Odyssey

Take a journey through the smooth grooves of the youthful stylings of local group Odyssey, a neo-soul, jazz band. Odyssey consists of Sly Tomblin on keyboard, Greg Hill on bass, Ron Turner on drums and Mike Wilson on guitar.The group is making innovative moves in the world of jazz as they have performed at such venues as The Essence Festival and have headlined for Atlanta’s 112. They are dropping their debut album, “It’s Time,” this weekend on the independent label BobYaHead Records, owned by Tomblin.The album will soon be available both nationally and internationally, according to Tomblin. It can be found at Vinyl Fever and CD Warehouse. It will feature songs like “Odyssey” a smooth jazz song, “My Love” which gives listeners a Latin funk sound and “Why,” a dramatic piece about life’s many questions.Although the group has just released their debut album, they are not new to the music scene. The group began in April 2000 put together by Tomblin along with Hill and Turner. The three met through the Marching 100. Wilson later joined the group, which brought together a group with a mindset to simply play music they enjoy and people can groove to.”I always wanted to go somewhere and listen to and play in a band,” Tomblin said. “They never had that in Tallahassee so I decided to start one, it started off as a hobby.” The group believes that their music has something to offer music fans. It strays away from the typical music of today like Jay-Z or any other mainstream artist and gives them something real to bob their heads to.”They [listeners] can look forward to hearing some jazz music mixed with a little hip-hop,” Turner said. “It gives you that jazz club feel you could call smooth jazz.”The band is a fan of bands like The Roots; Earth, Wind and Fire; and The Great Jazz Crusaders. They also look forward to taking there sound over seas, where jazz is greatly adored; they hope to travel to places like Holland and Amsterdam.But back in the states the band hopes to play music that people can respect and enjoy and they hope for longevity in the music industry.”We still want to be thriving, we want them [listeners] to get energy and enjoyment from our music,” said Hill about the goals and where they want to be in the future.For those who question what they will get when they buy Odyssey’s debut album, Tomblin’s answer is very simple.”Get the album to expand your mind, it will definitely take you on a journey.”Kanya Simon can be reached at kanyasimon@aol.com.