Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey

All right — let's just get this out of the way, right off the bat: There isn't anybody named Jacob Fred in the Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey. But the whole jazz part, well, there's some truth to that. Much like the Bad Plus, the Tulsa-based trio uses jazz as a trampoline to propel it into other improvised universes. On the act's latest effort, The Sameness of Difference (out on Hyena, legendary jazz producer Joel Dorn's label), the guys offer up clever interpretations of songs by Jimi Hendrix, the Flaming Lips, Neil Young, Björk, Charles Mingus and Dave Brubeck — a diverse group that should give you an idea of where there guys are coming from musically. Dorn, who also produced the album, said he hadn't made a record like that since the last Rahssan Roland Kirk release, which was more than three decades ago. And that in itself should be enough to convince you to take this trip.