Oak Cliff, 1.28.2024

The Dennis Gonzalez Legacy Band played their second concert last night, behind the screen at the historic Texas Theatre. (Not the best photos I ever took, but I was there, dammit.) In my recurring role as their hype man, I reminded the audience (probably 60-75 folks by my rough count) that early in Dennis' international recording career, Keith Knox from Silkheart Records had encouraged him to include geographic identifiers in the names of his ensembles -- to stake Dallas' claim to its rightful place in creative music, and to showcase the connections Dennis was making with like-minded players and audiences from all over. With that in mind, I dubbed this group the "Dallas-Denton-Houston-Marfa Nonet."

Unlike last time, when the musicians were only able to manage sectional rehearsals and a single group rehearsal the day of the show, the local players had rehearsed as a unit four times, with a final rehearsal with the out of town players at James Talambas' New Media Contemporary Gallery earlier yesterday. The lineup consisted of three brass (Rob Mazurek - cornet, Jawwaad Taylor - pocket trumpet, and Gaika James - trombone and percussion); two reeds (Danny Kamins - soprano, tenor, and baritone, and Joshua Miller - tenor and drums), and two basses (Drew Phelps and Aaron Gonzalez), with Lily Taylor on vocals and bandleader Stefan Gonzalez on drums and vibraphone. Originally, the plan was to have a second drum kit onstage, as well as Stefan's marimba, but the stage wouldn't accommodate them. But improvising musicians can adapt.

This was a very different Legacy Band than last year, in more ways than one. The additional rehearsal time allowed a stronger band dynamic to emerge. The addition of more percussion elements -- lots of small instruments, in addition to the trap set and Gaika's hand drums (not to mention the shamanic cries from Mazurek and the Gonzalezes) -- gave the music a primal, earthy quality, carrying the music deeper into realms of groove that were always implicit in songs like "Namesake," "Document for Walt Dickerson," and "Hymn for Julius Hemphill," but now became like a great wave, carrying the audience away. This was body music, as well as food for the head and a healing balm for the soul. Charles Brackeen's "Attainment," a new item in the band's book, was a particular highlight, with Lily singing the lyrics, as well as performing as another instrument, as she did throughout the show. Her feature "Song for a Singer" was reprised from last year, and provided an uplifting lead-in to the climactic "Hymn for Julius Hemphill."

Brief history lesson: Brackeen (1940-2021) was a multi-reed player who famously recorded Rhythm X with Ornette Coleman's classic Cherry-Haden-Blackwell band in 1973 and went on to record with Paul Motian, Ronald Shannon Jackson, and six Silkheart albums (three under his own leadership, two with Dennis, one with Ahmed Abdullah). "Attainment" was the title track to an album Dennis produced, which featured Olu Dara on cornet. Dennis was always promising to tell me his Charles Brackeen stories, but every time he started, some interruption arose. Aaron Gonzalez says he remembers them, and will share them with me; I'm going to hold him to that.

I particularly dug the contrast between the styles of the horn players -- Mazurek's stunning chops and mastery of extended techniques, judiciously deployed, with lots of attention to the overall flow of the music; Jawwaad's simple (but not simplistic) melodic sense, a good analog for Dennis' approach (particularly on "Song for a Singer"); Kamins' quicksilver runs and sustained ideas; Joshua's gutbucket energy. Gaika James was the glue that held the band together, and his adventurous solos made me wish I could have seen him better. Stefan is now as staggering an improviser on mallets as he is behind a trap set, and I suspect his association with Joshua in Trio Glossia is partly responsible for the forceful new energy in the Legacy Band.

The entire set was recorded for a future release. Danny Kamins will be at Rubber Gloves in Denton on January 31 for Molten Plains XIX with his trio El Mantis, on a bill with fellow Houstonians Tom Carter and Rachel Orosco, and Dentonite Kory Reeder. Aaron Gonzalez will duet with Trio Glossia bassist Matthew Frerck, on a bill with drummer Chris Corsano and altoist Chris Pitsiokos, at The Wild Detectives on February 15. All I ever need is something to look forward to.

Ches Smith's "Laugh Ash"

Goddamn, this sounds like a masterpiece. But wait a minute, let me back up...

Since signing with Pyroclastic a couple of years ago, drummer-percussionist-composer Ches Smith has released an exploration of Haitian Vodou music (Path of Seven Colors) and a meeting of his current trio with guitarist Bill Frisell (Interpret It Well) -- while staying busy as a side musician with the likes of John Zorn, Tim Berne, Marc Ribot, and Trevor Dunn. 

When I reviewed Smith's Finally Out of My Hands (with his band These Arches -- which might have been the first place I heard Mary Halvorson) back in 2010, I commented on the diverse array of influences from which he drew. That eclecticism remains a hallmark of Smith's work as a composer, but on his new album, Laugh Ash, echoes of precursors as disparate as Steve Reich, Haitian Vodou, Beethoven string quartets, and rappers Kool Keith, Motion Man, and E-40 are synthesized seamlessly into a music that sounds bracingly fresh and of the moment. Smith's tonal and textural palette here includes three strings (violin-viola-cello), four winds (flute-clarinet-tenor sax-trumpet), a vocalist, and a mixture of live instruments and electronically generated sounds for bass and percussion. 

Most of the compositions are built around complex, cyclical rhythm patterns that build tension and provide moments of surprise when juxtaposed with soaring vocal melodies (as in the opening first single, "Minimalism") or tightly scripted chamber music ("Sweatered Webs (Hey Mom)"). When James Brandon Lewis rips a harmolodic tenor solo against a bass ostinato that's a distant cousin of the one from Grandmaster Flash's "White Lines" (played by the ever inventive Shahzad Ismaily), it evokes the adventuresome spirit of late '70s NYC. (Lewis's own For Mahalia, With Love showed up on a lot of end-of-2023 lists, as did Mendoza Hoffs Revels' Echolocation, which featured both Lewis and Smith.)

Vocalist Shara Lunon's sung or declaimed lyrics add another layer of referents to the sonic stew (as on the impressionistic tone poem "Winter Sprung"). The most purely hip-hop moment here is "The Most Fucked," powered by samples and drum machines, while "Disco Inferred" pulsates with nervous energy, providing a platform for Oscar Noriega's clarinet, the iconoclastic experimentalist Nate Wooley's trumpet, and the string trio to make successive statements. "Unyielding Daydream Welding" and "Exit Shivers" close the program on a more somber, reflective note. 

Ches Smith has reached a point in his creative odyssey where he can incorporate all of his musical knowledge and experiences into his expression. Producer David Breskin has facilitated Smith's journey in the same way he did for Ronald Shannon Jackson, Nels Cline, Mary Halvorson, and Kris Davis before him. Laugh Ash is a milestone in Smith's discography, and marks him as a leader of consequence in this decade's creative music.