Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey
Over the past 16 years JFJO has become one of the foremost contemporary jazz bands in the world. In that time the band has released over 18 records and toured the top venues of the world such as the Damrosch Bandshell at Lincoln Center in NYC, Blue Note NYC & Milan Italy, Yoshi's in Oakland, Bimhuis in Amsterdam and the Jazz Bar in Edinburgh, Scotland to name a few. JFJO has also frequented the jazz festival circuit, performing across the globe from Berlin to Brazil to Finland and back. The band recently performed some of their highest profile festival performances to date, such as the prestigious Newport Jazz Festival, and the Cork Jazz Festival in Ireland, where the band won a Guinness Jazz Award.

These four musicians are musical chameleons who can move crowds in small jazz clubs, big rock clubs and performing arts theaters. Flourishing in the "jam" scene as well, the band has opened for Mike Gordon of Phish, Sound Tribe Sector Nine (sts9), Les Claypool, and held main-stage slots at many of the scene's largest festivals. Due to their genre-bending sound, the band is known for drawing it's audience from a wide range of demographics.

A description of JFJO's quartet sound is in order for those yet to hear the new lineup -- this is after all a band once described by Signal To Noise as having "a breadth and vision nearly untouched in modern jazz except by the likes of Wayne Shorter and Bill Frisell." With the addition of Combs on lap steel and Hayes on acoustic bass, JFJO has perhaps invented its own genre: Red Dirt Jazz. This new sound is equal parts earthy and nimble, pastoral and sweeping, elegant and rollicking. JFJO is tapping into their birthright, drawing upon "The Tulsa Sound" born of hometown heroes like Bob Wills, JJ Cale, and Leon Russell. These roots grow up into a jazz foundation that's built firmly upon the likes of Duke Ellington, John Coltrane and Thelonious Monk.

Having completed their album release tour the band has returned to Tulsa to begin the process of laying down tracks for their next Kinnara Records release, a full length LP highlighting the wealth of new compositions being created by this fertile quartet. After 16 years JFJO's music continues to offer a unique and different sound that exhibits a rare form of abstract yet accessible musical freedom and inquiry. Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey has blossomed into one of the most visionary and fearless bands touring the world today.