Joe Fonda (° Amsterdam, NY, December 16, 1954) is a composer, bassist, recording artist, interdisciplinary performer and producer. He studied composing and arranging at the Berklee College of Music, Boston, Mass. (1973-1975). In the same period he studied bass with Professor John Rappucci (Boston) and in August 1975 with George Mraz at the Zollar School of Music. An accomplished international artist, Fonda has performed as a leader in his own ensembles throughout the United States and Europe, and as a sideman with Archie Shepp, Charlie Persip, Ray Copeland, Bobby Naughton Unit, Kenny Johnson and Blues with a Feeling, Majeed Greenlee Quartet, Art Matthews Trio, Ken McIntyre, Lou Donaldson, Bill and Kenny Barron, Leo Smith and New Delta, Bill Lowe/Andy Jaffey Big Band, Barry Altschul, Billy Bang, Barney Kessel, Herb Ellis, Tom Varner Quartet, Cico Hamilton Quartet, Carla Bley, Slide Hampton, CARLOS Patato Veldez, Teddy Charles, Perry Robinson, Dave Douglas, Curtis Fuller, Mark Whitecage, Marion Brown and Bill Dixon.
Fonda was the bassist with the renowned Anthony Braxton sextet, octet tentet from 1984 through 1999 and was the President from 1997- 1999 of the newly formed Tri-Centric Foundation. He has also performed with the 38-piece Tri-Centric orchestra under the direction of Anthony Braxton, and was the bassist for the premiere performance of Anthony Braxton's opera, Shala Fears for the Poor, performed at the John Jay theater in New York, New York.
 
As a composer for his own ensemble, Fonda has been the recipient of numerous grants and commissions and has released five recordings under his own name. Fonda was also a member of the Creative Musicians Improvisers Forum and Orchestra directed by Leo Smith, and was   bassist with the American Tap Dance Orchestra in New York City directed by world renowned tap dancer, Brenda Bufalino.
He toured Spain with the Greg Lions Quartet in the Spring of 1990 and with the Michael Rabinowitz Quartet in the Spring of 1991. In 1989 Fonda performed as bassist and actor with Fred Ho’s Jazz and Peking Opera in its world premier at Brooklyn Academy of Music. From 1982- 1986, Fonda was the bassist and a dancer with the Sonomama Dance Company. An independent producer since 1978, Fonda is the founding director and president of Kaleidoscope Arts and  Kaleidoscope Interdisciplinary Performance Ensemble.
 
Currently Fonda has been recording and touring extensively with the Fonda-Stevens Group and Conference Call. They have released five CDs and have had seven European tours since 1997 performances at the Bimhuis, Amsterdam (Holland), the Prague Jazz Festival (Czech Republic), the Jazz’halo Music Days (Belgium), Jazz Thurinsen, Weimar (Germany).  Fonda also started a group that incorporates the tap dancing and poetry of Brenda Bufalino and the healing arts of Vicky Dodd and four jazz musicians. They have released their first CD entitled Joe Fonda and From the Source on Konnex Records.

"Over the past five years and the course of four CD's the Fonda/Stevens Group has evolved into one of Jazz/improvised music's most accomplished ensembles. Straddling the line between post-bop and free, they have come up with consistently satisfying albums...What's impressive is how these five create a cohesive unit without grandstanding egos getting in the way."
Cadence Magazine, March 1999
 
With over 15 years of performing together in various ensembles the powerful acoustic NYC based jazz ensemble features the music of bassist Joe Fonda and pianist Michael Jefry Stevens performing with master percussionist Harvey Sorgen and the brilliant modern jazz trumpet legend Herb Robertson
 
The group performed six European tours in the past three years (1997-1999) including radio broadcasts fir BRTN (Belgium) Saarbrucken Radio (Germany), WDR Radio Koln (Germany), Radio Breman (Germany), Radio Zurich (Switzerland), Radio Nurnberg (Germany) VPRO Radio Amsterdam (Holland) and gas been featured artist at the Ottawa International Jazz Festival (Canada), Jazz’halo Music Days (Brugge, Belgium) Jazzmeille Thuringen (Weimer, Germany) Jazzkroeg (Belgium) and Westfalisches Musikfest 1998 (Munster, Germany).
 
Pianist and co-leader Michael Jefry Stevens has performed and/or recorded with Dave Douglas, Mark Feldman, Gerry Hemingway, Billy Martin (Martin-Medeski-Wood), Pheeroan Aklaff, Leo Wadada Smith, Steve Turre, Cecil Bridgewater, Valery Ponomerev, Potato Valdez, Thomas Chapin, and Dominic Duval His most recent releases include "The Equinox Trio: Dominic Duval" (Leo Records), The Fonda Stevens Group "Evolution" (Leo Records) and Stevens, Siegal and Ferguson "Panorama" (Imaginary Jazz). He has composed over 250 works for various musical ensembles and is also a highly experienced educator and clinician with recent clinics including Arhus, Denmark; Mexico City, Mexico; Tempe, Arizona; Bristol, Virginia; Lichtensteinn School of Jazz
 
Bassist and co-leader Joe Fonda has developed an extensive international reputation over the last several years recording and touring with the world renowned Anthony Braxton including performances at some of the world's most prestigious jazz festivals including the North Sea Jazz Festival and the Istanbul International Jazz Festival. He is also featured bassist on numerous recording with  Mr. Braxton including the famed Charlie Parker Project Recordings as well as the piano quartet recordings with Braxton on piano Mr. Fonda has performed with such notable musicians as Ken McIntyre, Charlie Persip, Lou Donaldson, Perry Robinson, Kenny Barron, Leo Smith, Curtis Fuller, Chico Hamilton, and others. He recently recorded his first solo bass CD and has released numerous CD's on the Konnex jazz label, Leo Records, and the Music and Arts label
 

Master Drummer Harvey Sorgen has performed or recorded with Anthony Braxton, Bruce Hornsby, Jack De-Johnette, Bob Weir, David Torn, Ahmad Jamal, Los Lobos, Art Lande, Roswell Rudd, NRBQ, and Bill Frisell. He is currently a working member of the world famous rock group "Hot Tuna" and was a featured in a recent modern drummer interview article. His album credits include Hot Tuna, The Arc Quartet, The Mallards, the Mosaic Sextet, NRBQ, and Sorgen-Rust-Stevens Trio. His first instructional video, "Drumming Made Easy" is available worldwide from Homespun tapes, Inc.
 
Herb Robertson is internationally renowned as one of the most innovative trumpet/brass improvisers of the twentieth century. In 1981, Robertson became one of the original members of Tim Berne's ensemble and shortly after joined Mark Hellas' band. It was with these two artists that Robertson first began receiving enormous critical acclaim for his original brass concept incorporating extended mute techniques. Mr. Robertson has recorded five albums under his own name and has appeared with such artists as Bill Frisell, Wayne Horvitz, John Zorn, Bobby Previte, Charlie Haden Music Liberation Orchestration, Anthony Davis, Elliot Sharpe, The George Gruntz Concert Jazz Band, Barry Guy and the London Jazz Composer's Orchestra, Paul Motian, and Dewy Redman among others. He has performed at most of the important European Jazz and New Music festivals including the "October Meeting" in Amsterdam, the Moers Festival in Berlin, Sallfelden, Willasau, Arri and Nicklesdorf Music festivals.

“What’s fascinating about this band is that it’s a coalescing of many streams. Each player brings with him a wealth of experience as both instrumentalist and composer, leader and sideman .. . all of this experience comes together in the Nu Band to make a unique music as fresh and invigorating as any being done today.” (From liner notes by Robert lannapollo)
 
The Nu Band has been presented by Sweetnighter Productions, Philadelphia, PA, The Music Now 2 Festival and the Knitting Factory in NYC, The Buttonwood Tree, Middletown, CT, The Bop Shop, Rochester, NY, and HalIwalls Contemporary Center for the Arts, Buffalo, NY.
 
Mark Whitecage is internationally known as a dynamic, ceaselessly inventive instrumentalist and composer in jazz and new music. Current projects include Solo work as well as his own Duos, Trios, Quartets, and Quintets. He has a number of award-winning recordings on Acoustics, CIMP and GM Recordings, including a series of CDs just released on Acoustics. Since the 1960’s he has performed and recorded with some of the leading artist of our time including Jeanne Lee, Atnhony Braxton, Gunter Hampel, Dominic Duval, Joe McPhee, Steve Swell, Marshall Allen and Saheb Sarbib, in the US, Canada, and Europe. “Whitecage is again magnificent.”   Glenn Astarita
 
Lou Grassi is internationally known for his work in both the traditional and the avant-garde jazz worlds. From the 1970’s to the present, Lou has performed and/or recorded with a great variety of outstanding artists, including Marshall Allen, Borah Bergman, Rob Brown, Charles Gayle, Urbie Green, Gunter Hampel, Johnny Hartman, Sheila Jordan, William Parker, Perry Robinson, Roswell Rudd, Steve Swell, John Tchicai and many others. “Lou Grassi is one of those few jazz players who is as comfortable with straight ahead bop as he is with ventures into the realm of the totally free and the creativity and energy are boundless.” Steven A. Loewy, All Music Guide To Jazz
 
Roy Campbell Jr. has long been associated with the most creative elements of “downtown” New York jazz, performing with bassist William Parker in his Little Huey Orchestra and their Other Dimensions in Music band, as well as recording and performing with Matthew Shipp, Daniel Carter and Rashid Bakr. “Campbell…can play everything: long, sustained lines ...shrieking vertical runs... and best of all, thoughtful, well-spaced constructions that work especially well. Campbell plays with humor and a willingness to try something new anytime.” Steve Tignor,CDN0w.
 
Joe Fonda is an accomplished international artist who has performed and recorded as a leader in his own ensembles, mc notably The Fonda/Stevens Group throughout the United States an Europe, and as a sideman with Anthony Braxton, Archie Shepp Bill and Kenny Barron, Ken McIntyre, Charlie Persip, Lou Donaldson, Leo Smith, Curtis Fuller, Mark Whitecage, Kunle Mwanga, Majeed Greenley, Bobl Naughton and others. “The music of Joe Fonda is part of a living tradition of belief and dedication. Future historians will be surprised at the breadth of Mr. Fonda’s offerings. This is a real virtuoso and composer of the highest order.” Anthony Braxton.
 

Conference Call is a new quartet using project featuring the exciting German woodwind virtuoso Gebhard Ullmann the established piano/bass collaboration of Michael Jefry Stevens and Joe Fonda (the Fonda Stevens Group) and the highly individual percussion stylings of master drummer George Schuller (distinguished drummers as Matt Wilson, Han Bennink, Gerry Hemingway also were a member of this quartet).
The quartet features original music from each member of the group and utilizes the distinctive improvisational and textural talents of each of the four members. Gebhard Ullmann's extensive woodwind palette (bass clarinet, bass flute, tenor and soprano sax; the textural and timbral virtuosity of drummer George Schuller; the organic and highly creative piano/bass interplay between Joe Fonda and Michael Jefry Stevens. All these ingredients create a highly creative and unique variety of musical flavors.
 

One of the many wonderful aspects of The FAB Trio  (FondaAltschulBang) is their distinctive musical character. How their instruments come forth from their natural sound through the development of their individual voices and musical personalities only to arrive in the context of this wonderful trio. That's just one aspect. Add to it their uncompromising surefootedness, their collective musical experiences and you will find the reason why these three musicians stand tall on solid ground. FAB, a musical collective, has power, and sensitivity. They can stoke the fire or break your heart with their compositions. 
They are masters of improvisation.
As composers they dig in deep. Each musician speaks with a personal sound about their lives, their pleasures as well as the pain while contributing to thier overall ensemble sound.  We, their listening audience, will benefit from those results.
FAB serenades us with their maturity, their honesty and the longevity found in their any years of individual performances. They continue to be contemporary, fresh and in the avant garde of the music scene.
We can be assured that FAB, Joe Fonda, bass, Barry Altschul, drums and percussion and Billy Bang, violin, are on a musical course that will spread great sounds, in a profound way, across our musical landscape.
 
Kunle Mwanga
June 21, 2003
Middletown, CT
 

The Bassoon in the Wild quartet featuring Michael Rabinowitz (bassoon), Grisha Alexiev (drums), Diana Herold (Vibraphone) and Joe Fonda (bass) has performed at the JVC Jazz Festival in NYC, The Frick Museum in Pittsburgh, The Mohonk Mountain House Jazz Weekend and other clubs and venues over the last year and a half. The leader, Michael Rabinowitz, has carved a successful career as one of the few bassoonists in the world that can play convincing jazz on his instrument. Their music includes original compositions, jazz standards, latin, jazz waltzes and rhythm and blues. Their sound has a wide dynamic range, at times like a chamber ensemble and other times like a rocking blues band. The sympathetic interplay of bassoon, vibes, bass and drums offers a unique texture.
 
For over twenty years Michael Rabinowitz has been on the cutting edge as a versatile bassoonist. His broad musical experience makes him as comfortable with Bach and Mozart as he is with Charlie Parker and John Coltrane. He has recorded with Ira Sullivan, Red Rodney, Wynton Marsalis,John Hicks, Dave Douglas and Joe Lovano. His festival appearancesinclude Chicago, Montreal, Berlin, Tri-city, San Francisco and HollywoodBowl. Michael was heard with the Mingus Orchestra at The Open Outdoor Concert Series at Lincoln Center Aug. 26th and every Friday evening At Meer's City Hall this fall. He has appeared at such New York City venues as The Kavehaz and Birdland.
 
Diana Herold (vibraphonist, marimbist, percussionist) received her two graduate degrees from the New England Conservatory and Rice University respectively. Equally adept at performing both improvised and non-improvised music, Herold has worked with composers and musicians such as Yo Yo Ma, Lou Harrison (with the Mark Morris Dance Group), Anthony Davis and Buddy DeFranco. She has performed as a featured soloist and as a percussionist with several larger new music groups and orchestras, including the Discovery Orchestra, the BMI Orchestra, Muhal Richard Abrams, Butch Morris, and the Brooklyn Philharmonic.
Her performances have taken her throughout Europe, Central America, the United States, and Canada (where she attended the Banff Centre for the Arts).
She can be heard on recordings with They Might Be Giants, Tony Trischka, Sam Rivers, Fred Ho, Rob Henke, and Chuck Clark. Diana leads her own jazz group featuring her own compositions.
 
Drummer Grisha Alexiev has been playing drums and writing music for 28 years. His performance experience with such varied artists as Archie Bell, Ken Werner, Sinfonia of Auckland (New Zealand), Sam Rivers, Randy Weston, Marty Ehrlich, Julius Hemphill, John Cage, Arnett Cobb, Muhal Richard Abrams, Anthony Braxton, and Richard Stoltzman, has given him a unique and impressive style. As a composer, Alexiev has been commissioned by dance companies and is recorded on The Jazz Club and Mapleshade Labels. In 1990, while a student at New England Conservatory of Music, Alexiev was honored with the Presser Award, a grant given annually to the most promising student at each of the conservatories in the United States. In 1994, he was the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Performance Grant, and he has received several Meet the Composer Grants since 1996.
He is co-founder (with Neal Kirkwood) of the Discovery Orchestra, (with Sam Bardfeld) The Atomic Strings, and leads his own 11-piece group, No Western Shirts.
 
Joe Fonda – bass
 

From the Source is an interdisciplinary music-performance ensemble that blurs the boundaries between music, dance and healing by engaging the unusual vocal apparitions of body healer with the percussive rhythmical cadence of a tap dancer. Bassist/Composer Joe Fonda integrates these unusual "musicians" with four distinguished jazz artists to create a cohesive ensemble of vocals, contrabass, saxophone, trumpet, tap percussion, and drums.
Ancient music, dance, healing and spiritual practice was not thought of as separate. As a response to the alienation of a culture bombarded with fractured images and sound bites From the Source attempts to unite this unusual group of artist/healers to connect with something larger.
Healer Vicki Dodd, works with cosmic sound, harmonics, overtones, vibrations, intuition and universal tongues to create a body of sound that dissolves physical and psychic blocks and attempts to awaken our collective memory.
Tap dancing, which is often thought of a a popular American art form, becomes high art in world-renowned tap artist, Brenda Buffalino. Her intricate improvisations make her as much a percussionist in this ensemble as a dancer.
From the Source bridges the past and the present, and moves us into the future, using sound to awaken collective memories.
 

Don't miss this new exciting trio with some Asian style. Improvised music, surprising developments, sounds that have never been heard before- amazing interaction! It's Chinese; it's American; it’s European -  it's world music!
Xu Feng Xia is a native of Shanghai, China. After graduating from the renowned Shanghai conservatory of music, she became a soloist for Chinese string instruments at the Shanghai Orchestra for Chinese Music. She gave acclaimed solo  concerts with up to for instruments in Shanghai, Beijing, and Singapore. After moving to Europe she started a second career as a soloist in improvised music, focusing on the 21- stringed guzheng.
Xu Feng Xia first met in Germany and decided after very successful concerts to found a new duet with Joe Fonda. Since 2002 they are joined regularly by André Goudbeek.
  

A new and exciting musical experience combining the tap dancing and poetry of Brenda Bufalino, the percussion sounds of Yougo Pausch, and the bass playing and composing of Joe Fonda.
Brenda Bufalino is a virtuoso tap and jazz dancer, author, maverick choreographer, and artisitic director of the American Tap Dance Orchestra.
A renowned tap master and critically acclaimed performer in the tap field, she has appeared as a guest soloist at Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, the Newport Jazz Festival, the Village Gate, the Brooklyn academy of Music in New York City, the Smithsonian in Washington D.C. and the Bridge Festival, St. Chinian , France.
Her captivating one-person show "Cantata and the  Blues" has delighted audiences at the Blue Note and the Ballroom in New York City and on tour through the United States, Israel and Germany. She recently premiered her highly praised one-person show "Woodpecker, the Journal of a Tap Dancer."
She has been presented on television in "Eye on Dance", "PBS Great Performances" and will be featured in the soon-to-be released film, "Milt and Honi."
"Jazz tap dancers are more musicians than dancers," explains Bufalino. "We are musicians using our feet as instruments and in the orchestra, we emphasize the musical virtuosity inherent in tap dance." In performance, the taps create a full scale of harmonics, dynamics and rhythms, and is conducted like sections of a symphonic orchestra.
 

Nicole Metzger was already the lead singer in many bands before she finished her studies at the Frankfurt School for Musicals and the Musical Performing Arts Company. As well as playing a variety of roles in musicals, she worked as a singer of blues, gospel and, most importantly for her, jazz. She is also an experienced teacher and studio singer. She formed her own jazz quartet in 1995, the "Nicole Metzger Quartet", with Cristoph Mudrich on piano, Dirik Schilgen on drums and on bass, initially Johannes Schaedlich more recently Rudi Engel. In 1998 this band performed at a number of national and international jazz festivals, and with her first CD, "Nicole Metzger sings Gershwin", she proved herself to be one of Germany's leading jazz singers. Her musical emphasis was now placed squarely on jazz. The Quartet went on working continuously: an evening programme entitled "We & the night & the music" came out in 1999, to which the band invited the Belgian trombonist Phil Abraham as their special guest, and which met with great success among audiences and critics alike. In 2000, a Christmas programme "Merry X-mas" emerged, which appeared on CD in December 2001.
 
Pianist Michael Jefry Stevens has performed and/or recorded with Dave Douglas , Mark Feldman, Gerry Hemingway, Dominic Duval, Cecil Bridgewater, Leo Smith, Thomas Chapin, Herb Robertson, Paul Smoker, Valery Ponomarev, Han Bennink, Matt Wilson, Mark Whitecage and Billy Martin. He has released over 30 CD’s of his original music projects. His most recent CD releases include " Portrait in Red" (Red Toucan Records), The Fonda/Stevens Group "Live at the Bunker" (Leo Records) and The Mosaic Sextet (GM Recordings). He has composed over 300 musical compositions for small jazz ensembles, big band, dance, chamber music, solo piano and voice. He was the ‘Margaret Lee Crofts Fellow for 2000-2001 " at the MacDowell Artist Colony, received 2nd prize in the prestigious Monaco International Jazz Composition Contest, and is currently on the Richmond Museum’s roster of performing artists in Richmond, VA.
 
Master Drummer Harvey Sorgen has performed or recorded with Anthony Braxton, Bruce Hornsby, Jack De-Johnette, Bob Weir, David Torn, Ahmad Jamal, Los Lobos, Art Lande, Roswell Rudd, NRBQ and Bill Frisell. He is currently a working member of the world famous rock group "Hot Tuna" and was featured artist in a recent Modern Drummer interview/article. His album credits include Hot Tuna, The Arc Quartet, The Mallards, the Mosaic Sextet, NRBQ and Sorgen-Rust-Stevens Trio. His first instructional video, "Drumming Made Easy" is available worldwide from Homespun Tapes, Inc.
 
Joe Fonda – bass

THE KATIE BULL-JOE FONDA DUO

In the two years since she has begun recording, Katie Bull has proven herself to be "a force to be reckoned with in vocal jazz.” On her first two Corn Hill Indie albums, Conversations With The Jokers and Love Spook, Bull demonstrated a strong foundation in the music’s tradition, as well as the powerful will and desire to expand it, blending adventurous original material with her own uniquely personal interpretations of classics from the Great American Songbook. Now, on CUP OF JOE, NO BULL, she demonstrates the depth of her commitment to her artistic philosophy, baring her soul in an intimate musical conversation with bassist Joe Fonda, as she continues to combine her own compelling compositions with music from the standard jazz repertoire.

 
Katie Bull

Katie Bull is a jazz vocalist and multi-media performer living in New York City since birth. Outside of pianists, there are probably more female vocalists working in jazz then any other type of performer, but when counting the truly adventurous singers that list becomes amazingly short. With Katie Bull a new name can be added. She has sung with her divine mentors ­ her "jazz mothers" vocalist/composers Jay Clayton and Sheila Jordan, as well as pianist and composer Kirk Nurock, composer Julius Eastman, pianists Michael Jefry Stevens, Frank Kimbrough and Joshua Wolf, percussionists Lou Grassi, Matt Wilson, Harvey Sorgen, George Schuller and Jon Wikan; and bass players Joe Fonda, Martin Wind and Cameron Brown. Her premiere CD (Conversations with the Jokers, which features with Stevens, Grassi, and Fonda) was released in early 2003, followed by her second CD (Love Spook which features Wilson, Kimbrough, Wind, Stevens and Joe Fonda) recently released. Katie is also a writer, inter-arts performer, and founder of The Bull Family Orchestra, integrating dance, spoken text, and music. Capable of creating the kind of music that has real meaning in today's world, Katie has the courage to tackle the contradictions inherent in love and life and the talent that gives her the ability to sing old songs in new ways. A wisp of Ella Fitzgerald here, a hint of Sarah Vaughan there, a few drops of Jeanne Lee and even a smidgen of June Christy may come to mind, but Katie's sound is hers alone. Her influences of the great jazz tradition are evident, but more in providing a launching pad for her own singular explorations.

"Jazz vocalist Katie Bull just never lets you down with her insightful CD projects...She & the groups she puts together seem supreme......feelings range from positive tension, relaxation, expectancy, and fulfillment...fine treatment and vocalease...intimate interaction of folks and forces...a pleasurable musical journey... Bull's music bespeaks an undisguised delight of the emotions she is quite capable of arousing...an illuminating & exciting new approach in listening." George Carroll-The Musicians' Ombudsman

"...(a) prodigiously talented singer...Bull sings in a warm, smooth voice that will remind some of Sarah Vaughan and others, interestingly, of the young Chet Baker - at least until she starts to scat, at which point her rhythmic adventurousness and unusual syllabic choices make it clear that she is approaching this repertoire with an agenda all her own." ­AllMusicGuide

"...(a) unique delivery and style...immediately qualifies her for that deserving-of-more-recognition category...Bull's scatting tendencies develop naturally when lyrics and words just don't seem enough to get the point across. Her natural swinging ability and risk-taking make her a vocalist deserving a listen."
-AllAboutJazz-New York

"There's no question as to authenticity - one listen to the young vocalist and you1ll hear the wandering, giddy lyricism above rich, dark piano chords that make middle-age melodies youthful. She can scat, too..."
-Village Voice

"A great use of experimental voice work. Using her voice and phrasing as a free instrument alongside Joe Fonda's bass exploits one of the most inventive ideas that have come from the new wave of jazz vocalists...Bull will be a force to be reckoned with in vocal jazz."

-AllAboutJazz.com

 THIS ALBUM IS DEDICATED TO
THE MASTER ENGINEER, DAVID BAKER & HIS FAMILY

David Baker (1945–2004)

David put Joe and I in the same room to record, not in separate boxes.

He brought his divine ear into the intimacy. He put his golden fingers on the level-dials to channel the dynamics, a consummate player, capturing nuance. David recommended his long time collaborator Katsuhiko Naito for Mastering, and offered to stop by the mastering session briefly to advise me on the running-order. He stayed for seven hours.

We sat and listened, and there were chances for us to talk on breaks. Somehow, at one point, we were talking about death. I told him that I was less scared of death since my stepmother and father had died of cancer; their deaths—one beautiful, one brutal—had taught me about the transformative nature of the soul, like a birth of energy into the Invisible. He liked this and asked about the energy. I said I had witnessed a beautiful light, and imagined the vast connection of that light, ever present, always somewhere. He talked about the death of his parents when he was a child and how profoundly that had changed him. He said he could still feel their presence sometimes—their “light”.

Joe and I are honored to have been part of one of David’s last projects.

We miss him.

And yet, we can still feel him.

David Baker shines.

Joe Fonda Ensemble - Looking for the Lake (Alacra Records – 1979)
Creative Improvisers Orchestra – The Sky Cries The Blues (CIMF Records – 1982)
Fonda/Perrone/McCraven - Up From the Sky (Kaleidoscope Records – 1983)
Wada Leo Smith – Procession Of The Great Ancestry (Chief – 1983)
Joe Fonda/Steve McCRaven/Tony Purrone – Up From The Sky (Kaleidoscope – 1986)
Mark Whitecage & Liquid Time (Acoustics – 1990)
Mark Whitecage Quintet – Infinite Realities (Acoustics – 1990)
Anthony Braxton – Charlie Parker Project (Hat Art – 2 CD’s – 1993)
Anthony Braxton – Knitting Factory (Piano/Quartet) Vol. 1 (Leo Records – 2 CD’s - 1994)
Anthony Braxton – Knitting Factory (Piano/Quartet) Vol. 2 (Leo Records – 2 CD’s - 1994)
Anthony Braxton Piano Quartet – Standard Jazz Classics – Yoshi’s 1994 (Music & Arts - 4 CD’s – 1994)
Anthony Braxton – Small Ensemble Music (Weslyan) 1994 (Splasc(h) – 1994)
Anthony Braxton – Composition 173 (Black Saint – 1994)
Sweet Daddy Cool Breeze – Don’t Pass Me By (Kaleidoscope Records – 1994)
Vernon Frazer – Sex Queen of the Berlin Turnpike (LP Woodcrest - Brandon Evans w/ Hildegard Kleeb, Eric Rosenthal, André Vida & Fonda – Youth Quartet (Parallactic – 1994)
Fonda/Mareno/Hershfield  - What We’re Hearing (W.E.R.F. - 1995)
Duo Anthony Braxton/Joe Fonda - 10 compostions (Konnex - 1995)
Roland Dahinden Trios – Naima (Mode 62 – 1995)
Anthony Braxton – Four Compositions (Quartet) (Braxton House – 1995)
Anthony Braxton – Octet (New York) (Braxton House – 1995)
Anthony Braxton – Ensemble (New York) (Braxton House – 1995)
Anthony Braxton – Trillium R – Shala Fears For The Poor (Braxton House – 1996)
Anthony Braxton – Tentet(New York)/Composition 193 (Braxton House – 1996)
Anthony Braxton – Sextet (Istanbul) (Braxton House – 1996)
Fonda/Stevens Group – The Wish (Music & Arts – 1996)
Sweet Daddy Cool Breeze Live in France (Sweet Daddy – 1997)
Mark Whitecage’s Other Quartet – Consensual Tension (CIMP – 1997)
Fonda/Stevens Quintet – Parallel Lines (Music & Arts – 1997)
Fonda/Stevens Group – Live From Brugge (W.E.R.F. – 1997)
Roland Dahinden – Naima (Mode, 1997)
Braxton/Fonda/BufalinoRobertson//Dodd  - Joe Fonda and From the Source (Konnex  - 1998)
Fonda/Stevens Group – Evolution (Leo Records – 1998)
David Bindman Trio – Imaginings (CIMP – 1998)
The Walter Thompson Orchestra – The Colonel: Compositions and Sound Paintings (Nine Winds – 1998)
Joe Fonda Quintet – Full Circle Suite (CIMP – 1999)
Joe Fonda – When It’s Time (Jazz’halo – 1999)
Scott Miller - Bottoms Out (Cadence – 1999)
Kevin Norton Ensemble – Nots (Music & Arts - 1999)
Xu Feng Xia & Joe Fonda – Distance (Leo Lab – 1999)
Fonda/Mareno/Hershfield  - Step-in (W.E.R.F. - 2000)
Fonda/Stevens Group – Live At The Bunker (Leo Records – 2000)
Kevin Norton Ensemble – For Guy Debord (Barking Hoop – 2000)
The Bassoon in the Wild - Bassoon in Orbit (Vanderbilt – 2000)
The NUBand – Live At The Bop Shop/Rochester, NY (Clean Feed – 2001)
The Mosaic Sextet (GM Records – 2 CD’s – 2001)
Fonda/Stevens/Sorgen/Metzger - … At Any Other Time ( ? – 2001)
Jimmy Williams – When The Lost Becomes Found (Kali – 2001)
Bobby Naughton – Zoar (Otic, 2001)
Tyrone Henderson – Not So Unusual Blues (Konnex, 2001)
Conference Call – Final Answer (Soul Note – 2001) with Matt Wilson
Fonda/Stevens Group – The Healing (Leo Records – 2002)
Various – When The Lost Becomes Found (Kali – 2002)
Joe Fonda & Gilbert Isbin – Blisters (Jazz’halo – 2002)
The Glass House Ensemble – Infinite Realities (Acoustics – 2002)
Conference Call – Variations On A Masterplan (Leo Records – 2003)
FAB – Transforming The Space (CIMP – 2003)
Michael Musillami/Joe Fonda/George Schuller – Beijing (Playscape Records – 2003)
Katie Bull – Conversations With The Joker (Corn Hill – 2003)
Fonda/McPhee/White/Karetnick – Heat Suite (Konnex Records – 2003)
Conference Call - Spirals: The Berlin Concert (482 Music - 2004)
The Fonda-Stevens Band – Forever Real (482 Music - 2004)
The Fonda-Stevens Band – 12 Improvisations (Leo – 2004)
Katie Bull – Love Spook (Corn Hill – 2004)
The NU Band – Live (Konnex – 2005)
Michael Musillami/Joe Fonda/George Schuller w/ Peter Madsen, Tom Christensen &v Dave Ballou – Dachau (Playscape Records – 2005)
FAB – Live At The Iron Works, Vancouver (Konnex, 2005)
Conference Call – Live At The Outpost (482 Music, 2006)
Joe Fonda – Loaded Basses (CIMP, 2006)
Tyrone Henderson – No Comment (Atonal, 1997)
Fonda/Metzger/Stevens/Sorgen – At Any Other Time (self produced, 2001)
Anthony Braxton - Ninetet (Yoshi’s)1997, vol. 1 (Leo Records, double CD, 2002)
Bassoon In The Wild Quartet – Ocean Eyes (self produced, 2003)
Anthony Braxton - Ninetet (Yoshi’s)1997, vol. 2 (Leo Records, double CD, 2003)
Brenda Bufalino – Dancing My Dance (In Another Person’s Dream) (Woodpecker, 2003)
Carole Mennie – I’m Not A Sometime Thing (CDM, 2004)
Anthony Braxton - Ninetet (Yoshi’s)1997, vol. 3 (Leo Records, double CD, 2005)
Katie Bull/Joe Fonda – Cup Of Joe, No Bull (Corn Hill, 2005)
Julien Petit Quartet – Here We Are (Julien Petit, 2005)
The Fonda/Stevens Group - Live at Alte Paketpost (FSG Productions, 2005)
FAB – Live At The Iron Works, Vancouver (Konnex, 2005)
Volcano – Gamzelim (self produced, 2006)
Angelini/Fonda/Lopez – Silent Cascade (Konnex, 2006)
Conference Call – Live At The Outpost (482 Music, 2006)
Joe Fonda – Loaded Basses (CIMP, 2006)
Fonda/Stevens Group – Trio (Not Two, 2007)
Zubot/Fonda/Martin ZFM – Circle Of Path (Drip Audio, 2007)
Michael Musillami Trio w/ Mark Feldman – The Treatment (Playscape CD & DVD, 2007

Listen to recent Joe Fonda CDs like Full Circle Suite (CIMP), Bottoms Out (Cadence) and Evolution (Leo) with pianist Michael Jeffrey Stevens, and you may wonder why he doesn't allow himself more solo room, in view of his being among the finest bassists to emerge in the 1990s.

But Fonda admits, "The ensemble sound is more important to me than soloing." On his latest release, When It's Time (Jazz Halo), though, Fonda has to solo, as he is the only performer, done without overdubbing. He is justifiably proud of the recording.
Fonda's a fine technician, but doesn't generally show off his chops, playing economically and percussively, often in the lower register and utilizing double stops. On When It's Time, however, he has to open up. "The eight pieces on the solo CD are compositions ad concepts I've been developing for the last decade. The way I approached the solo recording was to bring the same kind of concentration, focus and energy to it that my ensemble music has; you still feel the ensemble there even though I am the only performer. Some of my compositions are based on melodic themes, others on rhythmic figures, and other on textures and timbres"
An Amsterdam, NY, native, Fonda started playing jazz with his father, Richard, a trumpeter. Among his important early gigs was one with Leo Smith with whom he worked in the mid-80's. "Leo is an unsung hero. He helped shape my musical vision." Fonda has also worked and recorded often with Anthony Braxton.
The Fonda-Stevens ensemble includes trumpeters herb Robertson or Paul Smoker an drummer Harvey Sorgen. It's been together eight years and, "has developed a unique and powerful synergy," Fonda says. In the future, Fonda also wants to work with a variety of artists, even non-musicians. he has projects going with tap dance Brenda Bufalino and Chinese guzheng (a stringed instrument) player Xu Feng Xia. He wants to continue "developing a body of work that reflects pluralistic thinking and inclusion of various types of people."
2000 © JazzTimes
 

Joe Fonda: A Country Boy’s Philososphy of Inclusion
By Charles Hutchinson (Jazz Now November 1998)
 
If there’s one thing that Joe Fonda’s emphatic about, it’s the philosophy of inclusion. "We live in a time of evolution," says the bassist-composer-bandleader. "We’ve got the Lincoln Center people who are saying this is the music and the rest of the continuum isn’t. There’s too much of that. I’ve always been attracted to the whole continuum. For me there’s no separation between Bill Evans and Cecil Taylor or Sun Ra and Charlie Parker."
Fonda’s expansive vision extends beyond the boundaries of Jazz, even music — at least as many of us know it. As an example, take a look at one of his recent projects, a CD called From the Source (Konnex). Here within an ensemble that includes Anthony Braxton and Herb Robertson are two participants one doesn’t expect to find in a recording studio. One of them is tap dancer Brenda Bufalino. Writes Fonda in the recording’s liner notes, "during this session we bridged the gap that exists between the dance world and the music world by making [Bufalino] an equal part of our ensemble. She was incorporated into the collective group for her sounds, her rhythms, her tones, her time, and her music — not for her visual presence which historically has so often been the reason for bringing musicians and dancers together. Here we come together as equals. No one is, per se, the accompanist for someone else, or some small twenty-minute addition to the show in order to bring some variety to the program."
Just as audacious is the participation of Vickie Dodd, a body-healer by trade who speaks in tongues. Fonda comments: "I had visited Vickie a year or so ago prior to this session because I heard of her work, and my body was hurting. The work she did on me that day was incredible, but the music that came from this woman’s voice while she was working on me was like nothing I had ever heard before. It was so cosmic, so powerful, that I never forgot it." Dodd’s presence, argues Fonda, helps to forge a connection on the album "between the healing arts and the performing arts. [They] belong together as they were in the past. When they are joined together you truly have a tool that can be used for transformation."
He’s also proud of the fact "that we had both men and women come together to create this music. So often it’s been the boys with the boys and the girls with the girls. It’s so clear to me [that in the music here] there’s both male and female reality to it."
All of which is a pretty hefty load to lay on the music, but From the Source is a consistently surprising and engaging document, the sound of six performers creating a one-of-a-kind dialogue. And it hardly represents the limits of Fonda’s vision. Back in the eighties, "before the grant money dried up," he once formed a group with five musicians, a painter, a sculptor, a dancer, and a chef — all cooking, all dancing, all playing on stage!
Fonda is probably best known for his work with Anthony Braxton, an association that dates back to 1993. Since then, he’s been involved in just about every facet of the auteur’s music, from the large-scale opera and theater works right down to the intimate duo recording Ten Compositions 1995 (Konnex). Braxton has been a signal inspiration for Fonda. "His music is incredible, full of life and forward motion, and the purpose and intent is even greater." Quizzed about an upcoming Braxton concert this fall, Fonda thought it would be a gig for the ten-to-twelve piece "Ghost Trance" band, but admitted that "with Anthony, you never know, because he might have some new ideas and want to do something completely different. With Anthony, I leave myself open."
I’m just a country boy who gravitated to the city," is the sly way the forty-three-year-old bassist describes himself. He grew up in the middle of upstate New York’s dairy country in a town called Amsterdam. His mother and father had once been professional musicians (vocals and trumpet, respectively) for bands in the Midwest, but gave it up when they moved east. So Fonda’s musical development took a more familiar route. "Like most children of the sixties," he says, "I played the guitar." Banging it out in the garage bands of the period, he eventually took up the electric bass because no one else wanted to play it. His introduction to Jazz came on his eighteenth birthday when someone gave him albums by Weather Report and Freddie Hubbard. These were fresh sounds to Fonda and he was soon hooked. By his twenties, he was woodshedding on an upright bass with a housemate named Steve McCraven, a drummer now affiliated with Archie Shepp. "Sometimes we’d play time all day. I can still hear this man’s groove in my head."
The country boy didn’t actually make it to New York City until well after he had established himself as a professional musician. One reason for the delay had to do with the unusually rich climate for Jazz around New Haven, Connecticut, in the early to mideighties. Fonda played with Bill and Kenny Barron, Bobby Naughton, and Teddy Charles and was a musical instructor at Jackie and Dolly McLean’s Hartford Artists Collective, a community center for the town’s underprivileged youths.
But his key association in those years was with trumpeter-composer Leo Smith and his Creative Musicians Improvisers Forum. Smith "is one of our unsung heroes," says Fonda, "a true innovator. Leo made you play things that were not the norm for a bassist." To this day Fonda is especially proud of his participation with Smith’s 1984 recording Procession of the Great Ancestry (Chief). Talking about his two mentors, Fonda points out that "Leo and Anthony were buddied up in the sixties. Their concepts and their ways of thinking are really similar. Leo always has a world vision of the music. Anthony is the same way." And judging by the lifework of their key disciple, the lesson clearly hasn’t been lost on Joe Fonda.
 
1998 © JazzNow

JOE FONDA INTERVIEW
Taken and transcribed by Robert Spencer
 
When and where were you born?
Amsterdam, New York, 12/16/54. Amsterdam, New York, is between Albany and Utica. Upstate New York, Mohawk Valley region.
 
Was your family musical?
Actually, I had a very talented father and a very talented mother. My father was a trumpet player, a very good trumpet player, and my mother was a singer, and it just so happens that they fell in love on the bandstand! They were in the same band, it was during the World War II, and it was a swing band called the Joe Sanders Orchestra. They met on the bandstand, stayed in the band for a few years, and then I think my mother got pregnant, and they decided that it was time to get off the road. They moved to upstate New York, where my father was from — he was from Cherry Valley, so they moved up there. Yeah, my father and mother were both very musical people.
 
So what kind of music did you hear growing up?
Well, you know, it’s interesting. I was into the usual stuff of that age, the Allman Brothers, you know, Led Zeppelin and Jethro Tull and Jeff Beck, blah blah blah. But my parents still at that point were playing some Billie Holiday and those records, but we were so hard on them as kids! My mother used to go around singing these beautiful tunes. I still remember her singing [sings], “There Will Never Be Another You.” She’d go around the house, but we would say, “Ma! Shut up! I can’t stand it!” And we were on her case so much, she eventually stopped singing. Isn’t that awful? You know, there she was, giving me my early musical education, and I was shutting it down, being a young child, not knowing the value of that. And my kids do the same thing to me today, and I tell ‘em, “Forget it. You ain’t stopping me from singing or playing in this house, ‘cause I did it to my parents.”
 
Are you singing, like, Trillium R [Anthony Braxton’s opera]?
[Laughs] I’ll be singing Trillium R, or “Stella by Starlight.” So my advice to all the people who got kids: don’t let ‘em stop you. Yeah, my parents were very musical.
 
So when you were growing up, what was the first music you heard that really made you sit up and think, “This is what I’m going to do!”?
This is a good question. You mean, in terms of moving into the creative music, or jazz, or just in general?
 
Anything.
During the pop period, I can’t think of one thing, but then after that, when I was ready to move out of that scene, after high school, I think it was — I heard Gary Burton.
 
Was that what made you want to move out of that scene, and think there’s more to life than pop music?
That’s a good question! You know what it was? At this point I can say that my destiny wasn’t — there was a seed that was planted maybe long before I even got here. There are certain people on the planet that are meant to pursue creative activity. And even if they’re not channeled in that way, as a child, sooner or later they’re gonna bust out and follow that creative impulse.
 
There’s a trigger, isn’t there? I mean, I remember distinctly the time I first heard jazz.
For me, I’d say it wasn’t just hearing one thing, it was more of a gradual transformation. There were different triggers at different points. There wasn’t just one particular one. But it could happen either way. You also, like myself, are meant to pursue or be involved in something that has to do with creative activity, and something much more powerful and positive for the planet. That’s why we left the so-called pop scene that we were spoon-fed as children.   
 
All right. So when did you get an instrument?
By the time I was ten, I had a guitar, or a bass, I think. I had started taking lessons, so I had an instrument at an early age, I don’t know. Eight, nine, or ten. Even as a child I knew that music was what I was going to do. I always knew it. I didn’t know I’d end up here, involved with this particular aspect of the music then, but I understand why I’m here now.
 
Why?
[Laughs] Why am I here now? Getting back to that point: there are certain people on the planet that are meant to be involved with creative activity — or activity that has a higher purpose than the so-called spoon-fed pop scene. I mean, I came up with a lot of people that stayed in that scene. Some of them are still there, and some of them are washing dishes or working in a factory now. But that wasn’t something I was meant to do. I was meant to be involved in the kind of activity I’m involved in now. So that’s why — I guess I had that inside me strong enough to follow that path. And I’ve never, never, never stepped off the path. It’s always been straight ahead. All through the years, you know?
 
It seems as if it takes a lot of twists and turns.
It does! Like, my way back to the blues. That was a twist. That was like a reversal in a certain way that enriched my whole musical life, but it was like going backwards because I sort of came from something that was rooted in that. Actually all the music is connected to that. So yes: it does take twists and turns. But it’s still — you’re still focused on moving straight ahead and doing something that has purpose.
 
What did you think of that review of one of your records in Cadence? I think it was Parallel Lines. The reviewer quoted you from the liner notes: “My hope is that this music will contribute to the change that is happening on this planet.” Then he basically said, “Come on. How is one record going to change the planet?” Did you see that?
No! I’m glad I didn’t! I might have called him up!
 
You didn’t see that?
No.
 
What do you think of it? What do you think you’re doing, when you’re playing music, that will really make a difference for the planet? And what kind of a difference does it make?
Well, you know, the man may be right in a certain way. It may not have some major impact, but it’s like every little piece of the puzzle plays its part. And it’s not strictly idealism, I mean, in order to stay on this path and stay involved in this music. Because it’s not about, it’s never about money. Most of us struggle our entire lives to meet our financial needs. But I believe that most of us understand that it is powerful and purposeful. And whatever creative stuff we put out there — recordings, music — it will have some impact if it just touches one person. It helps keep the continuum alive! To keep this kind of activity alive, I mean, that in itself is a large contribution. We don’t try to change the whole planet, but it will make a contribution that keeps creative thinking and creative activity alive. And the world — the universe — needs this. So you can send this to that man. We’re not gonna save the world, if that’s what he’s thinking, but there’s an undercurrent of positive stuff that will result from every one of us who continues on this sort of path with this music, I believe.
 
All right. Let’s get back to the beginning of the path. You started on guitar at age ten.
Yeah, around ten. And they needed a bass player in the band. They didn’t have a bass player, so I said, “OK, I’ll take the job.” So I took my forty bucks and went down to Montgomery Ward’s, and got myself a little electric bass, and started being the bass player in the band. Best move I ever made. So I played electric bass all through high school, and even into my first year of college. I didn’t start playing upright until the second year of college. Actually, I left college. I was in Berklee. I went to college for two years. I learned a lot of stuff there, but it was time to move on —
 
When were you at Berklee?
’73 to ’74 and ’74 to ’75. But I left, ‘cause it wasn’t a place I could stay in, you know? And then I started playing upright, after I left Berklee. And I think it was primarily that I was moving out of — during college I guess I moved into a fusion thing. Weather Report, and that Chick Corea fusion thing with Return to Forever, and, you know, Chuck Mangione, this kind of stuff. Then all of a sudden Ornette Coleman popped into the picture, and Charlie Parker, Cecil Taylor, and Anthony Braxton.
 
How did they pop in? Where did you hear these guys?
Actually, some people I was living with were already into this, so the records were in the house. So I remember the first time I put on the Double Quartet record [Ornette Coleman’s Free Jazz], it blew my mind. It took me — it was so new for me, it took, I don’t know, at least a half a dozen listenings or more to start to get it, you know? That was sort of a trigger point, you might say! That might have been an early record that triggered something: Ornette’s Double Quartet record. Yes! That was a trigger point. When I put that record on, something stirred me deeply, and it shook me up. And I pursued trying to find some way of understanding what was going on there. And then —  that was like ’74. That was around the time I started really checking out the upright bass.
 
Because of that record?
Because of the music, I think, partly. I think the people I was playing with, also were trying to move in that direction. So the bass — acoustic bass — fit in. And it’s interesting how, actually, I let the electric bass go completely. I didn’t come back to the electric bass until ten years later.
 
So you heard the Double Quartet, and started playing the upright bass. Where did that lead you?
It led me through the continuum. I started to go back. I remember, I found my way to the public library. I got all my Sonny Rollins records I could find, I got all my Thelonious Monk, and I started to go through the music. And at the same time as I was backtracking through the history, the Seventies also was a real fruitful time for the creative music, for the new music. Anthony was popping on the scene, Oliver Lake, Julius Hemphill. Sam Rivers had the loft scene in New York. There was that thing in the air, so I was checking out the past and the present at the same time, which really was stimulating. So that also just took me deep into the tradition of the music. I just went in, head first into the jazz thing. Went back, and got into the new movement. And I needed the upright bass to be a part of that. ‘Cause that’s what was happening in that music.
 
Then you made your first record in ’76.
Yeah, and it’s a nice record. I still like it to this day. That was a record called Looking for the Lake.
 
Oliver Lake?
You know, I was a little nervous that folks would think that’s what it was about, but it wasn’t! As a matter of fact, I’m still looking for that lake! [laughs] That I was looking for back in ’76, just so everybody knows. I may have a record come out soon called Still Looking for the Lake! That was one of my early groups. That was with Claire Arenius on drums. She’s a great drummer who I still play with to this day and who I still study with. Claire’s become somebody who I actually study bass with. She’s an incredible musician who hears bass playing on a high level. She should have been a bass player! But she plays drums like a bass player, and I’ve learned so much from her, and periodically I get together with her for some bass lessons. Conceptual stuff. She’s an amazing person in the sense of how she hears bass. And Clifford White played saxophone, and Tim Moran played saxophone. It was a quartet. It was my early group dealing with my own musical ideas. I wanted to be a part of the New Thing as well as be connected to the tradition, so I was reaching out. I was always writing my own tunes. I put a band together to play them, and we were doing gigs around Northampton and that area, where we were living, and we did this recording. There are ideas on that record that I still hear me still utilizing to this day. So even at that age I was ready to do my own thing.
 
Are you still in touch with those other players?
Yeah, Clifford, he’s still playing saxophone and he’s a repairman. And by the way, he’s become Anthony Braxton’s personal repairman. He just finished Braxton’s contrabass saxophone! It’s been in the shop for a couple of years. Clifford also does stuff with the Latin scene in Springfield and that area. Timmy is also an instrument repairman and lives in New Haven and plays around. But the one person who I still play with is Claire. And still study with. I have a good relationship with her that I think will last through this lifetime, and probably on into other lifetimes.
 
You gonna keep playing bass?
Yeah, I don’t see me leaving the bass for anything else.
 
Even in other lifetimes?
That’s a good question! Let me think about that! [Laughs] That’s a hard one to answer! At this point, the bass is such a challenge, I think I would need another lifetime or two to actually do what I want to do on it. So if you meet in the next time around, I may still be playing the bass! Quite possibly we’ll have a band together! In this life, and the next life!
 
By the next lifetime I’ll be ready!
Yeah, you’ll be a Sonny Rollins by that time. And I’ll be an Oscar Pettiford! I like that! Sonny meets Oscar!
 
All right. Where did you go from Looking for the Lake?
Then I was doing gigs around Connecticut and stuff, playing the tradition. The second record that came out was a — I don’t know how many years later — a record with Tony Perrone and Steve McCraven. It was when LP’s were still happening. I started playing with another great drummer that I’d gone to school with, Steve McCraven, who’s another person that’s had a strong influence on me. You know, drummers and I — a lot of my musical associates have become drummers. It’s interesting — I’ve gravitated towards the drummers, and developed my relationship with the drummers, more so than with piano players, saxophone players, or any other instrument. I have more drummers that are buddies and musical companions. Steve is one of them, who I met in college and who I’ve played with through the years, and he’s been a great influence. His groove and sense of time will be a part of me forever. Claire’s another one. Kenny Johnson, who I studied the blues with, and then there’s people I play with now like Harvey Sorgen, Grisha Alexiev, Kevin Norton. I mean, I’m a drummer’s bass player. I belong with the drummers. It may have to do with the fact that I’m so rhythmical in my approach, and thinking. I’m sure that’s what it is. With Steve, we used to get together and just play time. For hours! Just the two of us! Man, we’d stay in the room for two hours. We just played groove after groove. We were young! We had the time to do that. And I’m grateful to have the drummer thing inside me. For me the part of the music that affects me the most — one of the elements is the physical aspect of the music. I like it when it’s a body music. And the drummers give you that, you know? They put it in your body. Even the ones that play light. So I’ll take the drummers! Give me the drummers! So yeah, there was a record, soon after Looking for the Lake. It was called Up from the Sky, and it was with Tony Perrone and Steve McCraven.
 
What did Tony Perrone play?
Guitar. And also during that period — this was also when I started hanging out with an organization in Connecticut that Leo Smith and Bobby Naughton started called the Creative Musicians Improvisers Forum. They were a great organization. They did a lot of stuff in Connecticut. A lot of great stuff.
 
How’d you get involved with them?
They were putting out flyers in the community, saying, “Looking for people.” I knew of Bobby, I knew of Leo, so I just went down and said I’d like to be a part of it, and started hanging out and became a part of the organization.
 
So you had a long association with Leo Smith.
With Leo and Bobby. As a matter of fact, I should mention that Leo, to this day he’s been a great influence. For me, and for a lot of people. For myself, his musical concepts and ideas, his sense of things will be a part of me forever. I am so grateful for the time I had with Leo! In my opinion, he’s one of our unsung heroes. Nobody played trumpet like Leo. Nobody plays trumpet like Leo. Nobody’s music was like Leo’s. I’m really grateful for the time I spent with him. And there’s a record I did during that period, and it’s still one of my favorites, called Procession of the Great Ancestry. It came out on Chief Records. It was with Bobby Naughton, Kahlil El Zabar, Leo Smith and myself. And Leo had written these pieces dedicated to trumpet players. And actually, what I was doing was going to Leo’s house and studying these pieces with him, because he knew he was going to record them. I wasn’t supposed to do the record — it was an accident. But I learned these pieces, and I went to Chicago on a trip with him. I said, “Ah, they’re going out, I’ll hang out, I’ll learn something.” Malachi Favors was supposed to do it. So Malachi came into the first rehearsal, something wasn’t right, and he just split. He didn’t want anything to do with it. So Leo looked at me and said, “You got it, Fonda.” So man, I jumped right in. And I was ready! ‘Cause I had been studying this stuff for months! And it was difficult. Really difficult! He wrote stuff for a bass player that bass players would never play. And I still do things on my bass that came from Leo. These kind of harmonics, and intervals in places that you would never, never learn if it was a bass player or somebody that thought about what’s easy for a bass player. Leo didn’t think about that. He heard this music and wrote it, and you had to figure out how to deal with it. And I learned so much. He changed my bass playing! So I’m really grateful for that association. And Bobby Naughton, too, was another one that I played with during that period that I learned a lot from. And the Creative Musicians Improvisers Forum had a nice period, where they did a lot of great music. We had a nice string quartet concert with Anthony Braxton, Leo Smith, Muhal Richard Abrams, and Akeem Chambers. This had never happened; we sponsored this. Someplace in Hartford. And we had some nice concerts where we invited — we had some orchestra concerts in that period. They were with Braxton, and Muhal brought pieces. Carla Bley brought a piece. Slide Hampton. So it was a fruitful time for a few years. And there is a great recording that was a documentation of that activity. I wish it was rereleased. It was called — we put it out on our own label, on the CMIF label — it was called The Sky Cries the Blues. Leo’s title.
 
What year was that?
Boy, you got me. Let’s see. I want to say mid-Eighties somewhere. It was an orchestra! It was the Creative Musicians Improvisers Orchestra. Leo wrote a piece, Bobby Naughton wrote a piece, and Gerry Hemingway wrote a piece. Some beautiful music. It was still during the LP period, just before CD’s came out. Wonderful music. Somebody could put that out on CD. So from there — that’s when I started to come to New York, after CMIF was over.
 
You had moved to Connecticut from Northampton in the early Eighties?
Yeah, early Eighties.
 
And Leo was in Connecticut.
Yeah, New Haven. It was a nice scene there for a long time. There was them, Mark Helias, George Lewis. A lot of great people went through New Haven, and Leo was a catalyst. Michael Gregory Jackson. Leo made something happen. Then that kind of came to a close, and that’s when I started coming to New York. ’87 maybe.
 
Before that, I wanted to ask you about the Sonomama Dance Company, that you played bass and danced with from 1982 to 1985.
Sonomama? Oh, that was interesting.
 
It’s been a part of your music all the way through — this connection of music and dance. Like From the Source.
Yeah, you know, actually one of the first interviews I did was with a guy in Belgium who looked through my stuff and said, “You know, Joe, there’s a thread here.” He said, “Man, you’ve been involved with interdisciplinary activity from way back.” You know, I hadn’t thought about it. I was just doing it, ‘cause it was natural for me. But it’s really true. I’ve been involved with dancers and — I’d also been taking tap dance lessons, way back around then. For some reason I was interested in tap dancing.
 
You were dancing.
I was taking tap dancing lessons then! Back at Jackie McLean’s school. Jackie McLean had an artist’s collective in Hartford. I remember going by and watching all these young girls dancing. I said, “Man, I want to check that out!” For some reason. So I asked the teacher if I could come in. I got my shoes and she let me do that. And then with Sonomama, I was a musician, but they also at one point let the musicians start to dance. It was an improvisational dance company, and it was really interesting, where I could start to leave my little spot on the stage where the music came from and move to the dance floor and create something! I really dug it. And soon after that I formed a group for a couple of years where I had some dancers from Sonomama. I had a dancer, a painter, a sculptor, an actor, a cook, and five musicians, all in the same band. And we would do concerts in the summer around Connecticut. Everything would happen simultaneously. I’d have an hour and a half with non stop music, and the guy was cooking, and the guy was painting, and the sculptor was sculpting, and the dancer was dancing, and sometimes they’d intertwine. Sometimes I’d put my bass down and go over to the kitchen and cook — I mean, I dug this! It was like, a wonderful place for me to do the things I wanted to do. I could go and paint if I needed to, and sometimes the painter would come over and start painting the musicians, and we had a great audience. We fed them at the end! It was beautiful. I did that for two years.
 
What did the man cook?
He had vegetables, and he had — we had a kitchen for him, and he was making some stir-fried sort of things, and throwing — you know, he was a very visual chef, so he’d be throwing his stuff up in the air, and we had a mirror so the people could see what was happening. And he would be trying to connect to the creative — to the music, and doing things in time or out of time. So we were trying to show there was a connection, I guess. This was very early! But the point is that there’s a thread in the way I’ve been thinking, non stop. Interdisciplinary activity is something I’ve always been interested in, and still am to this day.
 
Because that’s a lot like From the Source.
It’s coming from the same place. So for one of my latest projects I got a tap dancer, a body healer, and musicians. So it’s all interconnected. And I still believe this is the direction I want to go in and that we need to mix things still more. In my opinion there’s still too much isolation. I think some of the most fruitful stuff is when you mix the blood. Even with the people on the planet. The most beautiful, intelligent people are where the blood’s been mixed. You need to mix the blood on the planet! Then you get this incredible new intelligence, and beautiful people. I’m into mixing the blood. No matter where it is, you know? So that’s really part of who I am. I’m an interdisciplinarian. I’m looking forward to what it is I might come up with next, that’ll be in that vein. I’m actually waiting and looking for the next step.
 
Let’s talk about your return to the blues, which would be ’84?
Maybe even ’85 or ’86, when I started playing the blues again. I totally let the electric bass go to pursue the upright.
 
What made you want, after ten years of playing improvised music, to go back to playing the blues and the electric bass?
This gets back to your trigger. There was a trigger! I’ll never forget it. I walked into a record store, and they were playing Robert Cray’s new record. It was one of his early ones. And the music just grabbed me, and I asked the guy, “What is that?” He said, “Man, it’s Robert Cray.” And I said, “Man, it’s time for me to get back into this music.” It was a trigger. And from then on — that day, I knew I wanted to get back to the blues somehow. So I had some friends I knew were into the music, I made some calls, I said, “Man, are you playing this music? I want to play it with you.” Some folks had told me about a jam session — not a jam session, a Monday night blues session that was happening in Northampton at — the place was called Theodore’s. In Northampton, Massachusetts. There was a drummer named Kenny Johnson. He was doing a Monday night thing with a band and I had been playing some blues and getting my electric bass going for maybe a few weeks, and I went up. I really didn’t have it together yet, but I went up and I sat in, and Kenny, somehow Kenny heard something he liked, and he let me join the band. So I played every Monday night for two years in this club with Kenny and these guys, trying to get it together. And it took me two years, really! It took me two years to really get that stuff inside me where I thought I was playing it, and to get the feeling of the electric bass back. I used to tape every gig. I didn’t miss a night. I’d tape it and go home, like I did with my jazz studies also. I’d go home and I’d listen and I’d say, “Man, it just ain’t it.” And I’d go back the next week and try to adjust, and it wasn’t until two years that I finally heard. One night I played the tape and I said, “Man! I’m starting to get it!” The groove was there, the relationship between me and the drums was coming together, and that’s when the seed, once I got it, the blues seed was planted so deep that I’ll never be able to live without the blues again. There’s something so deep and special in that music, and the groove, the shuffle — I learned how to play the shuffle in a way that’s like, really special. So that’s sort of how that transpired.
 
And now you have Sweet Daddy Cool Breeze.
Yeah, Sweet Daddy was a shoot-off from the Kenny Johnson thing. It’s become a great blues band. We still play to this day. Right now they’re my connection to the blues. They’re the one group I have that’s active that I’m playing with. Wally [Greaney]’s a great harp player. It’s an ongoing blues project, and I’m glad to have it. I’m going to keep playing with Sweet Daddy until B. B. King gives me a call! When B. B. calls, then I’ll let Sweet Daddy go! [Laughs]
 
When B. B. calls, you should take, like, Composition 193, and say, “Let’s play this.”
I got a feeling B. B. would really dig it! I tell you, I got some Howlin’ Wolf records that remind me of that particular composition. I can hear the blues in Anthony’s music.   And I can hear Anthony in the blues! You know, I can hear it. There’s a really organic connection. This Howlin’ Wolf stuff, man, it’s unbelievable. Man, it’s so out! So out!
 
Could you play the electric bass, and more blues-oriented things, in the context of the more “outside” music you play?
Yeah! That’s happening! I think the Fonda-Stevens Group is a good outlet for this. If you listen close, I bring all my stuff in there. That’s a group that will do anything. On the last tour I brought a piece in that was a vocal piece. I’ve always been into folk music. You know, James Taylor, Cat Stevens, they’re some of my favorites. That kind of guitar-picking folk music is in me. So I came up with something in that vein. This piece was right out of that. And everybody had to sing. And these cats, these guys were down! It’ll be on the next CD. It’s called, “Oh Lord, It’s Nice to Sit on Your Porch Today.” And man, I said, “Can you sing?” I was a little nervous. But I knew this was part of me! And they said they were in! So the Fonda-Stevens Group is good for that. I can bring all of my stuff to them. And I also want to do that with all my other projects. This group works really well for that, ‘cause they’re wide open, they’re not stuck in some fixed system. And that’s something we need to continue to do: always bring everything in, and see what you can do to make it new, you know? Some new way of playing the blues. Actually, on From the Source, there is a place where I brought the blues right in there. It was on the piece called “High Tech #1,” which is a Mark Whitecage piece. At the very end of that I wrote a vamp for Brenda [Bufalino] to dance over. It’s a shuffle, and the stuff that’s coming from the horns comes right out of the blues. I was a little nervous at first about doing it, but I had Anthony and Herb [Robertson] do it, and they were really cool, and it’s really coming right from my blues background and understanding. So I did it then and I’m going to continue to do it.
 
So not long after you returned to the electric bass, you moved to New York. In the late Eighties. Is that when the Fonda-Stevens Group got started?
Well, it’s funny. Michael Stevens was one of the first people I met when I came to New York. Him and I started a band called the Mosaic Sextet, around that time, with Mark Feldman and Dave Douglas and Harvey Sorgen, and Mike Rabinowitz on bassoon. It was a very interesting band. That lasted for a few years, but Michael and I have stayed in touch and done projects non stop. Now we do the Fonda-Stevens Group, which is doing quite well. And Michael’s a great person to have as a friend, and as a — I mean, I wouldn’t want to work with too many people in a partnership on co-running a band. But with Michael, it’s possible. It takes a certain kind of willingness to give and bend to co-run a band. So I’m really grateful I ran into Michael when I got here. And Mark Whitecage was another one of the first people.
 
I understand he’s left the group?
Mark has left the band to do his own thing, and he’s doing quite well. We’re gonna miss him, but he made some great contributions during that period. I started playing with Mark when I first came to New York, and I also learned a lot from playing with Mark. Mark was a teacher in a lot of ways.
 
You all have a similar vision: you all play well both “inside” and “outside.”
Yeah, I think there’s a similarity. I think all of us approach the entire continuum of the music. Some cats pick a particular area of the continuum and say, “Okay, this is what I want to do.” Michael and I both have a strong connection to the tradition — a relationship with it! As well as with what’s going on now. That’s an interesting point. And Herb is the same way. So is Harvey Sorgen. That’s another reason that group works. ‘Cause everybody’s approach is the same. And we have similar relationships. It’s quite complete in terms of the continuum. Everybody knows all of the stuff and utilizes all of that in the vocabulary of the music.
 
Do you have any plans to replace Mark Whitecage at this point?
No, we’re going to leave it as a quartet. It’ll be easier for the business at this time to do it as a quartet, and it’ll change the music up for awhile. So when it’s time we’ll be back as a quintet, I’m sure.
 
There aren’t that many trumpet quartets.
No, that’s an interesting thing, too. Well, we did one tour so far, as a quartet, and we liked it. We weren’t sure, we said, “Ah, let’s go in there,” just like Braxton says, “Let’s roll the dice,” and see what happens, you know?
 
Not only the Fonda-Stevens Group, but a lot of the people you’ve played with — Braxton, Archie Shepp, Ken McIntyre — they all straddle the divide.
So it makes sense I would be there ‘cause I straddle the divide too. That’s where I belong: with those who straddle the divide.
 
How did you meet Anthony Braxton?
I’d met him years ago with Leo, when we had done some things with him, but we didn’t make a strong connection until he came to Wesleyan. I was still hanging in Middletown because of my family. So one day I was with Bobby Naughton and Mario Pavone, and we were in a restaurant, and Braxton came in. One of those little diners. And we all sat down, and we were talking, hanging out, and he had remembered I sent him a record. I think I had sent him Looking for the Lake, and he had remembered, and he said, “Man, let’s get together sometime.” So I said, “Yeah, sure. I’ll do that.” So I think I took his number, and I called him up, and he was starting to play piano. Getting into his piano. He said, “Come on over.” So I went over to his office, we played duo. Piano and bass. And we hit it off right away. So that was the beginning. A week later I went to Europe with the Fonda-Stevens Group and he had called my wife, called my house, and he wanted me to do this Charlie Parker Project with him. I was honored. Flabbergasted. So I called him up right away and said, “Yeah, I’m in.” So that’s when the relationship started to really come together. It was during the Charlie Parker Project. That was a great project he asked me to do. I learned so much!
 
What did you learn?
The Charlie Parker music — Anthony made it open up. I had never experienced  opening up the standard repertoire quite that way. So what I learned was something about his concept. I’ve always listened to his music and studied it, but being right in it was like another vision. I saw deeper into it, because he put me right in his world. And so things happened inside the music that would only happen if it was Anthony Braxton. It was his concept, his power, that made things evolve the way they did. So what I learned was something to do with the way he opens things up. The way they evolve, and they way they breathe. I had learned something about that particular thing of his, that he brings to the music. I mean, that opened me up. I’d played music, we’d opened up the standards, but they opened up in a Braxton way.
 
How does he approach these songs? Does he play changes?
Yes, he plays changes! He don’t play them like Charlie Parker played them. He plays them like Anthony Braxton plays them. His sense of form is unbelievable. And that lesson was ongoing, through my relationship with Anthony. Each time I was with him on the bandstand, I could have a deeper insight into how he organizes music, and how it evolves. It’s his personal thing. A priceless lesson! All the Piano Quartet records, from the Knitting Factory — without Anthony playing piano, the music would never sound that way. That’s him, and his concept, that made it evolve and open up the way it does. So that’s what I was learning during the Charlie Parker Project, through all the Ghost Trance musics.
 
Did he take a standard tune, and say, “I want to do it this way”?
No. There was nothing verbal. We just took the tunes, and it was something that happened on another level. Anthony’s way of approaching things would just permeate the music, and it go wherever it would go.
 
So you would just follow his lead.
Yeah, but not in the literal sense. In a higher sense. The lead isn’t always something you play. It’s something much higher than that, you know? It’s a whole man and his whole being. So there’s a much higher level of something going on that makes his music do what it does. It doesn’t matter what instrument the man plays. Whatever he brought to the music, it would do certain things. He knows how to do this, you know? That’s his power! And he’ll take you there! That’s why it’s so beautiful to see him with all his students, using all his students. ‘Cause he opens up a world to them that they would never be opened up to unless they had that opportunity to be right with him. And he gives that to people! You know, it’s really wonderful how he passes that on. Selflessly. I’m one of the fortunate people that have had that chance too, like everybody else.
 
Didn’t you also have a somewhat similar experience — although more briefly — working with Bill Dixon?
I really enjoyed that experience. I had two concerts with him, through Mario Pavone. Bill was into that double bass thing, and we did two concerts. That was also an eye-opening thing, ‘cause again, like Anthony, Bill is a strong individual. The music went where he took it. Almost like he brought you there. He just came, set up, and Mr. Dixon took you where he wanted to go. I have a lot of respect for him. He’s another person that we need to see even more of.
 
Tell us about the duo disc you did with Braxton.
That was a great thing, too. Fifty percent it was my compositions, fifty percent it was his. It’s funny: he always said he enjoyed mine, and I always said I enjoyed his pieces! But I’m honored that he did that, and that we have a documentation of it, ‘cause he’s a busy man. There are a lot of people who want to do duo recordings. I was fortunate that he could squeeze it in, you know? It’s a great disc.
 
Do you have plans to continue with his Tri-Centric Ensemble?
Our last thing was six months or so ago. That’s still ongoing. I’m sure we’ll see some Tri-Centric activity.
 
And are you still the President of the Tri-Centric Foundation?
At this point, I’m still the President, yeah.
 
What does it mean to be President?
It just means that I take responsibility as the President. That’s all.
 
What are they?
It had to be set up like a board, ‘cause it functioned that way. I would oversee things. You know, we had a project, I’m responsible to make sure it comes together. But I did that when I wasn’t the President, too. It was more about just keeping the structure. Someone had to be the President when the guy who formed it left. I was sort of the next in line, ‘cause I’ve been there the longest. So I just took the job. What I did before that is pretty much the same stuff I did as the President.
 
So in short, you’re still associated with Braxton?
Yeah. Yeah, I hope to be associated with Anthony for the rest of my life, in one way or another. I hope the Tri-Centric Foundation goes on forever, because the concept was to bring Anthony’s large works to the public. And that’s what we did. And then we also did   a festival for our members. So I’m hoping this will be an ongoing thing for — for the next twenty years.
 
How did From the Source come about?
I’d been working with Brenda and tap dancers in New York for years. And I was hearing all of that stuff. And I kept thinking, I want to do something with all this information. And I really dug Brenda. I wanted to do something with Brenda. So we talked about it, but it just didn’t happen. I tried it once and it petered out. Then I told Anthony. I told him about it. Man, he was so supportive! He said, “Do that, Fonda! Do that!” And I said, “Okay. All right.” And his enthusiasm is so powerful and so true, it pushed me a little bit. So I went for it. And he said he would be a part of it. That was another catalyst. He said, “I would love to play on it.” So I took some money, I kind of borrowed some money to do it. Not “kind of”: I borrowed some money to do it. And it’s funny, the woman, the woman who’s a body healer —
 
Vicki Dodd.
Vicki Dodd. I had met her through my sister a year before, and I’d heard she does this stuff where she touches you and vocalizes what’s going on in your body. I’d never heard any music like it and I knew that I wanted to do something with her. So it kind of was a little bit of a vision and I followed it, and it worked out superbly. I had a sense that Anthony, Brenda, and Vicki were on the same level in a certain way — that they would connect immediately. And they did. I mean, it was so obvious that the three of them — the three of their work — has a similar purpose. It’s for a higher purpose. And they connected immediately, all three of them. And I was kind of trying to get in with them, you know? I wanted to be with them cats! [Laughs] I had the concept, but I knew I wasn’t quite where they were, and I was really honored to have them. I kind of was the force that brought them together, which was really extra special. And now I have a relationship with all three of them, so, yeah, it came about from having worked with so many tap dancers and then Anthony giving me a little spark, you know? And Herb fit in like a glove. And it was funny: him and Anthony had played together before, like he had said, but never in a small group. And the two of them played together so well. As a matter of fact, Herb is coming from a similar place as Anthony in terms of how he hears music. Both of them are people really into sound concept, and Herb’s a true sound concept person.
 
Who was the drummer on that?
Grisha Alexiev, who also played fantastic. I couldn’t have found a better person to do it with than him. And Herb. Him and Anthony were fantastic together. It was one of the best things I’ve ever done to this day. It was worth every penny I borrowed. I’m still paying back that money. I’ve spent it ten times over! I gotta thank all those people for doing that.
 
And I understand that this is an ongoing project?
Yeah, well, I’ve been trying to find some work for it. We have one gig coming up here in New York in Roulette in November with this group.
 
You have the same personnel?
I’m gonna try — well, I can’t have Anthony. Anthony doesn’t do that — Anthony was just for the recording date. So I don’t know, maybe I’ll have Gebhard Ullmann, if I can get him, to take Anthony’s place. I just did a duo tour with Brenda. We were in Austria just doing duets. That’s a shoot-off from this. We did some of the same music in the duet concept. So yeah, I want to keep my relationship with these people alive, and when I can find work for the group, I’ll do it. If not, maybe I’ll do trios or duos from inside it. ‘Cause I like the concept, you know, of working with Brenda and Vicki. It changes stuff up completely. Completely.
 
What are some of your new projects?
I just did a solo bass recording. I did it for a Belgian record label called Jazz’halo, for a gentleman named Jos Demol. And Emile Clemens. They had heard a concert of mine in Belgium and they had suggested that, and you know, it’s interesting because it was something I had thought about for quite awhile. I was preparing for about six months to pull it off, and I was a little nervous, I must say! But it came out quite well. I’m very fortunate that they gave me the opportunity to go into the studio and have to make it happen all by myself. They gave me the chance to go inside myself enough to do this. There was no one to rely on. I had never done that before. I had never even done a solo concert. I’d taken many solos for ten, fifteen minutes, but to sustain that kind of activity by yourself for many hours was a real challenge. And it was a real learning experience. I really have to thank Jos and Emile for letting me do it. It’s going to be out in September. I really like the way it came out. And then another new project I’m pursuing is that I met a woman from Shanghai, Xu Fengxia. In Germany. We’ve done a couple of duo concerts. She plays a Chinese instrument, the guzheng. It’s kind of like a koto. But she’s an improviser! A very creative improviser. So we started doing some duo performances, and the music’s really exciting me. Shanghai meets New York! We have some stuff coming up in November. The other day I was listening to the CD from a concert we did. It was some really fresh music! She brings the East, as she’s improvising, she brings all that stuff from the East. And it really changes your way of playing. It’s a real fresh thing for me to play with someone who has those sounds. And authentically has them! It’s not someone trying to play stuff from the East. That’s who she is. So that’s an ongoing project now. And I mentioned this last tour I did with Brenda, where we did the duo. This is something else I want to pursue: tap and bass was a radical departure in terms of what a duet can be. There were a lot of people who came to our performances who were quite taken. Brenda and I were moving her stuff into a zone that people haven’t been dealing with in tap. I think a lot of folks came to these concerts, thought they were going to see Fred Astaire stuff! And Brenda and I were doing things from Mingus, and stuff from From the Source. So it excites me that I’m with a dancer who wants to move into some new zones and stretch the potential of what is. So that’s another thing I want to keep pursuing: doing duos with her. Also I’ve been working with a clarinet player who has a nice group. His name is Kunle Mwanga. Kunle is a great clarinet player. He used to manage Anthony for years. We have a nice group with him, myself, Mike Musulami and Leroy Williams playing drums. So that’s a group that I’m interested in continuing playing with and seeing how that develops.
 
Do you find it hard to make a living?
Yes, it’s hard. But thanks to the generous European market, it makes it much easier to survive. I have a lot of things I’m doing, but Europe has become a big source of my work.
 
Are you going to move there?
No, I have no plans to move there. It’s a beautiful place, but I’m staying here in America. But it is difficult! I don’t recommend it to anybody! [Laughs] Unless you really can’t live without it!
 
August 21, 1999 — New York, New York
 
2000 © Cadence Magazine

Joe Fonda – English version of interview in French magazine JAZZOSPHÈRE
 
Can you introduce you to the french public ? (When did you start playing music ? Why did you choose the bass ?
I started playing music as a very young child ,around the age of 9 or 10, I believe. Music was always something that fascinated me. I remember going to the parades  that they would have on holidays in our very small town and I would pay attention to the music of the marching bands .I never saw the clowns or the fire trucks or I did not pay them any mind , I would follow the bands up and down the street, That's what fascinated me . not the candy they were giving to kids not the balloons , The music ,and the energy that the music was creating it was magical for me. It was the same for the concert band that played every Sunday in the park in the summer .The other kids would be running around but most of the time I would be standing in back of the stage listing to the music and watching the drummers .On the break I would do some running around with  other kids because I loved  to Run around with the other kids and I was fast . But when the music started it was time to stop running and was time to check out the music. Music and I were falling in love with each other at a very early  age.
 
A lot of creative bass musicians say they have been influenced by Charles Mingus or by Bertram Turetzky's works. What about you ?
As for Mingus, Yes he was an influence a big one. In my opinion his influence on the world of bass playing and the world of music as a whole is unmeasurable. For me ,Just speaking about his bass playing, He was  a player who used the instrument not only in a harmonic ,melodic and rhythmic way but also explored the sound the possibilities of the instrument. I think Mingus may have the first bass player in the so called jazz community to to do this . He was the first bass I had heard who had incorporated this concept in to the music . The duet he did with Max Called percussion discussion says it all. His writing was also a big influence. His ideas were so new and original, and the music was so free it just flowed in and out and up and down and fast and slow then double time ,triple time no time, then 5 different metrics realities all happening at once. all of this that Mingus  brought opened me up . I am still learning and studying Mingus and expect to for a long time to come. As for Mr.Turetzky ,I have known of him and his work for a long time. I first heard of him and his music when I was working with Leo Smith. Leo knew him and had played me some of his music which was fantastic and had also given me a book that he written that I studied and learned a lot from, this was 15 years ago in the mid 80s I think. So he has been an influence but much more in directly. I have a great deal of respect for Mr. Turetzky's work.
 
Could you speak to us about your music philosophy (about your philosophy of inclusion) ? Do you think, like William Parker (for example), that music is a means of discussing the world, of asserting, to make reflect the public on the world ?
As for my philosophy on inclusion, For me it started as a subconscious activity and grew into something I now do on a conscious level . In the beginning or early on in my musical activity I had put together a group that consisted of 5 musicians a painter a sculptor an actor A culinary artist and a dancer . I had no idea the impact this group would have on me and our audiences, I just thought this would be a very interesting project. I had worked with each of these artists on a one to one basis in the past and had learned so much from them and enjoyed it so much , I thought, lets bring them all together. The result was wonderful and it became very clear to me that there is no separation between one creative discipline and another unless you create one, So in affect what were doing here was breaking down some of the barriers that had been keeping us from communing out of our privet studios and kitchens or were ever we were. So we could bring our creative energies together to make something much greater than any one of us could have created individually. In a sense we created community on the band stand, because of all the interaction that was happening and communication that took place among us. Our audience got to see this and the end of the concert the audience and the artists ate the food that was being prepared as part of the concert. We live in a time where were, in many ways more isolated then ever before, and for share the concept of community has given way to the so called nuclear family concept, so this kind of interdisciplinary work, this inclusive way of thinking is needed to help counter that reality. Its like the old saying together we stand because divided we will fall. As for the question, I do think the music is a place where a musician can communicate what ever it is he or she is thinking or feeling to the public and the audience. Its a wonderful process and opportunity for the artist and audience. Though out history the artists often led the way to something new and often had to drag the public along with them kicking and screaming booing for years until they got it or not. Stravinsky did it Sun Ra did it just to name 2 of the many who have done it for us and those who are doing it for us today.
 
You play in several different groups. Is it important for you ? Is it a way to open your play to all the music perspectives - no limits, freedom... ?
I do play with a lot of different groups its because of two reasons one is the inspiration and possibilities that different musicians and artists offer you . I find it interesting to be in a new situation with a new combination of artists who have not worked together before, and to be part of the process of finding our common ground and our differences and to reconcile them and try to create something together. Its often like a dance where the people are a bit tentative , cautious and with there Egos quite present but as the dance progress these things will melt away or if they don't its doesn't work on a any serious level. I like this process its very inspiring and very human ,when we let go of ourselves enough to make it happen. But don't get me wrong because I also believe strongly in the concept of playing with the same people for long periods of time in order to develop a group sound and concept. We need more of this kind of activity ,this thing that's been going on for the past 15 years or so with this young lion concept ,where we take a talented young sax player or who ever and put him with some great rhythm section and produce a CD and the artists have no relationship to each other and no interest in each other is so empty and we loose when music is created in this way. We need more Families and community in the music. The other reason we all play with a lot of different groups is economics that's the same old story we all know so well.
 
What did you learn from your collaborations with the great musicians : Leo Smith and Anthony Braxton ? Did they influence a part of your play ?
As for my association with Leo Smith it started in the Early 80s when I joined an organisation he and Bobby Naughton had started call the creative musicians improvisors forum . I learned a great deal from Leo he helped shape my concept . The way he organised sound was totally unique the way I now hear and think about sound is directly connected to Leo Smith. We did a recording that came out on Chief Records in 88 or 89 called Procession of the great ancestry. Its with Bobby Naughton and Kahil El Jabar Leo and myself. It's one of my favourite recordings I've done and the music Leo wrote and the concept is still inside my head. As for my association with Anthony Braxton, I must say I learned a great deal working with him. more than I may realise in this life time. The depth of his music is endless there is always something new and always something to be learned and pondered. His whole being his music, his writings all of it are like a universe in and of its self . Its interesting because like Leo With Anthony I also was involved in an organisation that he had started called the Tricentric Foundation, which was very active until this year. I am a very lucky man to have worked with both Leo and Anthony.
 
What are your inspirations - art, literature, NYC, daily life ?
I do find Michel Angelos work very inspirational he has it all inside of what he created, I aspire to his level of completeness, all of life as he new it was inside the art. I've found the writings of Neale Donald Walsch and God to  very inspiring lately.
 
How do you approach your different works of compositions - for dance, theatre, groups ?
As for the way I might approach composition for dancers, painters, musicians, is simply to find a way for who every is performing the composition to orchestrate the music or concept of the  music for themselves, so they find there own way into the inside of the music. More often I write the composition then we all find our way inside the music together.
 
I listened to your CD "When It's Time", a solo bass. Is it a big challenge for you and can you speak to us about these experiences ? Do you think that the play in solo can help you to develop your play in groups?
As for my solo project I first must thank Jos Demol and Emile Clemens and Jazz'halo for creating the opportunity for me to do a solo project. It was interesting how it all happened Jos and Emile had come to a concert of the Fonda Stevens group in Belgium and I just happened to play a long introduction that night to a composition of mine and Jos and Emile liked it so much that they suggested to me on the break that we do some solo project, so we did. But I can't say enough about these two people and much respect I have for them, god bless them both. For me the experience of doing a solo project was infighting . Because you have only your own resources, your own strength to draw on to make it happen, when your finished with a project like this and the music is happening, it elevates your level of understanding about yourself and about what it takes as an individual to create the music, your music, how  to give it life, to make it breath. And to answer your question yes To do a solo project will  effect your playing in group situations because of the new awareness you will bring. It may very well effect your marriage  if your in one, your parenting skills  if you are one. I did no over dubbing on my solo CD its was all done in one session direct to two track. I wanted the music to fell and carry the same energy as a live performance, and it dose.
 
The Fonda/Stevens group project seems to be very important for you. Is it true ? What a so long association (in the time) can apport to the musicians and more specifically to you ?
The Fonda Stevens group is very important to me. It's a group that's been working together for over 10 years. We  have created an understanding and energy in the music that we play together that is very real and straight from the heart. The other thing is its a group that is co-lead by Michael Stevens and myself. This is a very hard thing to do in a time when so much focus is on the individual and his or her ego. So because of the kind of person Michael is we have been able do this together and make it work, And the world needs more of this I am sure of it.
 
Is there, to your mind, a new creative bassists generation ? Are you optimist for the evolution of the creative music ?
Yes there is a new generation of creative bassists check out Mark Dresser, William Parker, Mark Helias, Ken Filiano, Ed Shuller, Steve Neal, Joe Fonda the list goes on and on and on and it will until we are no longer on this earth.  Creative music is life itself and it will grow and develop as long as we are here.
 
What are your projects (CD, performances...) ?
Some other thing I am involved in is a group called Conference Call with Gebhard Ullmann, Matt Willson, Michael Stevens and myself its a great group with a great sense of humour , thanks to our drummer who covers it all in a very individual way. I also have very interesting duo project with Xu Fengxia who is from Shanghai China  she  plays the Guzheng . She is so powerful and so full of energy all of you should check her out. 
 
Interview by Sabine Moig
2000 © Jazzospère
 
 
Joe Fonda: From The Source
By Nils Jacobson

Let's start this interview in reverse and go from there. What are you doing right now? What kind of records are you thinking about putting out? Are you going on tour? What's new and upcoming?
Well, I can tell you what's up and coming. Here's a new project. We started this thing... we're going on tour in March with a group called Conference Call. It's a group with Matt Wilson, Gebhard Ullmann, and Michael Stevens. It's a new project that's exciting in the fact that the combination of personalities is very interesting to me. Because you have Gebhard Ullmann on one end, and then you have me and Michael kind of in the middle, and then you've got this cat Matt Wilson who brings in all the humor. So it's almost like a group that covers--not a complete spectrum--but a large area of possibilities, you know... from a very serious sort of approach to music to a very creative one. And then added in is this whole humor thing, but in a very natural way, you know, because that's really who Matt is. He's an incredibly creative person, but he has this sense of theater, and I actually gravitate towards that, too. We did one tour already, about six months ago. And it was very enlightening to see where the relationships lie... with Michael and me kind of in the middle. But I was always very easily gravitating toward Matt's theatrical reality. Whereas Michael gravitated toward Gebhard's more serious approach to the music. So it was interesting the way we would intermix the possibilities of where one person might go and another person might not. I have a theatrical sense of things also, and I was really able to bring that out. That's one of the newest projects at the moment. A European tour.
But a year from now, we have something already started in California, so we've actually--Michael and I have also--started to look into finding work in our own country. You know, everybody's been pushing the European thing so heavy. I think it was Gerry Hemingway who did something a few years ago in America, and it showed us all that if you wanted to put the time into it, maybe you could find some work here... and bring the music to the people here, also. It's harder, but there are possibilities, you know?
 
That's a problem for a lot of creative musicians. There's a much bigger market in Europe for this kind of thing, for both performance and recording.
Yeah, there is.
 
Why do you think that is?
One reason is that for art in general in Europe, is that, because of it being old, there's more culture and there's more history. There's still a sense of interest in art--that art is important--since art again connects to a whole sense of having history. So that attitude might be the primary one. In their culture, there's a sense that art is important, that art is part of their life. It always has been, for hundreds of years. Whereas in America, everything's so new.
 
It's interesting, because in this country, New York is definitely the hub for that sort of thing. There's much more market availability for performance there.
That's true, I guess. It's the artistic center of America, you know? But New York's a struggle too, because there are so many people, so many artists... Even though there's a lot of work, it's spread so thin. But it's the energy that makes it the place that it is.
 
When you play in Europe, do you do things differently?
I remember something someone told me once when I first went. He said [hushed voice], "Hey, take your tape recorder, and then tape the music! Because man, you play different there." That was when I first started to go, and now I understand what he meant. It's simply because if you have an appreciative audience, there's a give-and-take, and a communication between the artist and the audience, that affects the music. And you can have that there, where you can't always here... Not all the time, but some times in America, you don't get it because people don't have that appreciation. That's what makes you do anything different. In Europe they allow you to deliver the music on a different level, because they're there with you. That's what changes it.
 
The great irony is that a lot of the records you have out are on European labels--which probably makes them less available here. And that must bias people, because they've had more of a chance to hear you.
Yeah, that's true. I think the only American label we had was Music & Arts, on the first few Fonda/Stevens Group records. And it folded. So that just goes back to what I said earlier. There's a bigger support system for creative music--or whatever you want to call it--there than there is here. There's a bunch of new labels now in this country, you know, but they're still not doing what Leo's doing... OmniTone and Palmetto, for example. They're putting out some nice music, but they're careful not to go too far to the outside edge.
 
I guess you gotta stay afloat.
Yeah, maybe. Sure, that's a concern for them.
 
The American listener really has to make an effort to check out what you do, because a lot of these labels aren't to be found in the average store. You've got to get them somewhere special.
That's true. It's a shame. Conference Call has a CD now that we're selling [Final Answer], but we're trying to get it with an American label, just so that we get the thing into the American market.
 
Speaking of records, your recorded output has gone way up in the last five years or so. There's a lot more Fonda records out there.
Yeah, that's really true.
 
OK. Let's switch gears a bit. You've talked before about how you have a special affinity with drummers, and you approach the bass from a rhythmic standpoint. But a lot of freer-playing bassists use extended techniques. They're playing rhythm--they're slapping the body of their instrument. They do a lot of this tap-and-slap thing. But for the most part, you're playing the strings. Is there a reason for that?
It's true that I have a strong relationship with drummers. I always have. And my approach is very percussive and rhythmic. But I'm a sound conceptualist. I think of music in terms of sound.
 
What do you mean by that?
Well, you talk about a lot of those other guys slapping the bass. One of the things that I do that is extended is--I'm always searching for sounds on the instrument--where I'll bow underneath the bass, where the there's that wire down there that connects to the tailpin. I'll bow this.
But I'm always searching for sounds. It's a kind of textural consciousness. One thing I do differently from someone who always thinks percussive is I am very texturally conscious. That would mean I would look for sounds which create a sort of palette. Whereas if it they were strictly percussive, they will tend to have a, not a monotone... but your textural thing won't be so extreme. But I'm very conscious of texture, and I hear music in thicknesses and thinnesses. So maybe I play the strings more because it allows me to search for those sorts of things. Harmonic things combined with rhythm, or... I'm definitely a texturally aware musician, which connects again to the sound concept.
 
For this sound concept, do you have an image in your mind?
I think it has to do with an affinity for hearing music not in a linear, or even a metric-rhythmic way... but in the sense of a sound. Just a sound. How do I break down a sound? I know a lot of people think linearly, harmonically or melodically. Sun Ra put it once--his musicians were "tone scientists." I understand exactly what he was talking about. It's just another way of thinking about, or organizing, the music or the elements. I can hear someone scrape across the table, and I can hear the music in it, whereas somebody else might just hear it as a scrape across the table. So it's an affinity for that type of thing. I've always had it. I think some cats have that, you know? Roscoe Mitchell definitely has that. Braxton has it, Ra had it. You know, they were thinking about music from a sound perspective, not a linear, or harmonic, or vertical structure.
 
I think that's more possible when you're playing in a group. There are more dimensions going on at the same time. But you also made a solo record [When It's Time], and that's just you. The textures are made by you with yourself. That's a totally different deal, right?
Yeah. When you have to do it by yourself, it's a totally different deal.
 
What's the solution there?
Well, let's talk about it in that sense. You're much more limited. This is true. When you're playing by yourself, you're much more limited. So you can still achieve texture--and I still did on the solo record--but the textures become different. Not thinner, but... I didn't do any overdubbing. If I had done overdubbing, then I could have created another kind of textural reality. But I just played the music down... You have to work even harder. You have to dig even deeper, and become even more selfless, so the instrument and the music will give you something when you're all by yourself.
 
So you imply things without stating them explicitly.
That's a technique in itself in creating textures: not being too literal. That process of being literal eliminates, in my opinion, texture and mystery and dimension. I've always gravitated towards not being too literal. I hesitate, because I remember that when I'm dealing with time, I'm sometimes trying to play something that grooves. Then I become so literal. In order for me to get the feeling I want to get when I'm playing time, if I'm after some kind of groove, I need to be literal. So I'm aware of both situations. But when you're looking for texture, this thing of not being too literal is a a very important element.
 
Part of that idea comes from the African concept of texture, where space represents something just as much as a note represents something. The texture that you get out of an African rhythm ensemble is something else...
That's true. I would probably say that the African music tradition is rooted in a non-Western way of thinking, which has to do with sound and texture and different realities. I'm sure of it.
 
And also the subjugation of the individual to the benefit of the group. Western music tends to be very individualistic. In a group like that, the idea is to make a point together, instead of being the best musician per se.
That element in itself is a whole other point. It has nothing to do with your individual talents or ego or anything, it's about people coming together for a higher purpose--which is very refreshing. It's funny, because I just got off the phone with Brenda Bufalino, who's the tap dancer I work with. We just had a concert in Lisbon with the From the Source group. And we were both saying that that's that idea drives the group, because of this woman in the group who's a healer and does the vocals [Vickie Dodd]. If we're gonna really play or create music with this woman, then we have to forget about being professional musicians, and forget about our ego, and throw all this stuff out the window... and come at the thing in a totally spiritual direction, in a totally selfless way, for it to work. Because this woman can only connect if that's happening. We had some trouble on this last gig, because we didn't take the time, before we even started, to establish what this whole thing was about. So it turned into just another gig, and we missed an opportunity to forget about "another gig," and do something in the same way that you mentioned African cultures come together to create something. That can be so refreshing. You don't get it very often in the Western world, because there's so much of that ego. You know, "I'm this!" and "I'm that!" That's what it's all about. That sort of mentality.
 
The other thing that's striking about that group is that you have a dancer in there. That must be kind of hard to record. It's the sort of thing where you'd probably get a lot more out of watching the performance than strictly listening to it.
That's true, in some sense. Tap dancing is so... the rhythms that this woman is playing are heavy. Her rhythmical stuff, and her entire musical thing, is very heavy. But because she's a tap dancer, folks still think of it more in a visual sense. So I guess as people we have to learn to just focus on what comes out musically. Through the years, the jazz drummers and the tap dancers were all hooked up. And they were all sharing information and rhythmical stuff. I mean Max knew all the tap dancers. He knew Sandman Simms, and Sandman Simms knew Max. And they were sharing the information because they were all developing this stuff. So they could hear what was happening with the dancers. I still have people today who hear the record and think, "What's this click-clicking stuff going on?" I've had cats say, "I don't get it, Joe, what's this click-click-click?" All I can say is man, you gotta keep listening, because you're not getting it.
 
I would think that just because it's a weight-bearing process to tap dance, it would be a lot easier to get the same essence out of a set of drums. You'd have more freedom of motion.
Yeah, maybe. But you know, this stuff she does with her feet, I haven't heard any drummer ever do. And it's also just the principle that this is a person's legs, just two legs making this, so it has a whole different weight to it, a whole different reality to it, than a man or woman sitting down in front of a set of drums and using all four limbs. For me, I've always been moved by tap dancers, so when I listen to the record [From the Source], it fascinates me. So I'm not sure. I wouldn't agree you'd get the same thing. I know you'd not get the same thing out of a set of drums that she gets out of her feet, in an exact sense. You know, she could show the drummer some of her rhythms, and he could play them (and vice-versa), but the feeling is quite different. Just in the sense of weight, to use the word you chose. But it's much lighter as a dance, and a much lighter way of playing rhythm. The rhythms are deep, you know?
So I love it. Certainly a refreshing compared to the usual staple of rhythm you normally get out of a jazz band, or improvised group, or whatever you want to call it.
 
One thing I've noticed is you hum a lot. You sing, sort of, when you're playing. A lot of musicians do that. Is that because you're putting so much effort into detaching your brain from anything else so that you can concentrate, or is it just something you can't help?
For me it's something that just happened. Never even thought about it, never even tried to do it. It just happened through my development as a bass player. It just came, and I never shut it down. Even though there have been times where people said, "Man! Shut up, will you?" Some people don't hire me because I make too much noise with my voice. But that's OK. Some people do just the opposite. I can't do it any other way, actually. But I think it's pretty much the same thing when I listen to Erroll Garner and he's humming. I almost feel like it's part of the process, you know? The only time I feel like it's a preconceived thing is when George Benson is doing his thing. But that's another kind of thing, where he can sing all his stuff. The kind