Joe Fonda


Joe Fonda is an American jazz bassist.

Career

Fonda was born in Amsterdam, New York to parents who both played jazz. He played guitar as a youth but switched to bass guitar later. He studied bass at Berklee College of Music, where he also began playing upright bass. He played in the New Haven, Connecticut area in the early 1980s, and recorded with Wadada Leo Smith. In 1994 he began playing with Anthony Braxton, collaborating with him extensively for the next five years. He and Michael Jefry Stevens led the Fonda-Stevens band that began in 1991. Since the late 1990s Fonda has recorded often as a bandleader.
Fonda has also explored dance in relation to jazz. He played bass with a dance company in the 1980s and incorporated a tap dancer into his ensemble for the albums From the Source and The Healing.

Discography

As leader or co-leader

Looking for the Lake Up from the Sky What We're Hearing From the Source Full Circle Suite When It's Time Distance Step-in Heat Suite Loaded Basses A Drop of Water Trio Joy Dreamstruck with Marilyn Crispell and Harvey SorgenWith Grace in Mind with Marilyn Crispell and Harvey Sorgen
With Michael Jefry StevensThe Wish Live from Brugge Parallel Lines Evolution Live at the Bunker The Healing Twelve Improvisations Forever Real Trio Memphis Live in Katowice 20th Anniversary Tour Live From the Roots to the Sky
With the Nu BandLive at the Bop Shop & Rochester NY Live The Dope and the Ghost Lower East Side Blues Live in Paris The Cosmological Constant The Final Concert Live in Geneva
With Conference CallFinal Answer Variations On a Master Plan Spirals The Berlin Concert Live at the Outpost Performance Space What About...? Seven Prism
With the FAB TrioTransforming the Space Live at the Iron Works Vancouver A Night in Paris Live in Amsterdam History of Jazz in Reverse
With the OGJB Quartet Bamako

As sideman

With Barry AltschulThe 3dom Factor Tales of the Unforeseen Live in Kraków Long Tall Sunshine
With Anthony BraxtonAnthony Braxton's Charlie Parker Project 1993 Knitting Factory (Piano/Quartet) 1994, Vol. 1 Knitting Factory (Piano/Quartet) 1994, Vol. 2 10 Compositions (Duet) 1995 Piano Quartet, Yoshi's 1994 Composition No. 173 Sextet (Istanbul) 1996 Tentet (New York) 1996 Four Compositions (Quartet) 1995 Octet (New York) 1995 Ensemble (New York) 1995 Small Ensemble Music (Wesleyan) 1994 Trillium R Knitting Factory (Piano/Quartet) 1994, Vol. 2 Ninetet (Yoshi's) 1997 Vol. 1 Ninetet (Yoshi's) 1997 Vol. 2 Ninetet (Yoshi's) 1997 Vol. 3 Ninetet (Yoshi's) 1997 Vol. 4 GTM 1997 Vol. 1 GTM 1997 Vol. 2
With Satoko FujiiDuet Mizu Triad Four
With others