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About Joe Fonda
Joe Fonda: Eyes On The Horizon
by Mark Corroto
When a musician who is a legend himself, herein bassist Joe Fonda, creates an album of tribute music to his mentor and teacher, it is rare that that person also performs on the recording. Fonda wrote the seven compositions heard here, with five dedicated to the master musician Wadada Leo Smith. On Eyes on The Horizon, Fonda is joined by pianist Satoko Fujii, drummer Tiziano Tononi and Smith himself. During his career, Fonda has been heard with such ...
Continue ReadingJoe Fonda, Jesper Zeuthen, Jose Lencastre & Rodrigo Amado
by Maurice Hogue
Bassist Joe Fonda's new Eyes On The Horizon is a must listen. He turned to musicians he has great familiarity with--pianist Satoko Fujii, trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith and drummer Tiziano Tononi--to create a tribute to Wadada, his former teacher and mentor. This is uncompromising music. There are several new albums by saxophonists in this edition that should be listened to as well: Danish legend Jesper Zeuthen with fellow Danes percussionist Marilyn Mazur and bassist Anders Christensen, Hugo Costa with William ...
Continue ReadingJoe Fonda: From The Source
by Jerome Wilson
This is a reissue of an album by bassist Joe Fonda which was originally released in 1997. In his liner notes for this edition, Fonda notes that this session had several unique aspects for the time; the musicians included Brenda Bufalino mostly tap dancing, and Vickie Dodd, a healer and bodyworker, contributing wordless vocals. They worked with the four men in the group, Fonda, Anthony Braxton on reeds, Herb Robertson on trumpet and Grisha Alexiev on drums, to create a ...
Continue ReadingMichael Musillami Trio: Block Party
by Troy Dostert
A relentlessly active and inventive guitarist whose first recordings date back to the '80s, Michael Musillami began to hit his stride in the '90s alongside veterans of the New York downtown scene such as bassist Mario Pavone, drummer Michael Sarin and saxophonist Thomas Chapin. But one of his foremost partnerships took shape in the early 2000s, when he first teamed with bassist Joe Fonda and drummer George Schuller, themselves long-standing veterans of creative jazz. Twenty years and ten albums later, ...
Continue ReadingDreamstruck: With Grace In Mind
by Mike Jurkovic
With over one hundred and twenty-five years of gigging and recording between them, one might rightfully argue that pianist Marilyn Crispell, bassist Joe Fonda, and drummer Harvey Sorgen have said, played, performed, and heard everything that needs be said, played, performed, and heard. The argument could continue that the trio-- Dreamstruck-- have individually and collectively contributed to some of the best by such fellow travelers as Anthony Braxton, Karl Berger, Carla Bley, Archie Shepp, Paul Motian, and Pauline Oliveros. But, ...
Continue ReadingOGJB Quartet: Ode To O
by John Sharpe
An assemblage of stars doesn't always result in a constellation. But astronomers will need to take note in the case of the OGJB Quartet, called after the forename initials of the four members: reedman Oliver Lake, cornetist Graham Haynes, bassist Joe Fonda and drummer Barry Altschul. On the venerable collective's second album Ode To O following their eponymous debut in 2019, one of the most striking traits is how much they sound like a band. As might be expected in ...
Continue ReadingThe OGJB Quartet: Ode To O
by Jerome Wilson
The OGJB Quartet, a formidable all-star grouping of saxophonist Oliver Lake, cornetist Graham Haynes, bassist Joe Fonda and drummer Barry Altschul, are back with their second album, one even more wide-ranging and soulful than their first, Bamako, (TUM, 2019). The album combines tracks based on gutbucket rhythms with others full of exploratory abstractions. The album title, Ode To O, refers to Ornette Coleman and the title track, written by Altschul, has he and Fonda laying down an assured ...
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