Label: Long Song Records, 2024
Personnel - Joe Fonda: bass; Wadada Leo Smith: trumpet; Satoko Fujii: piano; Tiziano Tononi: drums.
In a career spanning over four decades, free jazz bassist Joe Fonda has become a sought-after sideman and an inventive bandleader. His latest quartet album, Eyes On the Horizon, serves as a tribute to his former mentor, legendary trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith, who joins Fonda on this project along with Japanese pianist Satoko Fujii and Italian drummer Tiziano Tononi. Fonda crafts compositions with fluid structures, allowing the musicians to take up thematic material at different times, blurring the boundaries between composition and improvisation in curious ways. While Fujii and Tononi have been close collaborators, Smith hadn’t recorded with Fonda since the mid-1980s.
“Inspiration Opus #1” opens the album with darting bow work and exquisite trumpet licks. The piano comes and goes while the drummer insists on bright cymbal coloration. The music ebbs and flows, creating a dynamic soundscape that resists reaching a peak. “My Song Opus #2” features a piano introduction steeped in emotion and hidden mysteries. There are well-measured trumpet glances and lyrical swells that demonstrate Smith’s extensive depth of range, with Fonda designing a repeating ascending phrase that dissolves into free currents. Fujii’s textural sculptures and Toni’s adaptable drumming contribute to this slow, dirge-like procession.
“We Need Members Opus #4” is a standout track inspired by the time Fonda and Smith first met at a CMIF (Creative Musicians Improvisers Forum) recruitment session in New Haven, an organization co-founded and directed by Smith. The fleeting, rabble-rousing conjoint operations of bass and piano claim the spotlight at an early stage. Then, Fonda installs a gorgeous bass groove over which Fujii creates beautiful melodies with a few ingenious outside notes, while Tononi’s drums march forward with precision. Smith’s soulful extemporization triggers reactions from the pianist before Fonda enjoys an unaccompanied moment, delivering confident statements with rhythmic invention. The piece concludes on a solemnly profound note with active drumming at the base.
“Bright Light Opus #5”, inspired by Smith’s remark, ‘I love brightness’, during a session, unfolds with dark suspensions, synchronized motifs, and grand, bittersweet piano chords. The contemplative bass-trumpet duet “Like No Other” honors vibraphonist Bobby Naughton, a longtime collaborator of Fonda and Smith. The powerful “Listen to Dr. Cornel West”, a Fonda staple, brims with raw energy, with each musician offering their own commentary.
Fonda and his peers create new frameworks and spaces for their creativity, making Eyes On the Horizon a profound homage to one of jazz’s most distinctive trumpeters.
Favorite Tracks:
02 - My Song Opus #2 ► 03 - We Need Members Opus #4 ► 05 - Listen to Dr. Cornel West