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Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey: Stay Gold

Kinnara Records

Stay Gold is Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey’s first album after the departure of bassist Reed Mathis and the group’s 20th album to date. The quartet provides upbeat, exploratory modern jazz on its follow up to last year’s One Day in Brooklyn EP and the digital-only release Winterwood. Though this collection of eight songs clocks in at just less than 45 minutes, it still packs a punch, taking the listener on an instrumental adventure from the eerie opening drone of new addition Chris Combs’ lap steel (which clearly propels the entire disc) and the flutter of keys on “The Sensation of Seeing Light,” to the country-tinged “Song for Lauren,” to Brian Haas’s lush piano harmonies on the title track and “This, Our Home.” Recorded in just five days outside of Tulsa, Okla., this disc finds that The Fred’s experimentation with special effects, classical compositions and free jazz grooves continues to stay gold-en after all these years.