dennis gonzalez

around the time i started this blog, i wrote some liner notes for idle wild, a cd by dallas-based trumpeter dennis gonzalez with saxophonist oliver lake.

(back in the '70s, lake, a veteran of st. louis' black artists group, was a fixture on the new york loft jazz scene, and penned the following lines i dig much in his poem "separation":

first the salad
then the meat
then the vegetables..........
"WAIT"
bring all my food at one time on the same plate!

Dixieland, Be-Bop, Soul Rhythm & blues,cool school,Swing,
Avant Garde, Free Jazz, Rock

WHAT KINDA MUSIC U PLAY?
"GOOD KIND")

for his part, dennis gonzalez is kind of a force of nature. he's been releasing his own music on his own daagnim label since 1979, and he's also had music out on other labels (in the '80s, copenhagen-based silkheart; more recently, the portuguese label clean feed). over the years, he's traveled around the world, performing and recording with a veritable "who's who" of avant-garde and improvised music. perusing his discography, you'll see names like kelvyn bell (arthur blythe, defunkt, kelvynator, steve coleman's five elements), john purcell (jack dejohhnette's special edition), elton dean (soft machine), keith tippett, louis moholo, charles brackeen, douglas ewart, malachi favors (art ensemble of chicago), carlos ward, nels and alex cline, andrew cyrille (cecil taylor unit), and henry grimes.

since 1999, he's performed in the group yells at eels with his sons aaron on bass and stefan on drums, who also play together in akkolyte and unconscious collective; aaron recently subbed for chris perdue on a ghostcar gig. he ran kera-fm's jazz programming for 21 years, before the station cut its musical programming back to a scant few hours on weekends. beyond that, he's a renowned visual artist, poet, and educator who's taught in the dallas public schools for over 30 years. (early in 2005, when the principal at north dallas high school tried to scuttle the mariachi program dennis spent 27 years building there, several hundred students -- news reports said "more than 200," but dennis maintains it was more like 700 or 800 -- walked out of class in protest. he was subsequently reinstated.)

dennis' musical activities have taken on a new urgency since he began losing his hearing a few years back. always a busy cat, he's released four new cd's since i last checked in with him: a new yells at eels disc, geografia; no photograph available, with boston-based musicians; spiritualized, with the lisbon improvisation players; and a measure of vision with his longtime collaborator, new orleans drummer alvin fielder, along with his sons and pianist chris parker. i'm sorry to say i missed a recent yells at eels performance at a benefit for an antiwar group at arts fifth avenue with jhon kahsen. like jhon, dave williams, chris white, and flipside's work, dennis' expansive ouevre shows the continuing vitality of the improviser's art. i need to catch up on his recorded output and make it to a gonzalez performance soon.