Mike Dillon. Smart has been gigging with veteran pianists while home, done several stints with Robert Walter's 20th Congress, and a duo with wordsmith Al Howard ("At some point I envision some sort of Band of Gypsies band behind Al instead of the jam thing," says Smart). Mathis has made a splash in the jam world in a new quartet with guitar god Steve Kimock. Rather than putting distance between the band members, these extracurricular activities have only made the boys appreciate their primary gig all the more.
Kimock and Mathis |
"The whole thing with us playing with side projects wasn't planned. It's just beautiful cosmic accidents that came at the right times for all of us. We're all better musicians for it," says Haas. "Now when we get back together it's enabled it to evolve quicker. There's a lot less stagnation going on, though stagnation is part of any artistic process. It's the honesty of the ying and the yang. When we're back together the spiritual connection is even more obvious. Like the Tao Te Ching says, if you wish to expand something you must first shrink it. That's what we're learning. It's not something discussed much in capitalism where the status quo mentality is work, work, work, push, push, push. If you do that with art you're going to ruin it."
Haas continues, "I just stay open to the bad asses I play with, which is the whole tradition of jazz – learning everyone else's magic and making it your own. What we've noticed from Jacob Fred land is when we get back together the music's fresher, more relaxed, and we listen to each other more intently. Being away from each other causes us to miss each other. When we were doing 250 shows a year together I didn't know I could miss Reed or Jason."
Smart and Russo by Kevin Quinn |
Smart picks it up, "The time I spent with Robert Walter got me thinking much more about what constitutes a slammin' groove. He and Cheme [saxophonist Cochemea Gastelum] are doctors of that stuff. Instead of just playing free or locking into a groove for like four measures like [JFJO] used to do, now we're trying to play more textural music that has a groove for a longer period of time. It's a different vibe than if you're just avant and constantly switching every four bars. As we get older we want to try different things. The drums are a very earthy instrument and Robert helped me realize that facet. I had forgotten that for a while."
"I'm learning about leaving space, letting things develop," says Smart. "I'll be chomping at the bit to try all the stuff I've been thinking about but sometimes you force things into places they shouldn't be. It's good to breathe and remember, 'I'll play tomorrow, and hopefully, health willing, for a lot of years.' I don't have to play every lick I know now. I can develop things over many tours, with many ensembles."
Kimock and Mathis |
On the Kimock band, Mathis observes, "That's a real different scenario. Kimock's band is a lot more adept at playing song forms. Jacob Fred has a real heavy Jackson Pollock thing that's hard to get away from. In the Kimock band there's lots of composed tunes. I've never been in a group like that before outside of playing classical music. We're able to really sculpt stuff, rehearsing for 10 hours a day for three days to fine-tune things. Writing for that group is more like writing for a pop group. With Jacob Fred, I kind of shoot myself in the foot if I give us too much to do."
"Steve is the most confident improviser I've ever shared the stage with. That's been a huge eye-opener," says Mathis. "There's a patience and a sense of being a servant to the song that's new to me. He doesn't really flex too often. When we're driving from city to city, he sits in the back of the RV and practices all day. He plays circles around guys you'd consider chopsy guitar players. Kimock has that locked down in his sleep but it's not how he performs. You'll almost never hear a hint of that technique in his improvising. That's huge and has influenced the way I play."
Smart concludes, "I feel it's great for us to play with other people. It just adds to what we can do. It definitely doesn't take away anything. We're really good friends but even good friends can't spend every second together. Having time apart means we have so much to say to each other when we're together."
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Why do humans make music? It doesn't feed us or make you very much money. It doesn't communicate anything tangible. It doesn't do a damn thing. Why do we do it? There has to be something spiritual that occurs. It's like dancing. There's no point but we've been doing it for tens of thousands of years. We get something out of it we don't get from other places.
-Reed Mathis |
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Photo by Maarit Kytöharju
And In The End
"Elvis kind of ended jazz in some ways, and bebop took it out of the dancehalls. In a way jazz is what happened before that. Or jazz is an American improvised tradition that incorporates any influence you want," provokes Mathis. "If it's the latter [definition] then that's what we are. If it's the former, we're not really that. We put it in the name so obviously we believe that a branch of the tradition is still going and can mean anything."
Haas & Mathis by Jon Bahr |
JFJO just returned from their second tour of Europe in 2006, hitting Sweden, Germany, The Netherlands and Italy. Their music has also taken them to Finland and Brazil, and they're hoping the rest of the world opens to them soon. Despite a devoted cult following Stateside, Jacob Fred is ready to tickle some new ears.
"We love the choir. We truly appreciate them. We just want to see what else we can add to these loyal, great people," enthuses Smart. "Nothing's in stone but in America we see ourselves working more festivals, major cities, and high profile opening slots, as well as developing Japan and Europe. This can do us a lot more good than crunching around in the same way we have been. We're trying to turn new people onto our music. That's the whole point. You could just play in your basement but we want people to enjoy it and bring it over to a lot of people. Taking American music that's often forgotten over here to places where people are starving for it you realize there's a whole new scene we've barely tapped into. That's crazy exciting for us. Japan is another place that we've heard is a promised land for open, jazzy free music."
JFJO by Kevin Haas |
"There are a lot of elements to life that aren't in the music. For example, Reed and Brian are married, and I may go that way one day too [laughs]. There are lots of parts of life that refuel and feed you to make better art. If you have no time to reflect and recharge – get out in the woods or hang out with your friends and family – then you have nothing to put back into the music," says Smart. "In our old touring mode, we hit walls a number of times. Luckily, we now have nice breaks and it's more organized every year. I feel blessed to be healthy and still doing it."
Haas says the simple goal is "less crappy gigs, more meaningful ones" wherever they perform. Mathis adds, "The challenges of endless touring are pretty obvious – physical wear and tear, lack of sleep combined with the lethargy of sitting around waiting, and the lack of your own space. You don't make shit for money playing this kind of music. We're really in each other's face in a heavy way, which gets to be a drag. Very few people have to live this way after leaving their parent's house after high school."
JFJO |
The problem of the increased genre-fication of music still plagues them. While it's easier to sell things in neat, understandable packages most musicians don't experience their art in this way. Smart comments, "I can see to a point why it has to be that way so you can find things but if it holds you back from true creative expression then it's a hindrance. You want people to find you in the store but not if it's restrictive. What we are is what we're excited about in the moment."
A philosophical Mathis finishes with this quandary, "Why do humans make music? It doesn't feed us or make you very much money. It doesn't communicate anything tangible. It doesn't do a damn thing. Why do we do it? There has to be something spiritual that occurs. It's like dancing. There's no point but we've been doing it for tens of thousands of years. We get something out of it we don't get from other places."
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