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Step In: Voilà La Tendresse
by Karl Ackermann
Step In is the international trio of Italian pianist Carlo Morena, Chilean drummer Felix Lecaros, and the renowned New York bassist Joe Fonda. Morena and Fonda started playing together in 1990, later adding drummer Jeff Hirshfield and adapting the current trio name. George Schuller later replaced Hirshfield before Lecaros took over the throne. Voilà La Tendresse is their third album, but under two previous European labels, the group did not receive the exposure due to them. Now on the well-established ...
Continue ReadingThe J. & F. Band: Me And The Devil
by Mark Corroto
We are back to the whippin' post with Me And The Devil, the fourth Allman Brothers-inspired release from Long Song Records, and the third by The J&F Band; and while it is far from being a guilty pleasure, the music does beg to be heard at high volume. In 2016, drummer Tiziano Tononi, bassist Joe Fonda, violinist, Emanuael Parrini and their smoking band recorded an Allman Brothers tribute Trouble No More...All Men Are Brothers (Long Song, 2017). It ...
Continue ReadingBarry Altschul’s 3Dom Factor feat. Jon Irabagon & Joe Fonda: Long Tall Sunshine
by Mark Corroto
The fourth release by Barry Altschul's 3Dom Factor, Long Tall Sunshine, evokes (in a weird way) the lyrics to “Helter Skelter" by The Beatles: “When I get to the bottom I go back to the top of the slide Where I stop and I turn and I go for a ride Till I get to the bottom and I see you again." We're not talking the Charles Manson thrill kill angle of Helter Skelter, ...
Continue ReadingConference Call: Prism
by Mark Corroto
Conference Call is a quartet, but could also be described as a trio+ because the core members—saxophonist and bass clarinetist Gebhard Ullmann, pianist Michael Jefry Stevens, and bassist Joe Fonda—have been touring and recording together for more than two decades. The plus moniker derives from the quartet's interchange of drummers. Early on, the seat was occupied by Matt Wilson, then Han Bennink, Gerry Hemingway, and George Schuller. The quartet's latest edition is Swiss drummer Dieter Ulrich, who you might have ...
Continue ReadingConference Call: Prism
by Jerome Wilson
Most jazz groups that stay together for a long time, such as The Modern Jazz Quartet or The Art Ensemble of Chicago, achieve a certain prominence. It is a surprise then to realize that the lesser-known band, Conference Call, has been around since 1999 and is here releasing its eighth album. The group's core members are saxophonist Gebhard Ullmann, pianist Michael Jefry Stevens and bassist Joe Fonda. They have had a succession of drummers over the years; Matt ...
Continue ReadingConference Call: Prism
by Dan McClenaghan
Prism, by the band Conference Call, sounds, on the set's opening tune, “F.J.D.," like a bunch of guys who might mug you: a brash, turbulent, confrontational crowd with a “we-don't-take-no-mess-from-nobody" approach to making music. Credit reedman Gebhard Ullmann with his grouchy, working-man-roused-from-his-afternoon-nap tenor sax sound, and the powerful bass (which you can feel in your bones) of Joe Fonda, accompanied by the aggressive clamor of, Dieter Ulrich--the group's third drummer in its twenty year tenure—along with pianist Michael Jefry Stevens' ...
Continue ReadingConference Call: Prism
by Mike Jurkovic
During the roiling twenty years that Conference Call has willfully crisscrossed the broad Atlantic, the individual drummers haven't participated in all of the round trips. The pre-2020 drummer rotation was Matt Wilson, who left the band prior to its first tour in 2001 to prep for the delivery of triplets, Han Bennink, George Schuller, and Gerry Hemingway. But the core players remain. As does the key aesthetic: creative art as spontaneous geometry. So how you fit the individual pieces together ...
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