Collective projects

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Conference Call is a new quartet featuring the exciting German woodwind virtuoso Gebhard Ullmann the established piano/bass collaboration of Michael Jefry Stevens and Joe Fonda (the Fonda Stevens Group) and the highly individual percussion stylings of master drummer George Schuller.

The Fonda and Fujii duo is a creative and dynamic musical experience one that should be heard by all. Fonda matches Fujii as far as being a 'force of nature' and pushes as much as he is pulled. The energy flowing between them is palpable, exciting and occasionally almost unbearable.

E: In March 2022, Joe Fonda and Silke Eberhard met at the Downtown Music Record Store in New York, and just six months later they were on stage together with Austrian drummer Emil Gross in Berlin. The Josilemi Trio was born. The collective trio's compositions and improvisations are powerful, driving, elegant, structured and refined, combining diverse influences with improvisational inspiration. It is music that is completely connected to the moment and yet totally future-oriented. It is Music for here, now and the future.

Joe Fonda: bass, flute; Satoko Fujii: piano;

A core group of seasoned musicians/friends who continue to rehearse, perform, record, and compose. The members of this group have been performing together for the last 20 years.

"What’s fascinating about this band is that it’s a coalescing of many streams. Each player brings with him a wealth of experience as both instrumentalist and composer, leader and sideman .. . all of this experience comes together in the Nu Band to make a unique music as fresh and invigorating as any being done today." - from liner notes by Robert lannapollo

Joe Fonda and Carlo Morena have working together since 1990. They have recorded four cds: "What We're Hearing" on the Dewerf, 1994, "Step In", Dewerf, 2000, "A Drop of Water", Konnex, 2007, "As you never said before", 2011.

Another highlight of this year’s NYC Winter Jazzfest was the debut of the OGJB Band, featuring alto sax master Oliver Lake, cornetist Graham Haynes (who doubled on doussin gouni, a five-stringed African instrument), bassist Joe Fonda and drummer Barry Altschul.

EASTERN BOUNDARY ls a recent collaborative quartet featuring the Hungarian master musicians drummer Balazs Bagyi and saxophonist Mihaly Borbely and the long-standing bass/piano partnership of New York City bassist Joe Fonda and pianist Michael Jefry Stevens (co-leaders of the Fonda/Stevens Group). This quartet first performed together in Europe in 2007, toured the United States in the spring of 2009 and toured Eastern Europe in October. The group just finished recording their 2nd CD which will be released to coincide with their upcoming 2011 European tour. The band was formed with the imagination of connecting two worlds of the jazz scene today. This unique collaboration is a mixture of avantgarde jazz and ethno music from Hungary, like a cultural bridge between the USA and Eastern-Europe. This bridge is made of talent, respect, brotherhood and friendship, built by the common language of jazz and improvised music.

A powerful trio with French jazz clarinet player, Christophe Rocher, and two of New York's best jazz musicians, Joe Fonda and Harvey Sorgen.

Trio Generations with guest artist Oliver Lake features Michael Jefry Stevens on piano, Joe Fonda on bass, Emil Gross on drums and Oliver Lake on saxophone. It's all about choices, - states modern Renaissance Man Oliver Lake to explain his expansive artistic vision.

This is jazz, no doubt about it, stripped to its essence of stellar interplay, brilliant soloing and fun in each other's but also one's own mastery of the instrument. Jazz with all its nervousness, its agitation, its emotional depth, its instrumental prowess, its freedom and joy. Together they move as one. Hence the album's title: their collaboration serves as a remedy to stay sane physically and mentally during the pandemic.