About

Kinnara Records is a record company created by Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey in partnership with The Royal Potato Family.  Kinnara Records has exclusive North American distribution with MRI/RED, a subsidiary of Sony Music.  In Buddhist and Hindu mythology, a kinnara is a paradigmatic lover, a celestial musician, half-human and half-horse or half-bird.

Kinnara Records released Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey’s EP ‘One Day in Brooklyn’ as it’s first album on September 1st, 2009.  The album was met by rave reviews from Billboard and Downbeat to The New York Times and the LA Weekly. 2010 found Kinnara releasing JFJO’s The Sensation of Seeing light, a 7″ vinyl single, for Record Store Day in April. In June of 2010 Kinnara released JFJO’s full length LP “Stay Gold” on both CD & double 12″ vinyl.

In January 2011 JFJO recorded a suite of music based on the Tulsa Race Riots, some of the deadliest and most destructive in US history. Tentatively titled The Race Riot Suite, the music was written by Chris Combs for the Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey quartet (Brian Haas piano, Chris Combs lap steel, Josh Raymer drums, Jeff Harshbarger bass) plus horn quintet. The band recorded the piece at Tulsa’s hallowed Church Studio with guest horn players Jeff Coffin (Bela Fleck & the Flecktones, Dave Matthews Band), Steven Bernstein (Sex Mob, Levon Helm), Peter Apfelbaum (Hieroglyphics, Don Cherry), Mark Southerland (Snuff Jazz), & Matt Leland (former JFJO member).

In 1921, Tulsa, Oklahoma was home to the most powerful and affluent African-American community in the country. In one of the largest racial conflicts and cover-ups in America’s history “Black Wall Street” was burned to the ground. The Race Riot Suite is a long form musical work that tells the story of the evolution & destruction of one of America’s greatest cultural epicenters in one of the least understood atrocities of the Jim Crow era. The Suite serves as vehicle for insight & reflection on the event itself, as well as a tool for understanding the ways in which these issues continue to pervade our modern day culture and society. Click here for more information on the suite as well as the 1921 riot. The project will often be on tour along with a slide show displaying images of Tulsa before, during, and after this event. JFJO plans to release the album through Kinnara in late August 2011.