Coltrane or The Stones? Let’s ask Reed Mathis.

Posted by Cabeza De Taco | Nov 16, 2007 · Filed under Music, Random Ramble, Recommended Music

So I’ve always been a big fan of the Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey (jfjo) – mostly because of their bass player, Reed Mathis. He blows my mind, and not in a technical, Jaco-sense (though he’s got serious chops), but because he’s one of the few bass players that can tap into the soul and visceral power of the music almost at will. Melodies and grooves literally spill out of his hands like he’s got a fuckin T1 connection straight into the great pipeline of thick musical crude being pumped from the nucleus of all creation by God himself. In other words- the dude can fuckin jam.

Need proof? just download this classic JFJO Show from the Ole Point Bar in 2002 or stream this amazing Steve Kimock show w/ Reed on bass. Or peep this Reed Mathis tune, HOVER for some octave-bass goodness…

JFJO has always teetered on the outskirts of the party-festival jam scene, while also managing to gain some much-deserved respect as modern jazz pioneers and master improvisers…each camp has its pitfalls and purists to navigate. So, when Reed announced this week that he’d be filling the Bass role for San Francisco’s Tea Leaf Green- a semi-successful hippy jamband complete with hula hoops and patchwork- that’s when the grumblings began. The message boards sprang to life with jfjo fans exclaming their various opinions on Reed’s new gig. Posts like: “Plus, they’re no where near the level that Fred is on…..I would think he would get bored playing their generic, mediocre jamband music…”

SO leave it to Reed himself to set the record straight and impart some perspective on the situation. enjoy this:

Subject: My thoughts on the matter….
Posted by: “reedmathis23″ reedmathis23
Date: Thu Nov 15, 2007 3:23 pm ((PST))

wowsers!

here’s a few things i’d like to say:

First, Jacob Fred is the greatest band in the history of the
universe. i just got word that we are actually Beethoven’s favorite
band of all time. Hendrix, too. and Bird. they all like Jacob
Fred almost as much as I do. We just confirmed a 20-night run at
Carnegie Hall in 2010, and I’m pretty sure the record we’re working
on is going to go triple-platinum. for real.

i hear you, though. it is, possibly confusing.

i listen to as much late coltrane as hotchkiss does, and as much
ornette as eric dundee. that music is my church and scripture.

jazz didn’t start out elitist. originally, it was FOLK music. made
by semi-illiterate accidental-scholars who simply wanted to party
and let people party. the fact that the opera houses of 1890′s New
Orleans could only afford a single pianist (rather than a full
orchestra), who coincidentally had a night gig at a brothel and a
buddy in a brass band is a happy accident in the culture, and the
upside of the karma of slavery. we are so fortunate that this
happened.

Bird grew up playing in big bands for dancers. the music he
accidently invented was still heavy on melody, and he often still
played for dancers. his followers didn’t, but they still played
melody. THEIR followers didn’t play for dancers, and rarely played
literal melody, instead becoming true impressionists of the internal
realms. those listeners who had bumped into their own internal
realms heard evidence of the common struggle, and called this
music “higher.” Elvis, Dylan, and the Beatles were created by
SOCIETY to fill the gap that Bird opened. young people need to
dance and get laid, and sing along. jazz once provided this
service. then it became “higher music.”

is ornette “deeper” than louis armstrong? is the coltrane
quartet “higher” than fletcher henderson? are church-goers
catagorically better people than non-chuch goers? does cab
calloway belong in the jazz cannon?

this is an important conversation, i think.

music CAN be a force for unification and community. why are the
differences between us our favorite thing about ourselves?

why do we want coltrane INSTEAD of the rolling stones. why not
coltrane AND the rolling stones?

is there really more heart in charles mingus than there is in neil
young? or phish, for that matter?

why assume that the inward-pointing music is greater than the
outward-pointing music? is this the grandchild of the Biblical “you
are not of this world” hogwash? why should we be so proud of our
divorce from earth? because we’ll die here? is that why the inward-
pointing music is greater than the outward-pointing music? because
we wish we didn’t have to die?

are we trying to make the world in our own image? it cannot be
done.

musicians can be prophets and heralds, it’s true. thank god.
musicians can also be a loving friend to a people in need. and
people don’t always need to be taught. sometimes they need to be
hugged and listened to. just ask my wife. we musicians are in
a state of RELATIONSHIP to the listener. doesn’t a healthy
relationship take the needs of the Other into account? doesn’t a
loving partner try to affirm and please the Other? you can’t tell
your lover what he or she likes. my lover is ANYBODY who is hip
enough to go see live music. my teacher is the Archetypal Need for
music, in EVERYBODY.

do people need music?
if so, what do they need it to do?
??????????????????????????????

?????
what do people need music to do?

the drive to exclude, or to convert, this is killing the planet.
the drive to worship the complex and the superficially new, this is
killing the planet.

we have to worship what is already here. we have to play the music
that all people are composing. i believe that Tea Leaf Green does
this. i believe Jacob Fred does this. all musicians express the
music of all people. some musicians express the fear and isolation
of the socially excluded. some musicians express the joy and
comfort of being a tribal people. some musicians express both,
because most of us feel both extremes. the RANGE of human
experience… this is our subject.

anyway, just thinking out loud.

personally, i’m excited to learn some new things.

i’ve learned a lot from Mr. Josh Raymer. and i don’t have to tell
you that i’ve learned a lot from Mr. Brian Haas. and Sean Layton,
and Matt Leland, and Jason Smart, Steve Kimock, Robert Walter,
Marco Benevento, Matt Chamberlain, Zack Najor, Karl Denson, Skerik,
Mike D, the brothers Barr, Stephen Perkins, Joe Russo, Jon Fishman,
Peter Apfelbaum, Jamie Janover, Jeff Coffin, my parents & uncles,
Peter Tomshany, Annie Ellicot, and a hundred amazing others. should
i not add to this list?

to me, the whole concept of heirarchy is fear-based. the musical
continuum is, if anything, a SPHERE…not a line. 3-D, baby!
nothing in front, nothing behind. nothing above, nothing below.
it’s all spinning and equal.

plus, in the words of the great John Cage, “A music’s only value is
in it’s USE.”

any thoughts? let’s blog it down, friends.

love, reed