Joe Fonda

Eyes on the Horizon

Long Song

Bassist Joe Fonda both pays tribute to and involved his mentor, trumpeter and creative force Wadada Leo Smith in this elite quartet which also feature pianist Satoko Fujii (featured several times on these pages) and drummer Tiziano Tomoni. On Eyes on the Horizon, Fonda composed these pieces specifically with Wadada in mind, knowing his tendencies and preferences. He even used some of his mentor’s notation systems in some of the pieces.  Before making this album, Fonda and Wadada had not worked together since the mid-80s but have always stayed in touch. Wadada’s inspiration has continued to be an inspiration to the point where he felt it was time to say thanks. Fonda has had a long history though with another iconic avant- gardist, having played with Anthony Braxtonu from 1984 to 1989. He also has considerable history with the bandmates he chose for this project, recording five duet albums with Fujii, who had Wadada play on two of her albums; and with Tononi on seven albums since 2016.

Simply put, the nature of Wadada’s composing style is to move beyond the head-solo-head to inject improvisation within the written material such that ensemble passages blend with solos and duos in way that remains structured but feels spontaneous and gives the four members more opportunities than the conventional front line vs. rhythm section. The album beings with Wadada’s expansive tones in “Inspiration opus #1.” Following his opening solo, the three members trade lines beneath the cloud-like sounds of the trumpeter as if to create turbulence underneath the trumpeter’s one-of-a-kind calm, although the second half of the piece contains more than its fair share of tension and release. It’s one of four out of the seven pieces labelled parenthetically (for Wadada Leo Smith).

“My song opus #2” is not marked as such but does feature Wadada’s echoing trumpet over rumbling of the over three, which has Fonda in arco and emphatic pizzicato modes while Fujii plays a series of clusters that somehow beautifully frame Wadada’s elongated lines. “Like No Other” (for Bobby Naughton) is for their mutual friend who was the co-chair of the CMIF (the Connecticut-based Creative Improvisors Forum) which Wadada co-founded. The trumpeter delivers a remarkably emotional solo for his late friend in a duet with Fonda who conjures brilliant arco tones before launching another of his earthy pizzicato solos. “Listen to  Dr. Cornel West” is one of the faster tempo pieces with drummer Tononi stirring up the engine room and Wadada soaring majestically over the bass-drum tandem’s pulsating rhythms before yielding to the ever creative Fujii’s free ranging solo.

“We need members opus #4” (for Wadada Leo Smith) commemorates the first time Fonda and Wadada met in an audition like setting in CT. Following the rigorous tryout, Wadada looked Fonda directly in the eye, commenting, “We need members.” Accordingly, this piece begins with Fujii playing free jazz as Fonda wildly plucks knowing the stakes, the piece gaining drama as it evolves, with Fujii delivering devastating chords and inspired runs in this lengthy duet between the two.  Wadada and Tomoni enter around the halfway point, slightly before six minutes as Fonda continues to robustly work his upright, eventually delivering an especially expressive solo (as if to say during the audition, I got this) that’s melodic, rhythmic and potent.  Tononi brings the piece to crescendo with his cymbal crashes before Wadada weaves the quiet exit, a characteristic common to almost all seven pieces. In “Bright light opus #5” the trumpeter’s astute sense of pacing, lyricism, range, and dynamics come to the fore especially in the sequence where he duets with Tononi. This is one of the more rhythmically complex pieces, a fine example of how locked in intuitively the quartet members are to each other. Fujii is arguably the star (maybe the second one to Wadada) on the closing “Eyes on the horizon opus 3” (for Wadada Leo Smith), especially her dark, dense chording at the outset. The piece as a whole serves as a kind of bookend to the opener with Wadada’s soaring floating lines above the constantly churning undercurrent, including the first extensive solo from Tononi on the album.

This is masterful stuff in every way. Just having Wadada on the album makes it a ‘must hear.’ He stands alone among trumpeters. Beyond that, the tension and drama of these pieces keeps us highly engaged.  Thankfully, Fonda has gifted both Wadada and we listeners these compositions.

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