different place & time by fumosonic

While John’s background was based in jazz (including

Miles Davis and Ornette Coleman), he enjoyed the rock

of Pink Floyd, James Brown and the modern classical

music of Mahler and Ives. Kelly loved groove music,

hip hop, dance music and funk in addition to jazz.

Together the Fumos have the potential of mixing

together virtually all styles of music to form their

own unique genre.

“First we write the song,” says John Fumo. “My wife

contributes the lyrics, we think of the rhythms we

want to utilize, and we begin recording some parts.

Over time we add the other musicians, redo our parts,

and then we have the song. From there, the composition

develops over time as we perform it live.” Combining

together accessible and catchy but unpredictable dance

rhythms with electronics, John’s trumpet, solo and

group improvising, and Kelly’s haunting vocals, the

music of Fumosonic is both unusual and distinctive.

Born in Wisconsin, John Fumo literally began his

musical life playing free jazz. “My father was a big

jazz fan and he played me records of all of the greats

like Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis

throughout my childhood. At one point he asked me if

I’d like to play an instrument and I said sure. I was

going to play saxophone but I couldn’t get a sound out

of it. I picked up a cornet, made a few sounds, and

the band director at school suggested that I play it

because they needed brass soloists. My father and I

used to play freely improvised duets on cornet and

drums. I didn’t know what I was doing at the time, I

could barely hold the cornet, but it was a great deal

of fun, so one could say that the first music I played

was free jazz.”

John Fumo took private lessons starting in the seventh

grade, attended the New England Conservatory of Music,

and moved to Los Angeles in 1978. He worked with

Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra, met

multireedist Vinny Golia, and recorded both as a

sideman and a leader (1986’s After The Fact) for

Golia’s Nine Winds label (an association that

continues up to this day), displaying a higher

original and spirited style on trumpet. Since that

time, he has appeared on a dozen film scores and

played with a remarkably wide variety of artists

including Tito Puente, Japan’s Inner Galaxy Orchestra,

Mel Torme, Neil Young, Brian Setzer, Rudy Regalado,

Wayne Peet’s Doppler Funk, Brian McKnight, Dianne

Reeves, Faith Hill, James Brown, Tower of Power, U2,

Celine Dion, Smokey Robinson, Michael Bolton, Whitney

Houston, John Tesh, Flora Purim, Phoebe Snow, Lou

Rawls, The Four Tops, K.D. Lang, Babyface, Al Jarreau,

Bon Jovi, Neal Diamond (with whom he extensively

toured in 2006) and pianist George Kahn. In addition,

he teaches at Cal Arts.

But clearly the project that is closest to John Fumo’s

heart is Fumosonic. The group has thus far recorded

All That Is, Strange And Wonderful and Different Place

And Time, and the Fumos are currently working on a new

recording. Kelly Fumo had previously worked

extensively on television jingles and film scores

while immersing herself in contemporary music. Her

memorable vocals and inventive lyric writing are major

assets to Fumosonic. “Kelly puts a lot of heart into

her singing and uses space like Miles Davis or Chet

Baker used to. She knows a lot more about contemporary

music and grooves while I bring in my jazz knowledge,

a combination that works well together. Musically we

are on the same page.”

The expertise of such musicians as the masterful

electronic percussionist Brad Dutz, Don Markese on

reeds, pianist Joe Rotundi, guitarist Tim Kobza,

drummer Eli Hludzik and percussionists MB Gordy and

Mitchito Sanchez add colors and inventive ideas to

Fumosonic alongside Kelly’s vocals, guitar, keyboards

and loops and John’s trumpet and flugelhorn.

For the future, the Fumos plan to perform live on a

monthly basis in the Los Angeles area with Fumosonic

and hope to take their unique group to Europe, Japan

and many other places throughout the world. Although

there have been other attempts to combine jazz

improvising with dance rhythms, few are on the level

of Fumosonic, and no band sounds quite like this one,

the musical dream of John and Kelly Fumo.

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