Joe Fonda’s Bottoms Out – Loaded Basses

CIMP 343

Puns play a prominent part in Joe Fonda’s latest ensemble effort. Both band name and album title present the gist of the project in pithy form as the celebrated bassist crews an ensemble with four talented exponents of lower register exploration. Gebhard Ullmann blows gutsy and garrulous bass clarinet, often trading with the more straightforward, but no less muscular, baritone brogue of Claire Daly. Puckish Michael Rabinowitz brings a playfully unpredictable perspective to the group, occasionally plugging in his bassoon and trading in funky riffs as on the bipolar “Rocks in My Head,” a track that morphs from billowy drones to shambling swing and back again. Tubaist Joe Daley occupies the lowest rung on the register ladder, soloing rarely, but maintaining a palpable oompah presence from a position stereo center. Fonda frequently scats alongside his febrile bass lines, his amplified strings punching through with a strong foreground sound. Gerry Hemingway (making his CIMP debut) proves a resourceful choice at the drum kit, serving as valuable rhythmic cantilever to the weighty mass of horns. His combination of cerebral acuity and manual dexterity prevents the bulky vessel from capsizing on several occasions, but there are also instances where the sheer corpulence of the configuration wins out.

Two 20+ minute marathons bookend a pair of shorter pieces. Lulls occur, most often when the horns negotiate written passages or resort to water-treading riffing as during the latter half of “Breakdown.” Fonda’s predilection for seeding his pieces with numerous detours and switchbacks also saps some of the momentum. “Bottoms Out/Gone too Soon” opens on a churning bass-buoyed rhythm, the horns staggered and trenchant to intensify the tension. The medley’s second half carries an encomium to Thomas Chapin, a former friend and employer of Fonda whose musical persona comes through in the processional-like blues pattern that powers the piece. The horns subside, leaving Hemingway and Fonda to engage in an intricate dialogue of drums and bass. “Brown Bagging It” takes its sweet time in gaining speed, starting with Hemingway’s quietly calibrated percussion and slowly building to more animated conversation between the horns against a seesawing cadence. Fonda and Hemingway seize space for another vigorous teté a teté and the track expands into a series of subsequent solos, most notably from Daly’s hard-flexing baritone, on to a slippery swinging close.

In sum, the session doesn’t quite satisfy with the sizeable potential of the roster, but still delves satisfyingly into the compelling possibilities of its eccentric instrumentation. The set is also one of the better sounding in the CIMP catalog with all instruments clearly audible and judiciously separated. In this case, the label’s longstanding bare bones approach is definitely an asset.

~ Derek Taylor