| Discography of Joe Fonda | 2006/2007 |
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Lineup
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Audio recorded August 9-11, 2006 by Daniel Goodwin at Clubhouse, Rhinebeck, NY, USA
Mixed February 9-11, 2007 by Paul Antonell & Harvey Sorgen;
Assistant engineers: Nick Brough & James Smith
Final mastering: David Glasser, Airshow
Video recorded May 4, 2007 by Paul Antonell at Clubhouse, Rhinebeck, NY, USA
Assistant engineer: Nick Brough
String arrangements: Jeff Lederer
Strings recorded June 12, 2007 at Clubhouse, Rhinebeck, NY, USA
DVD authoring: Sean McAuliffe, Grizmo
Produced by Katie Bull with help from Jeff Lederer
Released 2007 by Corn Hill Indie (USA) 1004
Please visit Katie Bull's website to learn more about this recording,
to listen to sound samples, and to read some reviews.
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CD reviews
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Jim Santella for All About Jazz A genuine jazz singer, Katie Bull pulls no punches when it comes to interpreting original material. She tosses in a few classic songs on The Story, So Far while portraying lyrics convincingly, scat singing with natural ease, adding a sincere blues texture to each selection, all of it coming from the bottom of her heart. Her voice remains strong and accurate as she relates memorable stories in the pure jazz idiom. She and bassist Joe Fonda describe her aims perfectly on their duo piece "Go Ahead," with an ironic message about blind ambition and how it takes people out of focus. This session proves that carving a piece of mainstream vocal jazz works quite well for Katie Bull and company. As she interprets "There Will Never Be Another You" tenderly along with Fonda, soprano saxophonist Jeff Lederer, pianist Frank Kimbrough and drummer Matt Wilson, the singer reveals incredible chops to go along with her true spirit. Except for a change to alto sax and multi-tracked vocal harmony on "Twisted," the same unit surges forward with courage to give this classic Annie Ross-Wardell Gray tune a facelift. A New York native, Bull took to the arts as a multi-faceted discipline early on, her father teaching modern dance at NYU. A graduate of SUNY Purchase, she's been thoroughly immersed in music, dance, writing and directing. The influence that singing teachers Jay Clayton and Sheila Jordan have left upon her soul remain quite apparent. As pianist Michael Jefry Stevens, Fonda, drummer Harvey Sorgen and baritone saxophonist David CasT assist Bull with a dramatic original on "Half Full," you can feel the fierce forces of her creative spirit turning corners. Later, she and guitarist David Phelps deliver "Paleontology," another original with a tale about life's cares that is siphoned through the blues. Underlying Bull's focus on jazz as a partner in multiple disciplines, the accompanying twenty-minute DVD features dreamlike sequences with medieval costumes as a cast of players work with the singer on city sidewalks to extend her musical session. The DVD includes vocal versions of "Lover" and "Some Enchanted Evening," which conclusively complement this recommended audio CD. Reprinted with permission. Copyright © 2008 All About Jazz and Jim Santella. All reviews written by Jim Santella → Overview of all CD/LP reviews and liner notes |
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Christopher Loudon for Jazz Times What happens when performance art slams into vocal jazz? Two words: Katie Bull. Though it is easy to detect myriad influences in Bull, extending from the cool minimalism of Helen Merrill and Chet Baker to the boplicious ingenuity of Jon Hendricks and the bold vibrancy of Sheila Jordan (one of Bull's earliest mentors), attempting to categorize the native New Yorker, and leader of the city's inter-arts movement, is rather like trying to get a few dozen wriggling snakes to lay orderly and still. If you want pretty ballads prettily sung, look elsewhere. But if you're in the mood for envelope-pushing experimentation on a grand scale, dive into the 17 tracks that comprise this dazzling voyage into a beyond so beyond that even as intrepid a pioneer as Bobby McFerrin is left miles behind. Reprinted with permission. Copyright © 2008 Jazz Times and Christopher Loudon. All reviews written by Christopher Loudon → Overview of all CD/LP reviews and liner notes |
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Skoot Larson for Skoot's Jazz Taking the Bull With the Horns An incredible entertainer who is difficult to pigeonhole, Katie Bull is proving to be a unique vocal talent, jazz musician, composer and lyricist, actress, director, dancer, voice coach, teacher…and the list goes on. If you have any doubts, just listen to Bull's latest CD/DVD collection, "The Story, So Far." It will make you both a believer and a devotee of this captivating performer.
Copyright © 2008 Skoot's Jazz and Skoot Larson. All reviews written by Skoot Larson → Overview of all CD/LP reviews and liner notes |
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Tom Gibbs for Audiophile Audition, published April, 2008 The course of independent label offerings are hard to chart; while most performers on indies are given the kind of artistic liberty that may be elusive to major-label artists, that same freedom often results in works with limited commercial viability. I'd venture to guess that less than half of the independent label discs that come my way for review purposes offer anything that really grabs my attention - the truly stand-out artists are few and far-between. I'm often left wondering whether with proper direction from a seasoned producer, whether they might have made artistic choices that would have greatly enhanced the presentation of the material, or would have focused more on their particular strengths. Or perhaps would have swayed their vocal talents in other directions. Copyright © 2008 Audiophile Audition and Tom Gibbs. All reviews written by Tom Gibbs → Overview of all CD/LP reviews and liner notes |
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