BOP ARTS presents THE MIKE BAGGETTA GROUP featuring GEORGE SCHULLER, EIVIND OPSVIk and JASON RIGBY
Wednesday March 17th 8pm
Bop Shop Atrium 274 N Goodman St.
in the Village Gate
$10 donation requested
We here at the Bop Shop are always looking out for new musicians that catch our ear to bring to the Atrium. When we received guitarist Mike Baggetta's new release Small Spaces (on the Spanish Fresh Sounds New Talent imprint) we were impressed. Baggetta is a jazz guitarist whose music works firmly in the jazz tradition while taking into account the expanded structures the music has forged. Baggetta's first disc with his quartet has garnered favorable reviews across the board. Michael G. Nastos recently said this in All Music Guide:
It seems jazz churns out hundreds of new electric guitarists per year, and many of them sound much the same. Mike Baggetta has the potential to break the mold of post-John Scofield plectrists if his talent in evidence on this debut recording progresses as it should. Blessed with a refined approach and solid technique, Baggetta's quartet displays music in the neo-bop vein, and in tandem with tenor saxophonist Jason Rigby, gives the listener much food for thought as their well-tethered tandem lines whip up attractive textures. The parallels of Scofield's work with Joe Lovano in the early '90s is hard to deny, as Baggetta and Rigby supply linear modern jazz at once luscious and vocally influenced.
And that pretty much nails it. Incidentally, saxophonist Rigby has several fine albums out under his own name as well. We're also pleased to see two old friends of the Bop Shop in the rhythm section: bassist Eivind Opsvik (he's been here with Tony Malaby, Kris Davis and Harris Eisenstadt) and drummer George Schuller (who's been here with Conference Call, Burton Greene's trio .) Both have also led groups at the Rochester International Jazz Festival. Baggetta has assembled quite a band!
Baggetta originally hails from Massachusetts where he started on guitar and wound up studying at Rutgers University. He has since played around the country working with Los Angeles trumpeter Kris Tiner and in the bands of such players as Kevin Norton, Schuller, Tom Harrell, Conrad Herwig and many others. His quartet sounds like a seasoned band on Small Spaces which is only their first record. This should be an excellent evening of guitar jazz in the Atrium.
THE BOP SHOP & WHOLE LOTTA SHAKIN present BARRENCE WHITFIELD
with the MONKEY HIPS
Thursday March 18th 8pm
Bop Shop Atrium 274 N Goodman St.
in the Village Gate
$10 donation requested(more if ya got it)
Barrence Whitfield, AKA Barry White, started singing in a Gospel church as a young child. Throughout his high school years, he belonged to bands as both a singer and a drummer. Initially, he molded himself after Little Richard and James Brown, although he has many role models and admires such greats as, Duke Ellington, Slim Gallard, Thelonious Monk, the Funkadelics, and Raymond Scott.
Barrence came to Boston, where he was discovered by Peter Greenberg, the founder of the original Savages. This is where Barrence first got a taste of the Rock N' Roll life. The Boston scene was great for newcomers, and Barrence was well-received, but he soon found stardom on a larger scale in Europe.
Andy Kershaw, a well-known DJ and journalist in England, heard Barrence and fell in love with his style, his incredible pipes and his unique persona. It wasn't long before Barrence was traveling all over Europe, making records,and being embraced by fans for his matchless and boundless energy and talent.
Before long, Barrence was opening for, and playing with, performers like Bo Diddley, Tina Turner, George Thorogood, Robert Cray, The Reverend Solomon Burke, Los Lobos, Taj Mahal, Richard Thompson and many more.
While Barrence's European fans were growing rapidly in number, his American popularity wasn't as vast - his fans at home thought he had moved to Europe!
Barrence has received critical acclaim on the two albums he did with renowned country singer/songwriter, Tom Russell, as well as the Merle Haggard Tribute Album. He has recorded an album with Jim Dickerson, who produced the Rolling Stones, and he did an album for Elvis Costello's label.
Barrence has just released his latest CD; RAW! RAW! ROUGH! Check it out now.
Barrence is a legend in his own time, and yet still one of the most untapped talents in the world, especially in the good ol' USA! With a Web site to now keep all his fans alert and aware of his existence, and another CD in the making, Barrence is ready to once more make a mark on the music scene everywhere and knock your socks right off!!
THE CHANDLER TRAVIS PHILHARMONIC
BOP ARTS presents THE CHANDLER TRAVIS PHILHARMONETTE Friday March 26th 8pm The Bop Shop Atrium
274 N. Goodman Street (in the Village Gate) in Rochester, NY
$10 requested donation
Chandler Travis has had a long and checkered career in the world of show biz, beginning in in the seventies when he and Steve Shook joined up as Travis Shook and the Club Wow. Besides achieving much popularity on the east coast, the duo brought their peculiar blend of comedy and music all over the U.S. and to the nationwide television audience on such programs as the Tonight Show, the Midnight Special, and Dick Cavett. Along the way, they released an album and appeared on stage with everyone from Bonnie Raitt to Bruce Springsteen to especially good pals NRBQ and George Carlin (with whom they toured for many years) to Elvis Costello to-- well, you get the idea.
In 1980, Travis was a founding member of the Incredible Casuals,who released four albums (not counting 2007's “Best Of” collection, “World Championship Songs”), toured consistantly all over the world, and are still at it, much to the delight of a small but rabid international following.
In 1988, Chandler began moonlighting as a solo performer, presenting the unlikely mixture of oddball humor and incisive songwriting that continue to be his trademark and appearing with such diverse acts as 10,000 Maniacs, Mose Allison, Roger McGuinn, and (deja vu perhaps?) George Carlin. Upon the arrival of the critically lauded “writer-songsinger” CD, the solo career kicked into high gear with two successful west coast tours and a European jaunt in 1993.
Late in 1996 (much to his own surprise and delight), Travis found himself fronting a nine-piece band, the modestly monikered Chandler Travis Philharmonic -probably the world’s only alternative dixieland / omnipop band. Their debut CD, “Let’s Have a Pancake”, was released in 2000 after his second solo effort, 1999’s “Ivan in Paris”; three more “official” Philharmonic albums followed, all on the Sonic Trout label, the most recent being 2007's 48 track opus “Tarnation and Alastair Sim”, along with the 22 other full-length CDs in the improbable and ground-breaking RadioBall series. A new Philharmonic studio effort is expected this winter, following hard on the heels of Chandler's first solo release in a decade, “After She Left”, which arrives this summer; meanwhile, additional new songs, videos, and recordings can be found on a regular basis at chandlertravis.com.
BOP ARTS presents GEBHARD ULLMANN'S CLARINET TRIO Monday April, 5th 8pm
Bop Shop Atrium 274 N Goodman St.
in the Village Gate
$15 donation requested
The Bop Shop is pleased to announce the return of German saxophonist Gebhard Ullman to the Atrium. This will mark his fifth appearance here after having appeared here with his bands Conference Call and the quartet he co-leads with trombonist Steve Swell. This time we have a special treat. He'll be appearing with one of his German bands which is all too rarely heard in the U.S.: The Clarinet Trio.
Ullman has been a major figure on the German jazz scene since the 1970s. Originally based in Berlin, he now divides his time between Berlin and New York City, leading several bands in each country with some of the top players in improvised music: Steve Swell, Tony Malaby, Michael Jefry Stevens, Joe Fonda and many, many others. The Clarinet Trio has been an ongoing proposition since 1997 and have three albums to their credit. A precedent might be seen in the American band Clarinet Summit that surfaced all too briefly in the 1980s. They do share a penchant for deep, unique grooves and powerful improvisations but Ullman’s clarinet trio has harmonies and voicings that are all theirs. Canadian saxophonist Glen Hall had this to say about them in Exclaim magazine:
You might be forgiven for not expecting a trio of clarinetists to tear things up but the Clarinet Trio does just that and then some. Ballads And Related Objects has chamber music precision, kaleidescopic arrangements, hot blowing, and dynamic overall pacing of ideas and intensities. as well as being adventurous, accessible, abstract and mysterious. Their music grooves, too. Ullmann's tunes deliver plenty to get your neurons firing and foot tapping "
That’s an excellent description of the band. They should sound particularly good in the Atrium. So make sure you don't miss this one.
BOP ARTS presents KONK PACK
featuring Tim Hodgkinson, Thomas Lehn, & Roger Turner
Monday April 12th 8pm
Bop Shop Atrium in the Village Gate
274 N Goodman St, Rochester NY
$10 donation requested
The Bop Shop is pleased to finally be able to bring to you one of the finest European electronic improvising trios around: Konk Pack. We had hoped to bring this band to you a few years back but, unfortunately it never worked out at the time. However, when they contacted us about playing this year, we jumped at the chance because Konk Pack are among the most exciting free improvisatory trios around.
Konk Pack has been making music as a unit since 1997. The trio is made up of three members who share a unique vision and all of whom have a long history behind them. Reed player Tim Hodgkinson was an original member of Henry Cow and subsequently went on to form The Work and released several albums under his own name. Hodgkinson also plays table-top guitar and keyboards in this band. Thomas Lehn is a specialist in analog synths and is a master of the instrument. Bop Shop regulars might remember his duo concert with drummer Gerry Hemingway back in 2000. Since that time he's played with a who's who of European improvising musicians (including saxophonist John Butcher, trombonist Gunter Christmann, drummer Han Bennink a/o) and put out several albums under his own name including the amazing solo disc Feldstarken. He’s also done two more duo albums with Hemingway. Drummer/percussionist Roger Turner has also played with a who's who of improvisers including Derek Bailey, Evan Parker and Phil Minton. In the late 80s he was a member of the trio Recedents with Lol Coxhill and guitarist Mike Cooper. In the 90s he was a member of the Traditions Trio with Alan Silva and Johannes Bauer. He has long list of recordings behind him and has contributed much to the European improv scene.
Konk Pack has had three releases since the late 90s. Here's what British writer Peter Marsh had to say about their Warp Out album on the BBC Web Site:
What makes Konk Pack special is their ability to generate densely impacted material which doesn't sound like a mess... there's plenty of sonic wonderment to keep the intrepid listener's ears firmly pricked.
And finally we will be lucky enough to hear this remarkable band in a live situation. This band makes music that's a unique blend of acoustic and electronic instruments that should be a unique aural assault as it ricochets around the Atrium. This is going to be a show you won't want to miss.
Bop Shop presents NEIL INNES Wednesday April 21st - 8pm
Lovin'Cup Brews & Bistro
300 PARK POINT DRIVE Off Jefferson Rd near RIT $15 advance/$20 at the door.
Probably the most important figure in British musical comedy since the heyday of vaudeville, Neil Innes is that rarity among musical comedians, a side-splitting satirist who can also write perfectly straightforward, catchy pop songs.
Born in Danbury, Essex, England, on December 9, 1944, and spending a good part of his childhood in postwar Germany, Innes followed the traditional route for future English pop stars of his generation and went to art college, specifically Goldsmith's College School of Art in London. Unlike, say, Keith Richards, Innes had a genuine facility for art and flourished at Goldsmith's. Among other pursuits, Innes fell in with a crowd including Vivian Stanshall, Larry Smith, and Roger Ruskin Spears, all of whom shared Innes' taste for both old-fashioned trad jazz and the Dadaist art movement of the 1910s. The foursome, along with an ever-shifting cast of fellow students, formed the Bonzo Dog Dada Band to combine the two. Upon graduation in 1966, the group turned professional, altering their name to the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band because they were tired of having to explain to everyone what Dada was.
Although the retiring Innes was never the onstage focus of the Bonzos, preferring to quietly play guitar and keyboards in the back while the master showmen Stanshall, Smith, and Spears hogged the limelight, he quickly became the group's musical leader. Although all of the Bonzos wrote, Innes' melodic gifts were soon obvious, and his talent for melding sharply satiric lyrics with sweetly catchy pop songs in a variety of musical styles was the secret weapon that kept the group from being just a wacky British version of the Mothers of Invention. Over the course of the group's four albums, Gorilla (1967), The Doughnut in Granny's Greenhouse (1968), Tadpoles (1969), and Keynsham (1969), Innes subtly moved the group's focus from '20s jazz to '60s pop, with gems like the U.K. hit single "I'm the Urban Spaceman" and the genuinely beautiful flip side "Ready-Mades," an oblique ode to Marcel Duchamp's prankish art, being among the most unforgettable songs of their time.
The Bonzo Dog Band appeared weekly on a 1968 British children's television show, Do Not Adjust Your Set. During this project, Innes became friends with Eric Idle, Michael Palin, and Terry Jones, which in turn led to Innes becoming a sort of unofficial seventh member of Monty Python. Contributing songs to Python's stage show, albums, and films, and even acting in a few sketches in the last year of their television series, Innes eventually became an integral part of this classic comedy troupe. However, Innes' work with the Pythons was never more than a part-time affair, and he spent the years after the Bonzos' 1969 breakup pursuing his own projects.
The first of these was the World, a straight rock group Innes formed with former Bonzos bassist Dennis Cowan, drummer Ian Wallace, and guitarist Roger McKew. Their sole album, 1970's Lucky Planet, was a Beatlesque pop album that bears a certain resemblance to early Badfinger. Lucky Planet was preceded by a fine single, "Angelina"/"Come Out Into the Open," but neither song appeared on the album. Shortly after the World split up, the three members of the Liverpool comedy pop group the Scaffold, Roger McGough, John Gorman, and Mike (McCartney) McGear, contacted Innes about forming a new band. Adding guitarist Andy Roberts, the five formed GRIMMS, taking their name from the members' initials. GRIMMS released three albums combining poetry and music, GRIMMS (1972), Rockin' Duck (1973), and Sleepers (1975), before breaking up mid-decade.
In between GRIMMS records, Innes began his solo career with 1974's How Sweet to Be an Idiot. That album and 1977's Taking Off are about evenly split between Innes' playful and pop sides. (How Sweet to Be an Idiot has since been reissued under two different names, the 1980 budget-price LP Neil Innes A-Go-Go and the 1994 CD Recycled Vinyl Blues, which combines the album, the 1970 single by the World, and four later single sides.) Innes' next two albums, 1979's The Innes Book of Records and 1982's Off the Records, are collections of songs performed on Innes' first television show of his own, The Innes Book of Records, which ran for three seasons on the BBC.
Innes has spent most of his time since the mid-'70s working in television, writing and starring in children's shows like The Raggy Dolls and Puddle Lane for British television, as well as collaborating with Python alums Terry Jones and Eric Idle on various projects. One of those collaborations, an Idle-scripted series called Rutland Weekend Television, which spawned the Idle and Innes duo LP The Rutland Weekend Songbook (1976), eventually led to the project for which Innes is probably best known, the loving but dead-on Beatles parody the Rutles. Besides starring in Idle's film All You Need Is Cash as Rutles leader Ron Nasty, Innes wrote 20 perfect Beatles parodies for the soundtrack. In 1996, Innes regrouped the Rutles to record Archaeology, a similarly faultless parody of the Beatles' Anthology CDs. Innes regularly appears at Beatles conventions, both as himself and as Ron Nasty.
Sunday May 2 - 10am - 4pm - FREE The Bop Shop 274 N Goodman St. in the Village Gate
Bop Shop Records will host its 49th Record Show and Sale Sunday, May 2rd 2010 at The Bop Shop in the Village Gate Square 274 N. Goodman St. Over 30 dealers will set up over 50 tables of merchandise ranging from rare and collectible records, tapes, and CDs to autographs, posters and other music related memorabilia. You’ll find rare imports, picture discs, and much, much more! This is the largest show of its kind in western New York! If you’re searching for that one certain group or song, you need to visit this incredible show. Take advantage of great deals on over one quarter of a million rare and collectible records, CDs, tapes, and more! And while you’re there, visit the Bop Shop and find an amazing collection of rare and hard-to-find jazz, blues, soul, and rock records and CDs. Best of all, admission and parking are FREE!
MICHAEL TARBOX
Bop Shop presents MICHAEL TARBOX
with special guest GREG TOWNSON
Thursday May 13th - 8pm
Lovin' Cup Brews & Bistro
300 Park Point Drive Off Jefferson Rd near RIT $15 at the door, $10 with student ID
MY PRIMITIVE JOY, TARBOX'S NEW ALBUM, IS OUT... Featuring: Michael Tarbox: guitar, singing
Scott McEwen: string bass, drums, piano, producer
Jimmy C. Clark: pedal steel, violin, trumpet
JJ Murphy: drums, Robby Cosenza: drums, comment
Recorded at Fry Pharmacy Studios, Nashvill
Michael Tarbox leads The Tarbox Ramblers, best known for a rough-hewn sound drawing equally from American gothic, Appalachian and paleo-blues traditions. But with “My Primitive Joy,” his solo debut, the music's begun to change.
Recorded this spring in a converted pharmacy on the outskirts of Nashville, "My Primitive Joy" bypasses the Ramblers’ backwoods squall entirely. Instead, Tarbox submits an ambitious set of performances centering on acoustic songs – many of them brief - with understated melodies and spare arrangements. The album's inspirations include folk music, rock, pop and - further afield - art song and even elegy. With its smattering of piano, trumpet, pedal steel, it's a far cry from what we’ve come to expect from Tarbox and his group.
Or is it? Asked to address the question over lunch in Cambridge, Tarbox laughed and said he sees only continuity between his older and newer work: “You can reshuffle the deck, but the cards don’t change. The new songs are just as much a result of my influences as anything else I've recorded. The form they take is less important than their spirit."
He has a point. The fatalism of the old songs Tarbox loves is everywhere on “My Primitive Joy.” Hopes and attachments are fraught, and when Tarbox sings “this world and all its danger soon may fall away” it’s tough to say whether he sees respite or calamity coming his way. But if his outlook’s provisional, many of these songs still point to renewal, romantic and otherwise. The world's a contest of love and time but – for now - the former seems to prevail.
Standouts cuts include the title track, a gorgeous tangle of pedal steel that gains the world by letting it go, the coming-of-age tale Have You Been To The City? and the dream realms of At Dusk. Elsewhere, the sunniness of Whose Fault But Mine? belies its story of apprehension and revelation. Tarbox’s expressive singing and vivid lyrics are front and center here, and spacious production gives the listener plenty of room to engage them. Which is a good thing because, heading into uncharted waters, “My Primitive Joy” is his best work yet. http://www.myspace.com/michaeltarbox
BRITTON BROTHERS
PENFIELD HIGH SCHOOL MONDAY/WEDNESDAY JAZZ BAND
PENFIELD JAZZ ENSEMBLE PERFORMS AT BOP SHOP ATRIUM
The Penfield High School Monday-Wednesday Jazz Ensemble will perform a free concert on Friday, May 21, 2010, 7:30 pm, at the Bop Shop Atrium, 274 North Goodman Street in the Village Gate. The band will play a variety of jazz classics from the ‘blues’ to ‘be-bop’.
This is a particularly exceptional band, according to director Jim Doser. “The soloists in this group are very much beyond their years. In fact, four of them will be going on as music majors in college, followed by several juniors who are planning to do the same. The level of improvisation is very, very high.”
Recognized both locally and nationally for its unique jazz performances and programs, the Penfield group makes its fourth appearance at the Bop Shop Atrium. “Performing off-campus, in the eclectic atmosphere of the Bop Shop Atrium, will be a terrific experience for the students. Sometimes performing on a formal stage takes some of the relaxed feeling out of jazz, but the atrium is a perfect location for the students to let loose and present a great concert. This will be a great way to start our end of the year concert series, including performances at the Penfield amphitheater, the RIJF on June 16th, and recording the group’s first CD.”
Tom Kohn, the owner of the Bop Shop, is recognized nationally for not only his extensive jazz collection on vinyl, but for producing an innovative jazz concert series at the Atrium each year. He frequently brings in cutting-edge modern jazz artists to perform for the Rochester community. A Penfield resident himself, Kohn has collaborated several times with the Penfield schools, sharing guest artists for master classes, presenting concerts at the school, and annually sponsoring Penfield’s Jazz Fund Raiser concerts.Kohn has launched a successful not-for-profit organization to continue to bring new music artists to perform in Rochester.
The Monday-Wednesday Jazz Ensemble will also perform at the Rochester International Jazz Festival on Tuesday, June 16th, at 5:15PM and at the Penfield Town Amphitheater on Saturday, May 30th at 1:15 PM.
For more information, contact Jim Doser at 249-6737 or Tom Kohn at 271-3354.PENFIELD
BOB DYLAN'S BIRTHDAY PARTY WITH HUNU? & FRIENDS
BOB DYLAN'S BIRTHDAY PARTY WITH HUNU? & FRIENDS
Saturday May 29th
8pm - until it ends
Bop Shop Atrium
274 N Goodman St. in the Village Gate.
$10 donation requested
This bash was started 24 years ago by Chuck Cuminale of the Colorblind James Experience. Since Cuminale passed away, it has become as much a tribute to him as to Dylan. The joke is that Dylan's always invited, and is forever on his way to the party. So keep your eyes peeled; even if you don't see a ghost, you're pretty much guaranteed to hear one. This year, celebrate Dylan's 68th birthday with HUNU?, and a myriad of other local musicians.
WRECKLESS ERIC & AMY RIGBY
14 FRIDAYS 2010
14 Fridays begins Friday June 4th through September 3rd
The line-up will be announced as we confirm the dates.
14 FRIDAYS - BABY SODA
14 FRIDAYS kicks off the season with BABY SODA Friday June 4th 6 - 8pm FREE
In the courtyard of the Village Gate rain or shine
274 N Goodman St.
Baby Soda! Developed by hoboes, perfected through science... Baby Soda is on the cutting edge of a new movement loosely known as street jazz; with an eclectic set of influences ranging from New Orleans brass bands, jug music, southern gospel and hot jazz. The ensemble doesn't desire to recreate the past, rather they bring the concept and joy of the music to the present. Baby Soda is an adaptable and ever changing group made up of New York's finest musicians; featuring trumpet, accordion, clarinet, washboard, banjo and one string box bass. The band can be seen regularly at some of New York's finest venues like Cafe Moto, Barbes, The Knitting Factory and the Jalopy Theater. In addition to their busy schedule of club dates, Baby Soda loves performing on the street and in the subway. This allows them to hone their skills and bring the music directly to the people. Both Pediatrics and Geriatrics agree, Baby Soda is the sure cure for the aches and pains of the modern world!
14 FRIDAYS - THE FLIPSIDERS w/Jed Curran & Jeff Riales
14 FRIDAYS continues - THE FLIPSIDERS
w/Jed Curran & Jeff Riales Friday June 11th 6 - 8pm FREE
In the courtyard of the Village Gate rain or shine
274 N Goodman St.
BOP FEST 4
JULY 17 & 18
BANDS TBA
NU BAND
BOP ARTS presents NU BAND Wednesday September 22 8pm The Bop Shop Atrium
274 N. Goodman Street (in the Village Gate) in Rochester, NY
$10 requested donation
"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)
The Nu Band has been presented by Sweetnighter Productions, Philadelphia, PA, The Music Now 2 Festival and the Knitting Factory in NYC, The Buttonwood Tree, Middletown, CT, The Bop Shop, Rochester, NY, and HalIwalls Contemporary Center for the Arts, Buffalo, NY.
Mark Whitecage is internationally known as a dynamic, ceaselessly inventive instrumentalist and composer in jazz and new music. Current projects include Solo work as well as his own Duos, Trios, Quartets, and Quintets. He has a number of award-winning recordings on Acoustics, CIMP and GM Recordings, including a series of CDs just released on Acoustics. Since the 1960's he has performed and recorded with some of the leading artist of our time including Jeanne Lee, Atnhony Braxton, Gunter Hampel, Dominic Duval, Joe McPhee, Steve Swell, Marshall Allen and Saheb Sarbib, in the US, Canada, and Europe.
"Whitecage is again magnificent." Glenn Astarita, All About Jazz.
Lou Grassi is internationally known for his work in both the traditional and the avant-garde jazz worlds. From the 1970's to the present, Lou has performed and/or recorded with a great variety of outstanding artists, including Marshall Allen, Borah Bergman, Rob Brown, Charles Gayle, Urbie Green, Gunter Hampel, Johnny Hartman, Sheila Jordan, William Parker, Perry Robinson, Roswell Rudd, Steve Swell, John Tchicai and many others.
"Lou Grassi is one of those few jazz players who is as comfortable with straight ahead bop as he is with ventures into the realm of the totally free and the creativity and energy are boundless." Steven A. Loewy, All Music Guide To Jazz.
Roy Campbell Jr. has long been associated with the most creative elements of "downtown" New York jazz, performing with bassist William Parker in his Little Huey Orchestra and their Other Dimensions in Music band, as well as recording and performing with Matthew Shipp, Daniel Carter and Rashid Bakr. "Campbell ... can play everything: long, sustained lines ... shrieking vertical runs ... and best of all, thoughtful, well-spaced constructions that work especially well. Campbell plays with humor and a willingness to try something new anytime." Steve Tignor,CDNow.
Joe Fonda is an accomplished international artist who has performed and recorded as a leader in his own ensembles, mc notably The Fonda/Stevens Group throughout the United States an Europe, and as a sideman with Anthony Braxton, Archie Shepp Bill and Kenny Barron, Ken McIntyre, Charlie Persip, Lou Donaldson, Leo Smith, Curtis Fuller, Mark Whitecage, Kunle Mwanga, Majeed Greenley, Bobl Naughton and others. "The music of Joe Fonda is part of a living tradition of belief and dedication. Future historians will be surprised at the breadth of Mr. Fonda's offerings. This is a real virtuoso and composer of the highest order." Anthony Braxton.
