| Discography of Joe Fonda | 1999 |
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Recorded at Systems Two, Brooklyn, NY, May 23, 1999 by David Baker
Released 1999 by Jazz'halo [TS 011]
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CD Reviews
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unknown date by Ken Waxman for Jazzword JOE FONDA When It's Time Jazz'halo TS011 ANTHONY COX That & This Sketch SKE 333029 KENT KESSLER Bull Fiddle Okka Disk 12038 MIKE BULLOCK Initial Chloë 001 Four bassists, 40 fingers, no waiting. That's a slogan you'll definitely never see, at least not outside of a badly run jam session. Seriously, though, each of these four solo CDs shows how singular an individual's approach to the same instrument can be. The double bass shed its reputation as a lumbering workhorse midway through the last century, with advances in jazz, contemporary classical music and free improvisation. Now in a climate of bass liberation, recitals like these demonstrate what committed stylists like the four on show can bring to the same four strings. Going from very far left to right, Marshfield, Mass.'s Mike Bullock is the most radical, New York's Joe Fonda is the most traditional, in a emancipated jazz sort of way, with Chicago's Kent Kessler and Minneapolis' Anthony Cox occupying the middle ground. Fonda, whose reputation has ballooned in the past few years due to his longtime association with pianist Michael Jefry Stevens as well as work with reedists Anthony Braxton and Gebhard Ullman, has created the sort of solo CD you would expect from someone of his experience. Unshowy, steady and straightforward, he avoid the bow most of the time and sticks very much in the middle range. Most of the titles of the tracks here contain illusions to well-known standards, as do some of his improvisations. Furthermore — and this may sound silly — you always know that he's playing the bass. Some contemporary bassists behave as if they're playing a mini-violin or a stringed percussion instrument. Not Fonda. He's part of the long line of superior jazz bassists that includes Paul Chambers and Wilbur Ware and goes back to include pre-modernists like Major Holley and Slam Stewart. Listen carefully, in fact, and you'll probably hear some echoes of Pops Foster pioneering slap style on "Soon to Know", the more-than-10 minute final track. Not adverse to groaning, grunting and singing along with his finger work, there are times that his octave harmonization with his bass recalls Stewart and Holley's humming-in-octave-unison style. What that means of course is that is tempo is never less than swinging, and this doubling allows his axe to reflect everything he hums, while his groans mirror his fleet string work. It may sound as if he's straining, but the effort obviously allows him to pull new ideas from within and transfer them to his fingers. WHEN IT'S TIME, an apt title, shows that Fonda has the facility to do what he wants. He can explode into frenzy of buzzing bowing if he wishes, race from the highest pitch to the lowest, or even reverberate tones by beating the front of his strings. Most comfortably and most impressively he's most at ease sounding out mid range percussive notes. However on "No One There At All", written by dancer Brenda Buffalino, another of his collaborators, he sounds out variations on the tune before the theme reveals itself. Interestingly enough, the patterns that then appear seem to mirror one of those near-tuneless dirge saxophonist Arthur Doyle plays. What's equally bizarre is that the theme resembles that of "Cadence", a short improvisation on THIS & THAT, recorded more than three years later and a continent away by Cox. Maybe it's a particular bass line that lies easily under the fingers. As that sort of serendipity makes clear, Cox, whose highest profile came in 1996 when he recorded with tenor man Joe Lovano on QUARTETS LIVE AT THE VILLAGE VANGUARD, is, like Fonda, definitely a jazzman. Considering his playing partners have included saxists Marty Ehrlich and Stan Getz, pianist Geri Allen and drummer Ed Blackwell, he can play free as well as with chord changes. Although he sounds more at ease in arco mode than Fonda, the assistance of a written composition seems to give him added comfort. At least, "Mr. Cox High School Band Director", the longest of the 16 pieces on his disc, and one of the three that's not completely improvised, bounces along at foot-tapping tempo. With its solid, cool jazz rhythm, it's the kind of song you could easily imagine being played by an bass elder statesman like the late Milt Hinton. Many of the other tunes, which usually clock in at the three-minute mark, appear overall to be concerned with certain techniques. The sonorous sounds of "The Protector", for instance, centre around the low end of the instrument with the theme elaborated on higher strings and a repeated single tone pedal point on the bottom. "New Point of View", on the other hand, is a combination of walking and some Foster-like slap bass. His arco talents get a workout on "Treaty", where the dark and oscillating riff has an (original) Adams Family theme song vibe and is expressed at the beginning in cello range but is back to bass timbres by the end. "Joy" shows off a swelling arco tone with plenty of double stops to savor. Other influences come into the mix as well. "Marketplace" has overtones of folksy 18th century British ballads like Richard Dyer-Bennett used to sing. Its rhythm seems related more to a jig than then the African-American tradition. "Bats" is a speed showcase, but Cox makes the notes ring as if he was finger picking an Appalachian banjo, not a bull fiddle. These folksy influences resonate in the work of Kessler, the other Midwesterner represented in this group. On "Pikeville Girl", the slow-moving, disconsolate sound seems to contain a mountain melody that's trying to escape, as the bass tones move in and out of aural close ups. Then there's the short "Word Edgewise", where the scratchy bass fills compete with vocalized sections that appear to be close relatives to the way bluegrass whiz Earl Scruggs makes his banjo "talk". Stalwart of the Chicago scene, Kessler has had a longtime association with saxophonists Hall Russell's NRG Ensemble, and Ken Vandermark's various bands, as well as drummers Hamid Drake and Michael Zerang, the last of whom guests on three tracks here. Kessler also knows about country and folk music through his vocalist wife. That's what "Out of Iowa" seems to reflect — a sparse and atmospheric track that gradually fades away after guitar-like picking on the bassist's part. "Central Wisconsin double wide", the longest track at more than 10½-minutes, is also the most cinematic. Beginning with arco tones that sound like a locomotive going down the tracks, he then begins to double and triple stop, with the theme unrolling at faster and faster tempo as he plays. Exhibiting a relaxed briskness, he bows more than one string at a time, produces some screechy overtones then reverberations, as he explores the sound. Reaching the destination the sonics fade away. Elsewhere Kessler ranges all over the strings, often interrupting his firm, virile tone for extended techniques involving buzzing strings, wood scratching, rumbles, bangs and shakes. Zerang's interjections on dumbek, an Arabic, hourglass-shaped drum, merely amplify the mix, although there is one point that his percussion pattern sounds as if it was created with a bolo bat. Wild card of the bunch, Bullock's INITIAL is all about extended technique, noises and protracted silences. The bassist, who studied composition and electronic music at Princeton, is part of the group of Boston-based improvisers, including cellist Vic Rawlings and trumpeter Greg Kelley, who travel the minimalist road that passes through New music and free improv. Turn up your stereo to hear the first, more than 23½-minute piece, recorded in a Montreal club. For the first three minutes or so you won't detect anything but bar talk conversation, the clink of glasses, people shuffling around and chairs being moved. Then the buzzing bass amp gradually cuts into the ambient sound. Eventually joining this swelling drone are periodic mechanical scratches, something that sounds as if the bass bow is being dragged across the strings, then bounced off them, and sticks placed at intervals between the reverberating strings. Following some ear-wrenching feedback, the drone gets so pronounced that you begin to hear — sense? — pulsating overtones. Finale comes with some quick, plucked, single tones that subsume into a fuzzy drone and abruptly terminate. More of a bass showcase, track two begins with intermittent scratching and string pulling then explodes into a superfast, triple-stopping exploration. Elongated high-pitched tones are heard, as are others that sound as if they're being scraped from the strings with steelwool. Again it appears that the bow is attacking the front of the strings with reverberations falling where they may. As repeated patterns arise, it then appears as if chipmunks are invading the wood, scratching the top of the bass neck and behind the bridge, even untuning each peg slowly. The one solo that relates to the sort of all-out EuroImprov pioneered by Barry Guy and Peter Kowald, ends the piece in superspeed mode, with Bullock flailing away at the strings as if he's playing Appalachian banjo. Maybe there are some roots Americana influences here after all. Still, this bassist will never be confused with a folkie. Looking for a way to satisfy your bass desires? You couldn't do much better than investigating any or all of these four fine discs. ANTHONY COX That & This Reprinted with kind permission of the author. Copyright © 2006 Jazzword and Ken Waxman. All reviews written by Ken Waxman:
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December 1, 2001 by Michael A. Parker for All About Jazz It would be a mistake to try and situate this record in a continuum of solo bass works that have been created in the past 30 years, starting with Barre Philips and Motoharu Yoshizawa's work in the late 60s. Joe Fonda is not on some kind of mission to redefine the bass and its role in contemporary music; he's not a Dresserian guru of extended techniques or someone who has a concept of solo bass that's independent of his ensemble work, like Dominic Duval. On the contrary, Fonda's solo bass music is an expression of the same aesthetic that informs his ensemble work. Considering that his ensemble work counts as some of the best in the past decade of jazz, that makes this solo recording a very worthwhile listen. After all, any list of the five best jazz groups in the past ten years that didn't include the Fonda-Stevens group would just be a joke. The music he plays here is essentially the same as when he takes a solo in one of the numerous ensembles he participates in; you can hear the other instruments ready to take slices of his bass whirlwind and chew them up in Braxtonian parallel layers of crystalline thematicism. His solo pieces here are filled with the same sort of energetic twists and turns that make the Fonda-Stevens group so enrapturing at their best. In fact, it's kind of nice to hear one voice of such vital music isolated to make it easier to hear the naked logic of an individual musician. Of course, after a spin of this disc I'm anxious to hear Mark Whitecage or Paul Smoker working their magic in tandem with Fonda, but I can do so having spent some quality time getting acquainted with the rhythmic demons Fonda likes to wrestle with. By 'rhythm' I mean sweaty, pumping, rubber dances between fingers and strings, with globs of grease oozing out of every note. In fact, Fonda picks up his bow for only two of the eight pieces here; he prefers to pluck his way into epic grooves that mutate endlessly without loss of momentum. A perfect example is 'The Other Side of Things', one of my two favorite pieces on the disc; Fonda tosses out some concise and catchy themes and then runs in another direction with enough notes left in his hand to keep his rapid stream of variations connected to the bigger picture. The net result is that classic sort of delicious tension where you really want to hear a certain theme come back in its entirety but you're still pretty happy with things as they're going. My other favorite is 'My Time with J. & E.', where Fonda makes some gripping transitions between first-rate timbral and textural explorations on one hand, and his more characteristic rhythmic boxing on the other. It makes perfect sense that the first tune on the disc is based on an old R&B riff: Fonda's music is rooted in a lot of good-old fashioned musical values, and he carries them with him even when he's pushing himself to be a full-blooded participant in the avant-garde jazz culture that has been one of his main sources of musical nourishment, whether at the hands of Anthony Braxton, Leo Smith, or the multi-media performance collectives he's had an affinity for over the years. Reprinted with permission. Copyright © 2006 AllAboutJazz.com and Michael A. Parker. This review is reprinted courtesy of All About Jazz Italia: italia.allaboutjazz.com |
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December 1, 2000 by Nils Jacobson for All About Jazz Joe Fonda's sole solo excursion from 1999 demonstrates a degree of maturity in concept and execution that marks it as a unique high point in his oeuvre to date. On When It's Time, Fonda approaches mostly original tunes with a melodic focus, accompanied by ever-present vocalizations. (Listeners with a phobia of humming and moaning take notice.) The recording has a warm, full-bodied sound which captures nuance and detail. While the core of these acoustic bass improvisations tend to rely on a head-solo-head type of strucutre, the definitive aspect of the recording is the way the bassist subverts structure and arrives at unexpected stopping points along the way. Fonda remains open to the groove (eg. "The Other Side of Things") but his intermittent swing generally capitulates to metric redefinition as he pauses to reflect or rushes into new ideas. On When It's Time, Fonda generally prefers a clean single-note plucking approach, though at times he explores arco passages, double-stops, and extended technique (eg. "Been There Before"). He mostly leaves harmony open, avoiding what he would term a "literal" interpretation of the music. However, he also avoids the outright explosive tension which characterizes William Parker's solo work, for example-tending toward a more introspective and understated approach. At times one can pick out running basslines, arpeggiated chord progressions, and step-by-step deconstructions of simple themes... these items are like beads on a string, which Fonda twists and twirls as his vision evolves. The purity of the solo experience is quite revealing about the way Fonda views the relationship between structure and freedom, an aspect that has dominated his work within groups. Reprinted with permission. Copyright © 2006 AllAboutJazz.com and Nils Jacobson. All reviews written by Nils Jacobson: |
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May 2002 by John Chacona for One Final Note I don't know if bassist Joe Fonda played basketball growing up in Amsterdam, NY, but if he did, I can guess the nature of his game. He was one of those undersized, scrappy guards the other team hated to play. Not the most athletic guy on the team, he must have been a gym rat possessed of an almost manic energy, playing his heart out every minute, covered with floor burns. Probably a fun guy to have on your team, too. That take-no-prisoners approach comes through in his bass playing and is everywhere evident in this almost-solo bass CD. Almost? Well, Fonda accompanies his instrumental work with a variety of sounds, from near singing to strenuous exhalations, a cross between Keith Jarrett's vocalizing and tennis player Monica Seles' grunting. How you receive this is a matter of personal taste, but like it or hate it, there's no avoiding it. Fonda is essentially a rhythmic player; there's relatively little here in the way of extended technique (not a lot of arco work, either, except on the harmonic-laden "Been there Before"). The opening "Second Time Around" (an original, not the Jimmy/Sammy standard) sets out the CD's MO. It opens with a hard-plucked figure that implies a strong pulse and proceeds in a fairly linear fashion with a fair amount of energetic playing that never lapses into empty virtuoso display. He sets up an almost street beat on "The Other Side of Things", then dribbles around and through it, enjoying every head fake and stutter step along the way. There's a palpable sense of Fonda really leaning into his material here; he's not one to linger over beautiful moments, even on the downtempo selections like "No One There At All" by tap dancer Brenda Bufalino (how's that for rhythm?). If there's nothing here to elevate Fonda quite to the level of his finest contemporaries (William Parker, the Marks, Dresser and Helias, probably Dominic Duval) it's still an entertaining record and, more importantly, a revealing musical portrait of a man whose love of and fierce commitment to the music comes out in every bar. Reprinted with permission. Copyright © 2006 One Final Note and John Chacona. All reviews written by John Chacona:
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Steve Koenig for JazzWeekly What an enjoyable solo acoustic bass outing. Longtime collaborator with Braxton, Michael Jefry Stevens and others, it's good to hear him on his own, searching as he creates, singing softly in a non-Jarretty (i.e.: whiny) way in the background along with his music. You feel his fingers pluck, the resin gets on your pants; you feel as if you're creating this along with him. For his group work, get the Fonda/Stevens' Live From Brugge, De Werf WERF010, and The Wish on Music & Arts 916. Reprinted with permission. Copyright © 2006 Jazz Weekly and Steve Koenig. All reviews written by Steve Koenig:
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