| Discography of Joe Fonda | 2002 |
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Lineup
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Recorded August 16th, 2002 @ The Unitarian Meeting House Amherst, MA.
Released 2003 by Konnex Records [KCD 5122]
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Liner Notes [→ Concert Review | → CD Reviews] |
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For many years, the Pioneer Valley has been a hotbed for creative musicians. In the 1970s, the are saw the likes of Marion Brown, Archie Shepp, Yusef Lateef, Max Roach, and others performing and living around the "Happy Valley". Legendary nightclubs like Sheehan's and The Iron House where the spots for live performances by both accomplished masters, and young musicians alike. What started as a retreat from the hustle of the City, the Valley served as a place where the living was cheap, relaxed, and work was plentiful in the surrounding Universities. The presence of these creative spirits lit a flame that set in motion younger area musicians such as Clifford White and Joe Fonda. Fonda's first recording, Looking for the Lake, featuring White on Tenor Sax, is evidence to the roaring fire that the flame became. After sprouting in the Valley, these two musicians went their separate ways; Fonda spending time in Connecticut, New York, and Europe before settling down in upstate New York, and White choosing a different path; retreating to the highlands of Ashfield MA he worked to fine-tune his approach to playing the saxophone, working in and around the Valley in various musical settings, and building a portfolio of his unique compositions. So on this evening, August 16th of 2002 (the hottest night of the summer, in a brown building, with no air conditioning) generations of Valley improvisors came together as a sort of reunion. Part of the lost tribe was together again Fonda's incredible abilty to mold into any musical soundscape, his highly developed rhythmic sensibility, and his fat, swinging, Mingus-like sound are all evident on this recording. His work with artists as diverse as Anthony Braxton, Leo Smith, and Michael Jefry Stevens have seasoned him to drive even the most diverse group of musicians. Couple this with the Angular, Melodic, and Unique sound of Clifford White, and it is just like old times; soul mates back on track, Cliff with so much to say. Percussionist Benjamin Karetnick, also a native of the Valley, who is primarily known for his work with multi-reedsman Sabir Mateen, dials into Fonda with dynamic sensibilty. His work with Mateen, Raphe Malik, Matthew Heyner, Paul Flaherty, and others helped him to develop a mature style of playing for his number of Earth years, and have seasoned him for outings like this. A disciple of the great Barry Altschul and Susie Ibarra, his playing is driving, dynamic and melodic. Karetnick fuels the Valley's fire by producing concerts in the area, and heading the Connecticut Valley Improvisors League (CVIL), a musician run collective. And finally, add to this the vibration of Master Musician Joe McPhee, and the group is complete. Yet another generation added to the fold. McPhee's powerful yet sensitive flow augments the group perfectly. No other musician would have fit the bill better. McPhee's 33 plus years of experience at the forefront of creative music, his soulful melodies, and incredible musicality make him shine in this group, and bring his cohorts to newfound height. Truly a musicians musician, and a Statesman to the music, McPhee is sought out by musicians and producers all over the globe. Absorb this atmospheric suite, and enjoy the story as it unfolds. Improvised Compositions in the tradition. Multiple Generations speaking, tied together by the infinite vibrations of Universal Swing. Music that is true and pure, and most of all, fresh. Bon Voyage! Elden Raushenberger |
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Concert Review |
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Hearing Voices
Venue: Meetinghouse in Amherst / Vermont Jazz Center in Brattleboro (Amherst, MA / Brattleboro, VT) August 16 & 17, 2002 - Drummer Ben Karetnick artfully drew together a quartet of seemingly out of balance proportions: the members of the group could be described with a graph that measured hyperbolic waves of maturity and experience of each individual. Joe McPhee played tenor & soprano saxes and pocket trumpet; Cliff White, a player from the Western Massachusetts area, was on alto & tenor; Joe Fonda, who has worked with Anthony Braxton among numerous other musicians, was on amplified double bass, and Karetnick, also from the Western Mass. area, was on drums and percussion. This group performed in two successive gigs last weekend. When a musical group improvises together, the members of the group are talking to each other, perhaps in ways that none has ever known before. The language of each is not known to the others. But through sensibility and prescience, somehow, the group can unfold extemporaneously with heretofore unfound confidence. Detecting the voice of each player and recognizing how the four carried on their conversation was my intention. The first night at the Meetinghouse in Amherst, the group moved through the oppressive heat to multiple heights. The session started out with a bass/drum duo. The bass lay on its side. Fonda bowed it into the ground. Karetnick established the pulse. The more they played the more diverse the sound became. The bass stood upright. The atmosphere was set. The alto entered with constant vibratos developing into scalar descents which gave way to the increasing intensity of sound. The ground work was done. Fonda pizzed like mad; Karetnick jammed it on the snare; White took off in repeated dips. McPhee entered on the pocket trumpet with precise, bright, extended notes which he molded into a tune that floated over all the other instruments. The bass found a lazy, languid zone; Karetnick coincided with softness as he switched from using sticks to mallets on the skins & cymbals. The trumpet tune was shrill, quiet, smooth, uncracking, lilting. When that tune reached its highest note, the alto countered with a low pitch. The drums closed quietly with a loosely detailed ring of finger cymbals. McPhee's soprano began the next number. The texture of air blown through the instrument initiated a swaying into a place where double notes began a solo. In the background was the low tone of the bowed bass and delicate rolling of a chain of small wood blocks and shakers on the drums. The scream of the White's tenor matched the collective density of McPhee's soprano notes. The two pushed each other through. The drums and bass were wedded together to provide the support for the horns. The soprano coated the rhythmic backbone like melting sugar. The horns moved from placid places to raucous arenas repeatedly, finally to blend in a transition where McPhee picked up the tenor. The group was moving to a culmination. Playing tenor, White and Karetnick paired up and took off. Fonda plucked the bass furiously. McPhee surged, aiming for resolution. The two tenors intimately merged in tremolos; they countered each other in high and low note phrases. Fonda blue into to end of a flute to accent the surface with an Eastern influence. White blew deep tones and then high flutters. McPhee shut the music down and laid it carefully in a holy place. By the end of the first set, the group was on the same page. Fonda started singing out about the heat, the sweat...real time poetry. The music evoked naturally a sultry scene. Brushes went to cymbals in swooshes, swipes and gentle taps, the pocket trumpet was slowly swinging through a melody, the bass was rocking with the drums. The alto and pocket trumpet played together working in and out of each other's phrases. The alto climbed out of the interaction. Fonda plucked lower and lower pitches on the bass. The last song was played on the pocket trumpet. Karetnick's hands rested on the footed tom. The last piece of the first night was one fraught with percussive patterns which were prodded to critical masses at which point transitions would occur. The alto & soprano worked clearly to move in and out of each other's space. Fonda bowed; Karetnick used mallets. The horns were ensconced in playing runs. McPhee rocked with the bass's outstanding rhythmic gestures to close as Karetnick's tom-tom rumbled. At the Vermont Jazz Center in Brattleboro, the second night, the group was primed. The evening was structured parenthetically with the first and last pieces dedicated to bassist Wilbur Morris, who recently passed away. The first introduced by McPhee offered a mournful compassionate melody. Behind him were tender accenting percussive sounds and simple plucks on the bass accompanied by Fonda's slow-paced scatting. The piece blossomed quickly. White launched into a groove that was interspersed with tremolos and arpeggios, crescendos, decrescendos, scalar runs, blurts. McPhee echoed White. Fonda's body totally twisted itself into his bass instrument; his face expressed the contortions. The horns played in unison. Karetnick, who had not stopped playing, cut the beat in half, garnered a coolness and stayed with the bass. Karetnick's sticks hit the metal edge of one of the drums to create a gong-like sound. Fonda plucked single notes metaphorically as if moving into a resting place. McPhee brought back the original theme. A hush ensued. The last piece for Morris was initiated by Fonda. The music combined the bari-sax, bass, pocket trumpet and a scraping of the cymbal with a bow . The music became a straight line, with a slight vibrato. An honorable gesture to a venerable musician. McPhee began the second piece. As if climbing a ladder to the highest rung, McPhee played his soprano interlooping, interweaving, tremolo after tremolo to reach the highest pitch, to reach the highest rung. Karetnick's awareness of the prevalent ringing drove him to play bell after bell after bell. White came in with a truly complimentary bari-sax statement as the soprano left the sound mix. This statement touched the not often heard high register as well as the animal-like groan of the low register. Karetnick rounded out the texture of the music with the mallets on drums & wood blocks and a stick to tom motion. Fonda caressed the strings of his instrument; his bowing was reverent. The resonance in the venue progressively overcame the large baffles at the rear of the room. The pace and music slowed to a shush. Fonda bowed as quietly as a mouse at nighttime. The soprano gave voice to the mouse; the alto chased it. The drums threw in a slapstick run. The horns produced one tone. The bass was out. So were the rest at rest. Now, it was Karetnick's time: he blasted out on his drums building the rhythms over and over again, making occasional switches, returning to a repetition of the original pattern. The bass entered in ardent support of Karetnick. Oh, the longing to keep Karetnick going...McPhee on pocket trumpet and White on alto came in together to maintain the pace that Karetnick established. The horns told Karetnick to slow down; Karetnick struck to half-pace. The pocket trumpet sang. Although the pace was different, the intensity was the same as it was at the start. The pocket trumpet faded into another embracing melody. The bass played in sync with the music. McPhee and White talked to each other, swinging like never before in this context. Karetnick brushed the cymbals. The bass was barely there. The two horns had pressed their notes into only air. The pocket trumpet ended with a solemn yet loving tune. The next piece had incredible dynamics. Karetnick used rattles on the cymbals. Fonda scatted energetically demonstrating his total involvement with this music; he stretched his pizzicatos on the bass to a point of slapping, broke the slapping with a silence and then played tunes. He squeezed ALL the strings below the bridge with this right hand and plucked with his left to create a sound like unoiled hinges trying to rotate. Fonda literally wrapped himself into his instrument. Karetnick chose (what a choice!) to play the cymbals with maracas, building the rhythmic density and strength. Fonda took a stance to bow his bass like a batter prepares in the batter's box to hit a ball with his bat. McPhee took up the tenor: all the notes were strung together in a continuous flow. Fonda's instrument was on its side, slapped and then picked up again. McPhee's circular breathing let the notes on the horn go & move into the slow tribal groove that Karetnick provided and which the the bass was expanding with deep tones. McPhee launched a solo: he rocked his tenor to the ceiling and floor. He took it to its peak and then backed down; he did this repeatedly. At the point of McPhee's climax on his horn, White joined in. McPhee stepped out. Karetnick played the drums coherently and furiously. White walked over to the bass; on the tenor White played trills and riffs and then slowed down gradually. The music stopped. This article tells a story that matches my intention: to hear the conversation among the members of a band. I heard their voices. I heard their conversation. To be thoroughly entranced to do so is always my ultimate desire. Copyright© JazzReview.com®. All Rights Reserved. |
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CD Reviews
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29 June 2004 by Matthew Sumera for One Final Note Recorded live in the Pioneer valley, Heat Suite is a four-part ode to energy music, an essay about the nature of musical heat and fire. As organizer Joe Fonda-here on bass, flute, voice, and percussion-states in Part 3, "Heat is what got me involved in this powerful, wonderful music... It was the heat that attracted me." Fonda is joined by Joe McPhee on his usual reeds and pocket trumpet; Cliff White on alto, tenor, and baritone saxes; and Ben Karetnick, most known for his work with Sabir Mateen, on drums and percussion. The whole thing gets off to an atmospheric beginning, with a dense arco statement from Fonda supported by the Karetnick's pattering and White on tenor. It's evident from the get-go that this is a finessed take on "the heat" rather than a paint-peeling blowing session. And indeed, one of the most remarkable aspects of Heat Suite is the amount of space given to the variety of composite subdivisions of the group. This is a listening session, with the group setting up engaging encounters for drums and tenor; bass and drums; pocket trumpet, tenor, bass, and drums; pocket trumpet and tenor; etc. The touch points are various with well-chosen features for the different variations of the ensemble. McPhee is his usual mercurial self early on in Part 1-playing at first behind White-with a sound strikingly reminiscent of Don Cherry's most energized playing with Albert Ayler. When White drops out, McPhee moves into longer statements, pausing to let the music breathe, as Fonda and Karetnick slowly fade to silence. White rejoins McPhee toward the end of Part 1 for a beautiful duet of matching tones, lingering on in the heat. Part 2 begins again with Fonda in arco mode, this time even more ethereal, barely audible at times. Slowly the atmosphere changes through particularly searching sax statements, examinations of false registers and controlled overblowing. Karetnick assiduously provides accompaniment with an array of shakers-a clean, defined sizzle that also manages to stay out of the way. Fonda is up next with a bass/vocal solo, taken pizzicato, followed by a bass and drums duet-Karetnick, here and in other places, is a bit heavy-handed for the job. Part 3 begins with Fonda's spoken words, McPhee again on pocket trumpet, Karetnick on various percussion, and White on baritone sax. After some particularly raucous group interplay, Fonda again steps out in front with extremely quick passages in the higher register of his bass. He settles into a highly syncopated groove, joined by McPhee's trumpet. Again, the most noteworthy aspect of the music is the amount of space around the actual notes played. A drum solo, taken on brushes, is also featured-fine enough, but not nearly as effective as the other solo statements on the disc. Part 4 rounds things out with more group interplay, sometimes superior indeed, if not a little anti-climactic in conclusion. It's the shortest of the four parts, and there is a sense that the group may have worn out by this time-apparently the recording was made at a live set on the hottest day of the year in a room without air conditioning. It's the only piece that feels somewhat formulaic as well. Heat Suite has some stellar interplay, with plenty of space for all participants. It is marred, unfortunately, by a rather imprecise recording quality as if the room, not only hot, was perhaps also an airline hangar. That aside, it's worth checking out, especially for McPhee's contributions on pocket trumpet and some remarkable work by Fonda. "Heat brings out the best in everybody", the bassist preaches at the beginning of Part 3. Indeed. Reprinted with permission. Copyright © 2006 ONE FINAL NOTE and Matthew Sumera. |
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June 28, 2004 by Ken Waxman for Jazzword FONDA/MCPHEE/WHITE/KARETNCK JIM RYAN'S FORWARD ENERGY Think of Energy Music in the United States like the committed American Left. Although denounced as an unfashionable anachronism or a contemptible spent force by bombastic conservative commentators, grass roots organizations unexpectedly assert themselves at the local or national level when events swing too far towards the Right. It's the same thing with so called Energy Music, Free Jazz or what in the 1960s was called the New Thing. Always treated with contempt by the established mainstreamers of the day, it was derided as a passing fad almost from the time it was first heard. Today jazz's neo-cons call it old hat with the same disdain that political neo-cons dismiss the New Deal and the unionization. But as these two CDs, recorded in different parts of U.S. reveal, although a so-called underground movement, Energy Music, like a belief in social justice, has more adherents than most realize. It flourishes in its own enclaves and comes front and centre when least expected. HEAT SUITE, for instance, is a showcase for Western Massachusetts' creative improvisers' scene. Two of the musicians — percussionist Ben Karetnick and saxist Cliff White have mostly a local reputation, though Karetnick, an organizer as well as a creative drummer has worked with folks like New York multi-instrumentalist Daniel Carter and Vermont trumpeter Raphe Malik. Ashfield, Mass.'s White was featured on the first record by bassist Joe Fonda. Fonda, a voluble, committed stylist, who now works in bands with pianist Michael Jefrey Stevens and violinist Billy Bang, among others, returned to the area for this gig. Another distinguished participant is upstate New York's Joe McPhee on tenor and soprano saxophones and pocket trumpet. Someone who has been propagating free music since his first record in the mid-1960s, McPhee is a citizen of the world, as apt to add his horns to an established jazz group in France as an ad-hoc situation in the U.S. Lesser-known, perhaps because of their California location, are the five members of Jim Ryan's Forward Energy band. Bay area-based Ryan, who plays alto and tenor saxophones, is a poet and writer who was drawn to Free Music in the 1970s. Since then he's performed with veteran jazzers like trumpeter Eddie Gale and drummer Donald Robinson as well as younger improvisers like the ones here. Bassist Adam Lane is the best known sideperson, having worked extensively with Danish reedist John Tchicai. Pianist Scott R. Looney, who also recorded, mixed and mastered this CD, has worked with British bass saxophonist Tony Bevan and locals such as bassist Damon Smith. Both tenor saxophonist Alicia Mangan and drummer Marshall Trammell have been in bands led by altoist Marco Eneidi. If there's a difference in approach to these slabs of Free Music, it's that contrary to stereotypes of the frenzied East and the laid-back West, it's the Massachusetts four who mix gentle, nearly pastoral passages with hearty New Thing skronk on this four-part suite. Meanwhile the Ryan five are unreconstructed Energy players from the start of The CONCEPT to its end, nearly 71 minutes later. Although divided into four tracks, HEAT SUITE is really one continuous live performance that shows off the talents of each of the participants. Especially impressive is "Part3", for Fonda's formidable technique. Humming and barking exhortations as he solos — like a combination of Jack Kerouac and Slam Stewart — Fonda rattles timbres near the tuning pegs, then moves up and down the strings, thumping, bumping and walking. At points it sounds as if he's doing a literal tap dance on the wood, but it may just be another percussion entry from Karetnick. To add to the interest, the drummer rattles a few chains, slithers over his drum tops and amplifies his flams and rolls in true post-modern style. Yet when he uses sturdy cylindrical sticks on the snare or sounds the sizzle cymbals with wire handled brushes, he develops a Big Sid Catlett Swing Era cadence. Meanwhile White moves from staccato baritone basement blasts to smearing, pitchsliding higher tones. McPhee contributes broken chords in the form of chromatic trumpet runs and finesses a dramatic extended grace note at the end. On the other pieces, White's output on any of his three horns ranges from squeals in the altissimo range to lowdown, echoing honks and continuous flutter tonguing. With pitch vibrato and split tones, he sometimes creates ney-like timbres. Whether he's using his pocket trumpet, soprano or tenor saxophone, McPhee fuses his output to that of the other hornman so that the harmonies fit together like jigsaw puzzle pieces. At the beginning White's dulcet lines meet up with sluiced, delayed notes from McPhee, playing trumpet with quicksilver grace. In the last section, a duet features the two hornmen moving from bucolic, unison harmony to a pitchsliding circle of blats and honks from tandem saxes, with the odd tongue slap thrown into the mix for good measure. Fonda's polyrhythmic pedal point keeps things together. More sensed than heard throughout, Fonda's dense bass underpinning is one of the secrets of the session's success, along with Karetnick's bouncing motions. Things are a little more hard core on the Oakland, Calif. session, with wild and wooly unrelentless smears and honks, flutter tonguing and skyscraper altissimo heard from beginning to end. Ryan and Mangan continuously demolish anything as mundane as bar lines and tempos, squeezing as many timbres as they can into each sound. Adding whistling doits, false fingering and exploding tones to just about everything they play, it's often hard to tell the saxes apart. When one reedist honks like a foghorn it's probably Mangan's tenor, and those shrill police whistle tones are probably from Ryan's alto. Lane holds up his part of the rhythm section with energetic, prestissimo resonation and double-stopped woody ponticello, while Trammell's conga-like polyrhythms and ringing cymbals help as well. Looney's most impressive display occurs on "How Are You", where between Trammell's bashing and Lane's walking bass, he rappels over the keys at warp speed. Using contrasting dynamics to expose the vibrations and overtones on the keys, he often dips inside the frame to stop the action. By the end he has taken tremolo playing to its logical, exciting conclusion. Of course the showpiece is the more-than-25 minute title track, Energy Music by definition. Starting with an a cappella pulsating trill from Ryan on tenor, the next notes slide into the basement and continue in the foreground or background as he tune unrolls. As Mangan produces screeching altissimo lines and the rhythm section thumping continuum, Looney unleashes repetitive, high frequency stride cadenzas and broken chording, as if he was a modern version of Cal Cobbs, Albert Ayler's favorite pianist. Like Fonda on the other disc and Jimmy Garrison's steadfast accompaniment in John Coltrane's larger band works, Lane's patterns cement the content of this piece. As the ostinato surges, the other players create waves of sound that escalate up to the peak of inventiveness and fall down from the precipice without losing dynamism or fervor. You get a mental picture of the five driving bumper cars in a carnival ride, joining together in twos and threes, then splitting up and going their separate ways again. With unvarying sizzle cymbal resonation, triple stopped shuffle bowing and harpsichord-like wire scraping from the strings, the composition reaches a crescendo that features Ryan overblowing an auxiliary version of his original theme, then whittling down the sound to a single tone. Like the Left, Energy Music still lives and thrives. JIM RYAN'S FORWARD ENERGY Reprinted with kind permission of the author. Copyright © 2006 Jazzword and Ken Waxman. Liner Notes | Concert Review | CD Reviews All reviews written by Ken Waxman:
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April 15, 2004 by Marc Meyers for All About Jazz Heat Suite, a four-part, freely improvised performance, is a towering achievement. It is music that is constantly flowing, constantly growing. It is full of flux and variety, and every note, every rhythm evolves organically and logically from what has previously been created. "Part 1" begins with Fonda's scraping arco bass, which becomes the platform for White's alto. Soon enough, White and Karetnick engage in a duet, an unmetered meeting in which a fast pulse is suggested but not stated. There are other segments in Heat Suite that are free or rubato, but there's also time, funky time, Afro-time, and swinging time. There's a segment early in "Part 3" where Fonda struts a second line beat, Karetnick plays a complex but jumping counterpoint on brushes, and McPhee's trumpet intones a poignant song. "Part 4" opens with throbbing mallet rhythms underpinning White's stately alto. And much of "Part 2" has rip-roaring tenor work by White and McPhee, soloing and jointly improvising, over a barrelling, very fast 4/4 swing tempo. All four musicians play with invention and passion, often displaying lyricism, even restraint. Joe McPhee is, quite simply, magnificent. The booklet says he plays pocket trumpet, but his sound is so full and rounded, so warm that it's easy to think he's playing a full-sized instrument. McPhee is a master of extended techniques on all his instruments, but he is also a master of beauty. So many of his improvisations could be songs. White, too, sounds very good. He listens well and his driving tenor solo on "Part 2" is especially powerful. Fonda and Karetnick play with astonishing unity. They suggest a wild variety of approaches from rubato to marcato to swing, and always seem to think as one. Their solo work is consistently outstanding. If you care at all about the cutting edge of jazz, or free music generally, you'll want to check out Heat Suite. And if you have open ears, you'll find this one very much worth your while. Reprinted with permission. Copyright © 2006 All About Jazz and Marc Meyers. |
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Thom Jurek for All Music Guide This four-movement collective improvisation was performed and recorded as part of a gathering of improvisers in 2002 in the Pioneer Valley, a place where virtually all of the players had woodshedded at one time or another during their individual histories. Under the auspices of bassist Joe Fonda and his longtime collaborator Cliff White, two more East Coast bright lights — drummer Ben Karetnick (fresh from Sabir Mateen's fine band) and vanguard legend and multi-instrumentalist Joe McPhee — joined the pack for a wild, careening, dynamic ride into the unknown on what was supposedly the hottest night of the year in a building without air conditioning. McPhee and White are fine foils for one another. McPhee is given to longer and more elaborate melodic statements (especially on his soprano), while White engages in fiery legato runs throughout and weaves his lines around McPhee's. But it is Fonda who is the mystic driving force here; his bowing and pizzicato runs propel and then rein in the proceedings from the purely abstract, focusing them on some hidden nuance that he hears and then brings other sounds to, so the other players can hear and comment upon them as well. These elongated excursions into tonal expansion and the process of honing in on feeling, impression, and unexplored harmonies create an exhilarating listen, one that feels as much like composition as it does a free jazz blowing session. The depth of listening on this date is truly astonishing. It is far from pure instinct; it is disciplined trust, good faith, and the desire for complete communication that drives this music and makes it such a joy to listen to. Reprinted with permission. Copyright © 2006 All Media Guide, LLC and Thom Jurek. Liner Notes | Concert Review | CD Reviews All reviews written by Thom Jurek:
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December 16, 2004 by Eduardo Chagas for Jazz e Arredores Admiradores de Joe McPhee, de Joe Fonda ou de ambos, atentai nisto! Copyright © 2007 Jazz e Arredores and Eduardo Chagas. |
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