Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey at Bell's Brewery 4.7.11

-

Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey wsg The Hue 4.7.11
Bell’s Eccentric Café- Kalamazoo, MI

Words & Photos By Greg Molitor (ReMIND Photography)

My draw to live music typically leans towards jam rock, the bread-and-butter of my existence. Every once in a while, though, a much-welcomed opportunity to diversify my travels comes along and beckons me to check out an event outside of the usual routine. April 7th, 2011, would not mark my first time seeing Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey, but the prospect of something different had me stoked to venture into territories unknown. Ah, how I love a change of pace. Time to hit the road!

Four of my fellow Lansing friends and I arrived to Bell’s Eccentric Café around 9:30 P.M. to an almost empty venue, but the lack of an initial crowd couldn’t curb the joyousness I felt when I entered the room. For those who aren’t familiar, Bell’s has a new venue that was built within the past year. I say with the utmost confidence that this is hands-down THE BEST venue in the State of Michigan. Everything about the new layout is spectacular…the stage, the sound system, the atmosphere…I could go on and on about how excited I am to see talent roll through the city of Kalamazoo in the future, but for now, onto the music…

As my friends and I settled in, The Hue was in the midst of its opening set. The progressive four-piece from Chicago played an admirable, energetic set of originals, but the music didn’t do much for me. The music was filled with so many time changes and quick starts and stops that it was hard to stay focused on what the band was trying to accomplish during each tune. I love progressive rock, but there was something off about The Hue this evening.

The songs that were performed required an incredible amount of precise technicality to hit the many difficult changes throughout the tunes, and it just wasn’t happening during this set. The Hue’s output was enjoyable at times, but the group never constantly held down a tightness that allowed me to build emotion from any it had created earlier. I’ll be checking these guys out in the future as each member showed the individual talent required to play such demanding pieces. On this night, unfortunately, the collective couldn’t build enough momentum to keep me entertained.

Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey hit the stage a half hour after The Hue finished, and its performance felt fresh and excited me as much as any great live show I’ve caught in 2011. JFJO played a continuous ninety-minute set that moved with a delicate forcefulness throughout its entirety. Ambient, noisy, funky, spacious…theses are all words that could fit into a description of a typical Odyssey that Fred leads one through. With that being said, it’s counterproductive to label this band as anything other than what it is. JFJO creates American music for humans, by humans, and that’s that.


Throughout the set, the band worked through tunes of its latest release, Stay Gold, as well as some unreleased material. Led by its sole original member Brian Haas (keyboards) and Chris Combs (lap steel), JFJO offered heartfelt improvisations with a playful attitude that I thoroughly enjoyed watching. As the previously mentioned duo traded improvised melodies and shared harmonies, bassist Jeff Harshbarger and drummer Josh Raymer created the groove which became even more locked in near the show’s end. The last few tunes of the set felt almost telepathic in nature as if the band couldn’t make a wrong turn if it tried…so impressive it was. The band finished at 12:00 A.M., and after the set’s conclusion, my group left Bell’s smiling and satisfied to our cores. What a performance by Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey!

www.jfjo.com

www.hue-music.com

Greg’s Photo Gallery


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Livetronica Sampler 3.22.11

-
Image
Words by Greg Molitor ( ReMIND Photography ) Ozric Tentacles This British group has proven innovative throughout the years offering a space-rock meets psytrance sound that remains alive to this day. Though never having a major record label, Ozric Tentacles has produced 28 albums of diverse psychedelia throughout its career. The band met at the Stonehenge Free Festival in 1983 and truly fathered livetronica music with its use of sequencers and synthesizers. Simply put, there would be no livetronica without Ozric Tentacles. www.ozrics.com Octopus Nebula Colorado’s Octopus Nebula has certainly hit its stride as of late with its constant touring and increased festival interest. The group expands on the deep sounds of highly regarded acts such as STS9 and Shpongle but also carves a path of its own with its fresh takes on synthesizer tones and sampling in the live setting. Octopus Nebula Live at Cervantes' Masterpiece Ballroom on March 26, 2010. <--- Direct Archive Link www.octopus
Read more

Buckethead: Gimmick or Guitar God?

-
Image
Words & Photos By Nicholas Stock ( phatphlogblog.blogspot.com ) At what point does the gimmick overshadow the performance? The obvious answer is Buckethead. The man is an amazing guitarist but something is not right in this world. The idea a performer who dons a KFC chicken bucket on his head for a concert has always intrigued me, and some of his side projects such as Colonel Claypool’s Bernie Bucket of Brains have been huge successes. However his performance last weekend in Fort Collins simply left me perplexed. From his robotic dancing, to his nunchuck display, to the fact the he performed with an iPod rather than a band all added to my confusion. Going into the show I was ready to be blown away, despite rumblings of disgruntled fans from the previous night’s show at The Gothic. Buckethead had had some sound issues and some missed cues in Denver but I was still trying to be positive for the show in Fort Collins. It did go off without a hitch technically but that was the least
Read more

Billy Strings 4.18.19

-
Image
Salvage Station Asheville, NC Words by Jason Mebane Photos by J. Scott Shrader Photography When asked to write a review of last week's Billy Strings show at Asheville, North Carolina's Salvage Station I almost passed on it. I just wrote a review of his last Asheville show a few months ago and I thought it may be hard to come up with another set of words to describe to the readers exactly what a Billy Strings show is all about. I am sure there are a plethora of other reviews that other people have written focusing on how well he has mastered his instrument. I suppose I could recycle those thoughts and just sit here typing out a few adjectives describing each note Billy and his superb backing band played this past Thursday night, but that wouldn't be fun for me. Additionally I'd imagine a review like that wouldn't keep your attention either. Instead I have decided to focus on a few random parts of the Billy Strings show that seemed interesting to me. One: B
Read more