Joe Fonda made Eyes On The Horizon with a former teacher in mind, but don’t call it a tribute; tributes tend to be made to heroes who are no longer among us. The old mentor, the iconic trumpet sage Wadada Leo Smith, is still thriving today. The bassist and composer Fonda crafted a set of songs and recorded them as a way to give back to someone who was an immeasurable influence on the younger man decades ago before that man made his own mark on jazz.
Eyes On The Horizon (Long Song Records) celebrates the pupil as much as the former instructor, as Fonda took his instruction to heart that set him on a path that’s led him to the company of the best in highly creative, highly improvised jazz. And three of them are supporting him on this album.
That starts with the ‘man of honor’ himself, Wadada Leo Smith. For piano, Fonda chose a frequent duet partner, the incomparable Satoko Fujii. Finally, there’s the Italian drummer Tiziano Tononi, who has recorded with Fonda on seven albums in the last seven years. Armed with so much familiarity and veteran acumen, there was just no way the support on Eyes On The Horizon was going to fall short of great.
All over these performances, Fonda does what Smith and Fujii do as leaders: devise charts that are originative in how harmony and rhythm are treated, while allowing all musicians wide berth in improvising around his notations. Further, improvisation can come individually, in pairs or as an entire group at different times. Setting this kind of environment encourages surprising turns and genuine passion.
“Inspiration” makes clear who the ‘inspiration is.’ The emotional, unshackled melodic development is something Smith perfected decades ago and the former student has clearly mastered. “My Song” begins with Fujii alone introducing a brittle, passional extended melody that has a pristine moment where Fonda and Smith are making solemn articulations around each other, both brilliantly using space and resonance like peak, ECM Records aesthetic.
Fonda introduces an entrancing circular bass figure at the heart of “We Need Members” but not before he and Fujii converge on what feels more like active engagement than two players merely soling alongside each other.
“Like No Other” is especially personal because it was written in remembrance of mutual friend and collaborator, the late vibraphone player Bobby Naughton. So for this occasion, Fonda opted to make this an eloquent duet between him and Smith, where each is also allotted time alone to pay respects.
Smith can go one-on-one with anybody, of course, and does so against Tononi with such an innate sense of tonality and shifting rhythms for “Bright Light,” as Fonda takes a turn on flute and joins the fray.
“Listen To Dr. Cornel West” reveals how rhythmically attuned Fonda truly is. He and Tononi race forward together as Smith and Fujii present the theme in a much slower tempo, creating two streams that rub up against each other. But when Smith’s solo time comes, he cannily splits the difference, as does Fujii. All of this is capped by Tononi’s own dynamic solo.
Fujii like Smith, is supremely fluent in exploiting the other aspects of the instrument, such as the overlooked percussive properties of the piano demonstrated on “Eyes On The Horizon.”
As Joe Fonda looks back to around where his musical career got started in the 80s and reconnects to a pivotal figure in his development, he follows the shining example that Wadada Leo Smith sets to this day. Eyes On The Horizon is up to that high standard.
Eyes On The Horizon is available for sale now, from Bandcamp.
*** Joe Fonda CD’s and vinyl on Amazon ***
- Joe Fonda Quartet – ‘Eyes On The Horizon’ (2024) - December 27, 2024
- Ingebrigt Haker Flaten (Exit) Knarr – ‘Breezy’ (2024) - December 26, 2024
- Takuya Kuroda – ‘Rising Son’ (2014, 2024 reissue) - December 25, 2024
