Joe Fonda: Eyes On The Horizon

As we enter into the season of giving, what better gift can there be than Eyes on the Horizon, bassist/composer Joe Fonda's sonic tribute to his mentor, muse, and like-minded creator, trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith.

As if welcoming one to a grand destination, Smith's clear and majestic timbre, supported by Fonda's pronounced bowing, proclaims "Inspiration Opus #1" into consciousness and Eyes on the Horizon sets out on a path all its own. More than just head-solo-head, Fonda employs what he has gleaned from Smith over the decades and parlays the improvisatory nature of his compositions into free jazz of the highest order. Frequent Fonda collaborators drummer Tiziano Tononi (Barre Phillips, Dewey Redman) and pianist Satoko Fujii round out the bassist's latest collective of creative visionaries. With its structured string of solos and duets, "My Song Opus #2" echoes but never imitates or looks back on "Inspiration Opus #1." Fonda (Anthony Braxton, Marilyn Crispell, Barry Altschul) gives Smith all the open space he needs to reach his expressive and spiritual self. Commemorating the first time the bassist and trumpeter met at the founding of the Smith co-directed Creative Music Improvisors Forum, "We Need Members" opens with an energetic conversation between piano and bass, emulating perhaps what Fonda recalls as a grilling from CMIF co-founder, vibraphonist/pianist Bobby Naughton. Tononi drops into the bassist's deep rhythmic pull as Smith welcomes Fonda into the club. As if to confirm Smith's belief in Fonda's abilities and intentions, the bassist's active solo from the seven-and-a-half-minute mark acts in part as a career-defining resume.

Smith and Fonda duet in remembrance of Naughton on the bright yet moody "Like No Other." Like its charismatic title subject, "Listen to Dr. Cornell West" charges into the room on the rolling clamor of Tononi and Fonda before Smith and Fujii join the surge, and Smith breaks free to declare and annunciate the calls for sanity and unity that the good Dr. West is known for worldwide. The closing valedictory "Bright Lights" (wherein trumpeter and drummer work in near total lyrical conjunction) and the inspired, Fujii-fueled title track close out another high-water mark in the vast and defiant Fonda discography, alongside such deep gems as Dreamstruck (Not Two Records, 2018), the daring Distance (Leo Records, 2001) and Full Circle Suite (CIMP, 1999).