Born in the South Bronx on the 6th of January 1943, drummer-composer Barry Altschul was quickly ensconced in the hard bop scene of the late 50s and 60s. But it was a gig with pianist Paul Bley's trio that put him amongst the ranks in the New York's burgeoning free jazz scene of the next decade. This resulted in world tours and recordings with such notables as Steve Swallow, Gary Peacock, the Jazz Composers' Guild Orchestra, Steve Lacy, Roswell Rudd, and many others. At the end of the 60s he played in the cooperative band Circle with Chick Corea, Anthony Braxton and Dave Holland as well as with the Sam Rivers Trio with Dave Holland and with the Anthony Braxton quartet with Holland, Georges Lewis or Kenny Wheeler. His familiarity with the tradition also landed him work with the likes of Hampton Hawes, Sonny Criss, Lee Konitz, Art Pepper, Kenny Drew, Tony Scott, Johnny Griffin, Babs Gonzalez, and many others. In addition to this, he led his own free bop groups, with such luminaries as Muhal Richard Abrams, Anthony Davis, Ray Anderson, Mark Helias, Santi Di Briano, and Uri Caine, to name a few.
During a 10-year sojourn in Paris, France he was chosen to be the first foreign artistic director of the French regional big band of Nancy where he conducted as well as composed music for a 20-piece orchestra with arrangements written by his friend, the great Colderage Taylor Perkinson. During that time, he also toured Africa, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe as a cultural ambassador for the USIS. Returning to the US in 1993, he worked as a professor at Sarah Lawrence College, freelanced around New York, and played with a Dave Douglas project where he renewed his relationship with Roswell Rudd. Today, as well as performing with Roswell Rudd's Trombone Tribe, he is also part of the F.A.B. Trio (Joe Fonda, Barry Altschul and Billy Bang), the Swell-Ullman band and of many projects under his own leadership. Barry has participated in over a 160 recordings, 10 under his own leadership. He has studied with Charlie Persip, Sam Ulano and Lee Konitz. When asked how his music is best described, he quotes the late great drummer Beaver Harris: "from Rag Time to no time." His performances have taken him all over the world, playing in major concerts, festivals, nightclubs, and on the radio and television.
Joe Fonda is a composer, bassist, recording artist, interdisciplinary performer, producer and educator. An accomplished international Jazz artist, Fonda has performed with his own ensembles throughout the United States, Canada, Europe and Asia. He has collaborated and performed with such artists as Anthony Braxton, Archie Shepp, Ken McIntyre, Lou Donaldson, Bill and Kenny Barron, Leo Smith, Perry Robinson, Dave Douglas, Curtis Fuller, Bill Dixon, Han Bennink, Bobby Naughton, Xu Fengia, Randy Weston, Gebhard Ullmann, Carla Bley, Carlo Zingaro, Barry Altschul & Billy Bang.
Fonda was the bassist with the renowned Anthony Braxton sextet, octet, and tentet, from 1984 through 1999. Fonda also sat on the Board of Directors from 1994 to 1999, and was the President from 1997 to 1999 of the newly formed Tri-Centric Foundation. He has also performed with the 38-piece Tri-Centric orchestra under the direction of Anthony Braxton, and was the bassist for the premiere performance of Anthony Braxton's opera, Shalla Fears for the Poor, performed at the John Jay Theater in New York, New York, October 1996.
As a composer, Fonda has been the recipient of numerous grants and commissions From Meet the Composer New York and the New England Foundation on the Arts. He has released twelve recordings under his own name. (Reviews and recordings available). Fonda was also a member of The Creative Musicians Improvisors Forum directed by Leo Smith, and was the bassist with the American Tap Dance Orchestra in New York City, directed by world renowned tap dancer, Brenda Bufalino.
In 1989, Fonda performed with Fred Ho's Jazz and Peking opera in its world premiere at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. From 1982 to 1986 Fonda was the bassist and dancer with the Sonomama Dance Company. An independent producer since 1978, Fonda is the founding director of Kaleidoscope Arts an interdisciplinary performance ensemble and is the producer and musicial director for the Connecticut Composers and improvisors Festival from 2001 to 2011.
Currently Fonda has been recording and touring extensively with the Fonda-Stevens Group, Conference Call, The Fab Trio, The Nu Band and Bottoms Out, with performances at the Bim huis in Amsterdam, Holland, Prague Jazz Festival, Czech Republic, Jazz Halo Festival, Belgium, Jazz Festival Thurinsen, Weimer, Germany, Berlin Jazz Festival Berlin Germany, Jazz Im Agusto Festival Lisbon Portugal, Natt Jazz Festival Bergen Norway, The Vision Festival New York, New York, Jazz and More Festival Sibiu Romania, Bakau Jazz Festival, Azerbijan, Tondela Jazz Festival, Tondala Portugal, Vancouver Jazz Festival, Vancouver Canada, Guelph Jazz Festival, Guelph Canada.
"Saxophonist Jon Irabagon is a subverter of the jazz form," declares Martin Longley in his Irabagon feature in the August issue of The New York City Jazz Record. "He's a revolutionary who's secretly messing with the changes. He might be dismantling the music's mechanics from the inside, but from the outside he can frequently persuade a crowd that he's an old- school practitioner. There are few players who can so deftly stride from postbop to free improvisation, avant country to doom metal and then wander from chaotic collage-spraying to sleek-blowing fluency."
The winner of the 2008 Thelonious Monk Saxophone Competition, Irabagon has since topped both the Rising Star Alto Saxophone and the Rising Star Tenor Saxophone categories in the DownBeat Magazine Critics' Poll and been named one of Time Out New York's 25 New York City Jazz Icons. Jon was also named 2012 Musician of the Year in The New York City Jazz Record and is an integral member of such high-profile ensembles as the Mary Halvorson Quintet, Septet and Octet, the Dave Douglas Quintet, Barry Altschul's 3Dom Factor and formerly of Mostly Other People do the Killing as well as an established bandleader in his own right. The long-standing Jon Irabagon Quartet features Luis Perdomo, Yasushi Nakamura and Rudy Royston, and the Jon Irabagon Trio includes Mark Helias and Barry Altschul. Both ensembles have done numerous tours throughout North America, South America and Europe.
Irabagon has performed and/or recorded with such luminaries as Wynton Marsalis, Evan Parker, Dave Douglas, Herbie Hancock, Billy Joel, the Maria Schneider Orchestra, Kenny Wheeler, Christian McBride, Joey DeFrancesco, Tom Harrell, Conor Oberst, Kenny Barron, Lou Reed, Rufus Reid, Nicholas Payton, Darcy James Argue's Secret Society, Jah Wobble, Michael Buble, George Cables, Bill Laswell, Tom Rainey, Mary Halvorson and Peter Evans, to name a few. more info at: https://jonirabagon.com
Hallwalls Music Program is made possible through public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency.
