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Harvey Sorgen

Harvey Sorgen, Hot Tuna's sizzling drummer, started playing drums and percussion instruments in 1964. His mastery of many styles-jazz, rock, funk and pop-is evident on recordings and gigs with Ahmad Jamal, Robbie Dupree, Roswell Rudd, Dry Jack, Bill Frisell, NRBQ, The Mallards (his own group) and many others, including Hot Tuna. Harvey's taught, performed his own compositions, traveled all over the world (including a two-year stint in Holland) and served as a sound engineer and producer. He has also written and performed pieces for film and the stage, including a solo percussion piece for the New Day Repetoire Theater’s version of “Antigone”

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5
Album Review

Joe Fonda: Joe Fonda & Bass Of Operation

Read "Joe Fonda & Bass Of Operation" reviewed by Jerome Wilson


The bassoon is rarely heard in a jazz context, but bassist Joe Fonda got the idea to use the instrument in a free-swinging small group format. He incorporated Michael Rabinowitz, one of the few improvising bassoonists around, into a quartet with two of his long-time collaborators, drummer Harvey Sorgen and reed player Jeff Lederer. Fonda's original idea was for Lederer to play tenor saxophone in the group, but Lederer decided instead to play higher-pitched reeds, clarinet, flute, and piccolo. The ...

1
Album Review

Joe Fonda: Joe Fonda & Bass Of Operation

Read "Joe Fonda & Bass Of Operation" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic


Only bassist /composer Joe Fonda--who cut his teeth and honed his humor in the company and camaraderie of such global visionaries as Wadada Leo Smith, Anthony Braxton, Barry Altschul, Paul Bley, and Annette Peacock-- can stand defiantly at the  epicenter of a free jazz and classical quartet and ease the ensemble through either door with the deceptively sly and boozy opener “Deja Vu for DC."  It whirls. It twirls. It is a whole lot of fun and a particularly ...

13
Album Review

Marilyn Crispell & Harvey Sorgen: Forest

Read "Forest" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic


In whatever stage, studio or musical environment these two supremely gifted improvisors find themselves, their talk is never anything other than bone-set honest. And as clarifying and compelling as so much of the duo's previous decades of recordings have been--preternatural recordings that include Anthony Braxton, Ahmad Jamal, Paul Simon, Cecil Taylor, Karl Berger and Joe Fonda--Forest, the starkly afire state of the union address delivered by 2025 NEA Jazz Master Marilyn Crispell and shifu percussionist Harvey Sorgen could very well be ...

3
Extended Analysis

Live At Sweetwater / Live At Sweetwater Two / Live In Japan

Read "Live At Sweetwater / Live At Sweetwater Two / Live In Japan" reviewed by Doug Collette


Hot Tuna's Live at Sweetwater/Live at Sweetwater 2/Live in Japan (Mercury Studios, 2004) reaffirms the fluidity of personnel that's marked the veteran ensemble throughout its over fifty-year career. Comprised of titles originally issued on the Relix Records label in the mid-to-late Nineties, then re-released in modified form in 2004, this Mercury Studios compendium may represent the definitive versions of those titles (though the lack of notes providing historical perspective, as appeared on previous editions, leaves that a moot point).

2
Album Review

Dreamstruck: With Grace In Mind

Read "With Grace In Mind" reviewed 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, ...

1
Album Review

Lamb Anderson Sorgen: First Mile

Read "First Mile" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic


You can discredit the human imagination for any number of horrendous things. But when used right, things like First Mile happen. Some odd quirk in the continuum comes along and you find three far-travelled veterans, namely pianist Chuck Lamb (Dry Jack, Brubeck Brothers), drummer Harvey Sorgen (Hot Tuna, Anthony Braxton, Paul Simon, {[Bill Frisell}}) and bassist Jay Anderson (Maria Schneider, Paul Bley, David Bowie, Randy Brecker) in a room in Saugerties, NY making it happen. Making it happen real good. ...

14
Album Review

Harvey Sorgen / Joe Fonda / Marilyn Crispell: Dreamstruck

Read "Dreamstruck" reviewed by Don Phipps


On Dreamstruck, the trio of drummer Harvey Sorgen, bassist Joe Fonda, and pianist Marilyn Crispell offer distinctive and fascinating interplay that explores the contours of romance, blues, free playing, and abstraction. For the most part, the three musicians eschew formality in favor of spontaneous compositions that emphasize inventive contributions. But included in the mix are two Fonda originals ("My Song" and “Read This"), the title piece “Dreamstruck" (composed by Bob Windbiel) and the delightful “Kalypso" (composed by the ...

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Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Joe Fonda & Bass Of...

Self Produced
2025

buy

Forest

FSR Records
2024

buy

Joe Fonda & Bass Of...

Fundacja Sluchaj
2024

buy

Live At Sweetwater /...

Mercury Studios
2023

buy

First Mile

I Am Them Records
2021

buy

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