“Hurtling Between” is an apt description of the way Barry Altschul plays drums: effortlessly moving between swing and free playing. It’s also a fitting analogy for the current historical moment, in which there’s often a feeling of catapulting between awareness and denial.
During the pandemic, Joe Fonda asked me if I would join him in a trio session at Barry’s house. We began to play semi-regularly, developing a rapport. Barry’s living room is filled with the accumulated trappings of a jazz life. Resting unsheathed and gathering dust on a bookshelf is an original 45rpm of Carla Bley’s “Ida Lupino,” which Barry recorded with the Paul Bley Trio in 1966 (produced, optimistically perhaps, for barroom jukeboxes).
The music on this recording is both a collective dialogue and a tribute to Barry. At its best, jazz is still an oral tradition and learning by playing with one’s heroes one of the most beautiful aspects of its culture. Barry played on two of my favorite recordings: Dave Holland’s Conference of the Birds, and Paul Bley’s Closer. Joe, and I first met in the late 1980s when I was in college and he played with my mentor, tenor saxophonist Bill Barron. Joe too is a revered elder statesman and virtuoso.
The direct antecedent for the BFA Trio (Bardfeld/Fonda/Altschul) is the FAB Trio, the group that Joe and Barry had with the dearly departed violinist Billy Bang. Bang was an absolute original, a creative juggernaut. The violin, bass, drums instrumentation is unusual. The lack of a chordal instrument lends itself to openness, and the violin and bass form a kind of string section leading to unique orchestration. “Barry and I worked with Billy for many years, and it’s a wonderful sound, a very special sound,” Joe told me. „It’s a pleasure and a joy to be immersed in that very sound once again.”
The BFA Trio is also in the tradition of some of the other great inside/outside groups that Barry has been a member of (that being musician-speak for freely moving “inside and outside” the chord changes of a song). These include the original Paul Bley Trio (with Gary Peacock), the classic Sam Rivers Trio (with Dave Holland), and Barry’s current trio with Joe and alto saxophonist Jon Irabagon. Five of the eight tunes on the recording are originals by the three of us. There are two by Barry (“Martin’s Stew” and “B Out School”), one each by me (“Hurtling Between”) and Joe (“G.S. #2”), and one freely improvised tune featuring Joe on flute (“Hippie Shit Could Set Us Free”). The others are also a nod to Barry; the aforementioned “Ida Lupino,” and the blues “C” by the great Julius Hemphill, with whom Barry recorded Coon Bid’ness. The 1928 standard “I Can’t Give You Anything but Love” (McHugh/Fields) closes the set out for good measure.
