Oak Cliff, 8.15.2019

It was a pretty good night in Oak Cliff.

Dennis Gonzalez was celebrating his 65th birthday, as is his wont, by performing with two of his ensembles -- the brass quintet Euphonious and the jazz/world music trio Ataraxia. As a bonus, the Monks of Saturnalia -- guitar shaman Gregg Prickett's jazz compositional outlet -- were making their first appearance in a decade, on the same bill. The venue was Revelers Hall, a relatively new spot in the Bishop Arts district (so many districts, here in post-gentrification America!), where Kevin Butler (who plays tuba in Euphonious) has been booking an intriguing array of jazz and related musics. On a sultry night like Thursday, when the punishing heat of the day had finally begun to dissipate, they had the doors open, so the music could invite listeners from down the block.

The thing that I miss, hearing Dennis with Ataraxia or Yells At Eels, is the multi-horn polyphony of records like Namesake, Debenge-Debenge, or (a particular fave) Catechism, so I was thrilled to hear that he was gigging with a group that would emphasize that aspect of his work. While it's not an all-brass unit -- Aaron Gonzalez's standup bass serves as the group's anchor -- the confluence of three trumpets (on this night, Dennis, Chris Curiel, and Thaddeus Ford), trombone (the estimable Gaika James, whose own quartet I've wanted to catch ever since I saw a vid of them playing Fela's "Expensive Shit" a couple of months ago), and Butler's tuba has a sound that can range from celestial and spiritual to vigorous and funky. When Stefan Gonzalez joined them on drums for the closing riff tune, the net effect was like a NOLA marching band, but out. Can't wait for these guys to record.

Ataraxia followed with a brief set that demonstrated how their expression has deepened with more time playing together. It was a treat for me to witness their performance from behind tabla player Jagath Lakpriya, so I could see how he strikes his drums to get all those sounds. In a way, the night belonged to bassist Drew Phelps, who played his ass off through two sets, fairly dancing on the big fiddle and conducting a spirited dialogue with Lakpriya during Ataraxia's performance, then switching off between acoustic and electric axes with the Monks of Saturnalia, whose set included a pizzicato solo that hit you in the solar plexus the way Mingus or Haden's playing once did, and a crazy arco excursion that I'd swear included the "Happy Birthday" song in overtones...but maybe I'm overthinking things.

Gregg Prickett is probably the most advanced guitarist currently working in the Metroplex, combining classical chops with distortion, noise, and extended techniques, and his current lineup of Monks is a veritable all-star unit. Besides Phelps and Stefan Gonzalez, the band at Revelers Hall included former Brave Combo multi-reedist Jeffrey Barnes on soprano, clarinet, and wood flute, and Steven Brown (whose own trio plays Revelers Hall this Saturday) on tenor. The horns were able to put their own stamp on the band's charts -- Barnes soloing with abandon, Brown applying his burnished tone -- in spite of only having had two rehearsals. The makings of a great band are here.

Opening with Prickett's Albert Ayler dedication "He Walked Into the River" (which I first heard at Ronald Shannon Jackson's very last performance, when Prickett was a member of his Decoding Society), they played pieces evocative of soundtracks to noir films or Westerns (the latter a Phelps composition), as well as a memorial to one of the three wolves Prickett used to live with. When the guitarist pulls out the stops during a solo, the sound of something powerful and precisely controlled going deliberately off the rails functions as a pretty good metaphor for the times we live in. I'll be looking forward to hearing more from these Monks, as well as Prickett's other band, the contemporary classical/improv Trio du Sang.

Creative music is thriving in Dallas. Who'd a thunk it?