Great improvisers reveal a lifetime of experience and
artistry in every note. For both pianist Satoko Fujii and bassist Joe Fonda,
that brings to bear an estimable history of collaboration with some of the
music's greatest practitioners and travel that spans the globe. It also means
that despite the fact that their winding paths had never previously crossed,
they immediately tapped a rich vein of musical understanding during their
first-ever performances together.
On Duet, a live recording of their second concert in
November 2015, they share a seemingly telepathic link that makes the music
intimate and mercurial. It's an adventurous musical exchange that features some
of their best playing on record. Duet was released October 7, 2016, on Long
Song Records.
Both artists are travel the world to perform with their
ensembles. Fujii is in the midst of a yearlong international celebration of the
20th anniversary of her Libra Records label. Fonda, one of the most in-demand
bassists in new jazz, is often on the road leading his own groups, performing
with one of the many collaborative bands he's in, or travelling as a sideman.
While Fonda was on tour with Conference Call in Germany, a promoter recommended
that Fonda give Fujii a listen. "He thought that I would love her music
and might enjoy playing with her," Fonda says. "I thought if he is so
excited about her, I'd better check out her playing. So I did and immediately
knew I had to play with her. So I got in touch with her."
Fujii was surprised to hear from him. Their mutual friend
talked about Joe a lot, but she didn't think that he'd ever heard her music.
"Of course, I knew his name, but to tell the truth I hadn't heard much of
his playing," she says.
When she mentioned she was coming to New York, Joe organized
a few concerts. "As I suspected it would be," Fonda says, "it
was quite magical."
The rapport between them is magical indeed. They seem to
anticipate each other, sometimes spontaneously playing the same phrases at the
same time, finishing each other's thoughts, or concluding independent lines
simultaneously. The woody sound, intense physicality, and percussive quality of
Fonda's bass contrasts beautifully with Fujii's more flowing lines. And both
are eager explorers of unusual timbres and extended techniques that add color
and depth to the music. Fujii structures her improvisations around sharp
contrasts, sudden changes in direction, and her ability to absorb what her
bandmates are doing into her own musings. Fonda, with long experience with
collective bands, is an unfailingly supportive partner who can subtly insert
ideas that shape and direct an improvisation. When they welcome trumpeter
Natsuki Tamura to join them for the second set, the music grows richer and even
more complex and layered.
"Joe is very open and flexible and that made me feel so
free to play anything," Fujii says. "And he plays very strong, puts
all of himself into his music, which inspires me to dig deeper into
myself."
Critics and fans alike hail pianist and composer Satoko
Fujii as one of the most original voices in jazz today. She's "a virtuoso
piano improviser, an original composer and a bandleader who gets the best
collaborators to deliver," says John Fordham in The Guardian. In concert and on more than 80 albums as a
leader or co-leader, she synthesizes jazz, contemporary classical, avant-rock
and Japanese folk music into an innovative music instantly recognizable as hers
alone. Her most recent group, Satoko Fujii Tobira with trumpeter Natsuki
Tamura, bassist Todd Nicholson, and drummer Takashi Itani, released their debut
recording Yamiyo Ni Karasu in 2015. ""There are pulse-pounding
rhythms, vibrant tones and dark chords woven together into a multi-shaded
tapestry of soundŠWhat an absolute pleasure to listen to Satoko Fujii."
wrote Travis Rogers Jr. in The Jazz Owl. Over the years, Fujii has led some of
the most consistently creative ensembles in modern improvised music, including
the ma-do quartet, the Min-Yoh Ensemble, and an electrifying avant-rock quartet
featuring drummer Tatsuya Yoshida of The Ruins. She has also established
herself as one of the world's leading composers for large jazz ensembles,
leading Cadence magazine to call her, "the Ellington of free jazz."
Her ultimate goal: "I would love to make music that no one has heard
before."
Joe Fonda "is a serious seeker of new musical
horizons," according to the Boston Phoenix. From 1984 to 1999, he was the
bassist with composer-improviser and NEA Jazz Master Anthony Braxton. Fonda
also has been an integral member of several cooperative bands, including the
Fonda-Stevens Group with Michael Jefry Stevens, Herb Robertson, and Harvey
Sorgen; Conference Call, with Gebhard Ullmann, Stevens, and George Schuller;
the Fab Trio with Barry Altschul and Billy Bang; and the Nu Band with Mark
Whitecage, Roy Campbell, and Lou Grassi. He is currently a member of 3dom
Factor, Alschul's trio with saxophonist Jon Irabagon, and guitarist Michael
Musillami's trio, among others. He has collaborated and performed with other
artists such as Archie Shepp, Ken McIntyre, Lou Donaldson, Bill and Kenny
Barron, Wadada Leo Smith, Randy Weston, and Carla Bley.
Fonda has led some truly unique ensembles of his own
including From the Source, which features four instrumentalists, a tap dancer,
and a body healer/vocalist; and Bottoms Out, a sextet with Gerry Hemingway, Joe
Daley, Michael Rabinowitz, Claire Daly, and Gebhard Ullmann. He has released
twelve recordings under his own name.
From first learning about one another in Bielefeld, Germany,
to a stunning performance in Portland, Maine, the duo of Satoko Fujii and Joe
Fonda has covered a lot of territory, both geographically and musically.
"That's the way things work in the music business," Fonda says,
"things just happen. And you have no idea why the door swings open so that
you end up working with a particular person. It just happens that way-the door
swings open, you walk through, and you find your new musical associate on the
other side."