A special Halloween episode of Modern Jazz on this weeks show.  All songs are about cats, witches, ghosts or things only seen on a dark and scary October evening.  Music from Vital Information, Mike Stern, Al Di Meola, Trio Da Paz Trilok Gurtu and much more.

Turn out the lights and enjoy a particularly Ghoulish episode of Jazz ODC!!

This Week’s Playlist:

Jazz Odyssey Playlist #174

Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey – the name is as unique as the sounds they produce. For well over a decade this band has brought us their style of jazz through original compositions and inventive covers, running the gamut from Flaming Lips to Beethoven.  We have enjoyed it all.  The band is currently on their release tour for their new recording “One Day In Brooklyn”, this tour features pianist/leader/founder Brian Haas, drummer Josh Raymer, upright bassist Matt Hayes, and guitarist Chris Combs.  Some dates on the tour will even add Mike Gordon, bassist from Phish, as if you needed more incentive to check out a live show.

The band not only pushes the envelope in sound but is at the forefront of digital music and digital downloads.  They offer many live recordings for download on their website and a download of their recording “Winterwood” is totally free on the site, a thanks to years worth of fans, head over there now by clicking HERE.

We’ll here music from The Sameness Of Difference, Live @ Largo, Winterwood and the new release “One Day In Brooklyn”.  I also have some interview segments with Brian Hass talking about the band and composition and new projects.

Catch this show then head out to catch a live show – both worth every minute and more.

This Week’s Playlist:

Jazz Odyssey Playlist #173

To say that JFJO’s music transcends boundaries and expands minds is an understatement. Since 1994, JFJO has brought their impressionistic and improvisational vision from the Midwest’s Bible-Belt to many of the world’s finest music festivals and clubs. Music listeners are blown away by JFJO’s instrumental creativity, musical risk, and near telepathy on stage. In the past 18 months, JFJO has travelled to Europe four times and have played at major jazz festivals all over the world.

A description of JFJO’s new sound for those yet to hear the latest incarnation is in order — 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, equal parts earthy and nimble, pastoral and sweeping, elegant and rollicking.

Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey comes to Neenah, WI Oct 23 – Cranky Pats Pizzaria

See you there!!!!!!!

Take a journey this week through the sound of one of the best if not the best string jazz performers in the business!  One of my most favorite artists of all time is Jean-Luc Ponty.  His acoustic, yet electrified violin is one of the most unique sounds in modern jazz.  When he started recording with the MIDI or synthesized violin I was blown away.  His tunes range from standard jazz to ambient to world to downright electronic space music.  With each new release I renew my respect and admiration for one of the best – JLP, keep those recordings coming because we will always keep listening.

This Weeks Playlist:

Jazz Odyssey Playlist #172

This week we listen to a trio from Belgium – Aka Moon.  They described their philosophy on music on their website: “There are a thousand and one ways to communicate, but some modes of communication have the particularity of setting in motion a whole series of events which make us receivers/ expenders of energy which we need to evolve.  Music is one of these modes of communication, and when the chemistry is right between musicians, it is they and everyone who listens to them who vibrates in phase, in a state of giving and receiving.”

Inventive, new, free, structured, rhythmic all adjectives that describe the group and not.  You really have to listen to begin to understand their compositions, and then it begins to make sense.  They are not the usual modern jazz with undertones of jam bands these guys really compose, invent and improvise – it’s Modern Jazz!

Although just a trio by name they collaborate with many other artists in various forms, some represented in this weeks show.  Head over to their website for more info on recordings, tours and more.

This Weeks Playlist:

Jazz Odyssey Playlist #171