FW/Denton, 9.22-25.2022

Multiply immune boosted and fresh from an interval as a full-time healthcare consumer, I ventured out into the world.

Nick Didkovsky is a musician (Doctor Nerve/Vomit Fist/Eris 136199) I've admired and communicated with online for years, but we never met before this weekend. His band Pretties For You NYC performed at Good Records in Dallas a few seasons back, but I was otherwise engaged. So when he sent word that he'd be in town for the Gored in the Heart of Texas Fest at the Haltom Theater, I was looking forward to finally making his real-life acquaintance. In the flesh, Nick's an intelligent, insightful cat with a great sensahumour; everything you want and nothing you don't want. Had a great hang the day before the fest, introducing Nick to the wonders of Competition Music and Born Late Records. At Born Late, had great convo with John Perez, a metal/psych rock lifer who's fought the music wars as a muso (Solitude Aeturnus/Liquid Sound Company/Headbanger), tour manager, and label boss, as well as slinging platters for Henry Vasquez. It's all one thread, John sez: "My job is connecting people to music." When you're around people who get it and do it right, you want to keep it going. So we did, and Nick had to defer a planned trip to Good Records until Sunday, before his flight. He says he'll be back for next year's fest. Hope so.

Sunday after brunch with Nick (before he headed off to Good Records, then back to NYC), I headed up to Denton to crate dig at Recycled Books and Records (where I was able to find four out of five items I slept on last time; shame on me for letting Sam Rivers Crystals slip through my fingers) and see a show at the home of Sarah Ruth Alexander and Stephen Lucas. L.A.-based trumpeter Dan Clucas (Universal Congress Of) is making a seven-date solo tour, crossing the country from Texas to Chicago to New England, performing with local improvisers wherever he goes. On this occasion, he performed in a quartet with three mainstays of the North Texas creative music scene: Sarah Ruth on her skateboard guitar (made by Stephen using a board designed by the late Nevada Hill), Aaron Gonzalez on bass, and Stefan Gonzalez on drums. 

Up first was a duo of Elizabeth McNutt on flute and small instruments and Kourtney Newton on cello -- classical virtuosi who, together with Sarah Ruth, make up the transgressive improv trio Bitches Set Traps. They played a brief set in which shifting textures, overtones, and percussive sounds combined with the wind in the trees (as Dan pointed out) to form a totally integrated sound field. Deep listening was richly rewarded.

 

The quartet played a tripartite set: first the whole unit, then a trio with Sarah Ruth sitting out, then a brief finale with her returning, neatly ending the performance at 8pm (time control being important when playing outdoors in a residential neighborhood). Communication and listening were as important in this louder and more dynamic format as they were in the duo's quieter acoustic performance. At different times I'd hear a player mirroring something someone else had played, then bringing it back to make it a structural element. Sarah Ruth's rich voice blended seamlessly with the glisses from her amplified skateboard guitar. Dan's horn had a burnished, throaty tone that reminded Stefan of Tomas Stanko, and at one point evoked for your humble chronicler o' events the spirit of Aaron and Stefan's father Dennis. He moved adeptly between open horn, Harmon and plunger mutes, cornet and violin. Aaron's deep woody sound anchored the music and gave it a cry something like the blues while Stefan's agile and inventive drumming danced all over it. Both Aaron and Sarah Ruth will be at Grackle Art Gallery in my neck of the woods next month (Aaron Oct 6, Sarah Ruth Oct 27). Looking forward.