Joe Fonda: Eyes On The Horizon

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 jazz luminaries as Anthony Braxton, Gebhard Ullmann, Roy Campbell, Archie Shepp, Bill Dixon and Dave Douglas. He co-leads various groups, including the long-running Fonda-Stevens Group with pianist Michael Jefry Stevens, the FAB Trio with Barry Altschul and Billy Bang, plus the Allman Brothers-inspired collective, The J. & F. Band.

Assembling this recording, Fonda chose Fujii, who he has worked with as a duo, Tononi—of The J. & F. Band—and Smith, who, along with the late vibraphonist Bobby Naughton, recruited the bassist in the early 1980s for their Creative Musicians Improvisers Forum. Fonda can be heard with the two elders on the 1983 recording Procession Of The Great Ancestry (2009), re-released by Nessa Records.

Fonda focuses the music on Smith's compositional approach, even utilizing his notational system. The arrangements are composed and improvised in equal parts. Like Smith's work, it feels like a dream unfolding as each track progresses. "Bright Light Opus #5" stops and starts with twilight allusions as each musician pairs off and plays the repeating theme. While Smith's lush trumpet stylings are prominent, we hear excellent solos by Fujii on "Eyes On The Horizon Opus #3," Tonini on "Listen To Dr. Cornel West" and, of course, Fonda, both with plucked and bowed notes throughout.