FONDA-STEVENS GROUP
Live at the Bunker
Leo
LR 301

Man, it’s hard to believe that Leo’s up to the 300s already, and with an amazingly consistent track record, as has the group here. “For Us” sounds like a standard, and it should be. Starting with a Messiaen-like fluttery piano intro, follwed by romantic chords, a strong bass line and Smoker smartly skittering into the verge of off-key, this ballad grips immediately and sustains. There’s an awkward applause fade. In a different manner, they continue with “Borrowed Time,” a free improv which turns into what seems composed, each phrase tauntingly repeated or mutated by the next. This kind of call and response, using lots of space, teases the way lovers do when they know just how to touch each other, and just when to... pull back.

“Don’t Go Baby,” by contrast with the opening pair, is merely good. “Circle” continues that way, but a few minutes in they hit a stride: Stevens arpeggiating and Fonda walking askew, and hear Smoker go off on his fierce free thing. The head returns, and I wish it were all so free, but I have no complaints about the trip, especially as Sorgen takes an expected solo, again using space, changes of pace and texture, to make your ears sit up. At first I thought it a bowed cymbal, but Fonda plays a resiny, itchy sequence at the bottom of the bridge, until they take it again to the head.

“Circle,” too, starts off just okay, but they hit a powerful mood shortly, with strong intermingling of lines by the smoldering wah-wah and humanoid voice of Smoker’s trumpet, and the scratch of Fonda’s bass. It and the following two tracks, if you don’t watch the CD counter, are a seamless suite of wonderful jazz and improvisation. (I’ve misfiled my copy of their Leo disc “Haiku,” so I can’t make comparisons.) “Oh Lord...” opens with Smoker playing a gospel dirge, underlined by bass. Stevens’ piano brings a romantic rush of cold air chords in, again with gospelized arpeggios, and Sorgen plays free, both loose and tight: brushes, cymbals and kick. Again, I find the playing and the structure stronger than the writing, especially when a trite piano vamp changes the rhythm, and despite Smoker’s wild wind, hearing these guys sing “Oh Lordy...” makes me cringe. Stevens piano turns admirably Pullenesque, and the deep sonics of the bass and Sorgen’s percussive richness (you can hear the air pressure inside them change with each blow) give you chills. The recording quality is superb, with the piano sounding like a piano, and the Fonda’s various timbres revealed.

What is always special to me about Fonda and Stevens is that not only do they “play,” but they infuse it with such joie de vive that you just want to throw their other discs in the machine in turn. As an encore, I played another Fonda reach-to-the-roots, “Down To The Delta,” my favorite track on Live at Brugge on De Werf Records, which gets frequent play in this house. For a special treat, dig Fonda’s 1999 solo bass disc When It's Time on the Belgian label Jazz’Halo.

Steve Koenig

Track Listing: 1. For Us; 2. Borrowed Time; 3. Don’t Go Baby; 4. Circle; 5. Haiku; 6. Oh Lord, It’s Nice To Sit On Your Porch Today

Personnel: Joe Fonda, bass; Michael Jefry Stevens, piano; Paul Smoker, trumpet; Harvey Sorgen, drums