Oak Cliff, 2.29.2024

Leap Night at The Wild Detectives. After last night at Rubber Gloves, I wasn't sure I'd be up for another night out, but how often do I get a chance to hear Jonathan Horne play guitar two nights in a row? The realization that there's more "weird music" I dig on the boards in North Texas than at any time since Caravan of Dreams (whose heyday I missed due to military service and having small kids) folded the tent is not something I take for granted. And as my wife says, "It's okay to come to the surface."

On this night, Jonathan was performing as part of the recently recorded trio Atlas Maior: Palindrome with saxophonist Joshua Thomson and drummer Stefan Gonzalez. Thomson's work with Atlas Maior -- an expandable ensemble built around himself and oudist Josh Peters -- draws heavily on Arabic, African, and Brazilian influences. Gonzalez (Trio Glossia) has played with Horne in the transcontinental jazz/rock/hip-hop juggernaut the Young Mothers, as well as less formal aggregations like the Texas Butt Biters. Their set at TWD was a free jazz exorcism the likes of which I haven't seen since Charles Moffett's sons walked into the Recovery Room on Lemmon Avenue during the band's break on a hot summer night in 1978 and blew the roof off the place with a blast of '60s style energy music.

Speaking of energy, Horne -- clad in characteristically colorful mismatched prints -- played with restless animation, stomping on pedals with both feet, switching between his new Fender Bass VI and his trusty Mosrite, attacking his strings with vigor and churning up a whirlwind of sound. His obvious exemplar is Sonny Sharrock, but Horne's advanced ideas and use of extended techniques -- bowing the guitar, hammering on strings with his pick hand, playing a kalimba against the strings -- coupled with his arsenal of effects, takes him into a realm that's entirely other. He played ostinatos of rapid fire runs and when Thomson cued him to play unaccompanied, Horne careened off into Albert Ayler territory. When Thomson responded with his baritone sax (rather than his usual alto), Horne grabbed the Bass VI.

Thomson had a biting tone on alto, and when he bent his knees and leaned into the horn, he conjured the spirit of the testifying saxophonists from Holiness churches. When he picked up an Andean flute, clad as he was in a poncho, he reminded me of the trio of similarly attired flutists I once heard playing in NYC's Times Square. Gonzalez kept up a steady commentary, backhanding the edges of his cymbals, responding to phrases the tonal instruments played, alternately steering and following the conversation.

Tonight, Horne and Thomson will be at the Grackle Art Gallery in Fort Worth, performing music from their recently released Clandestine Flower cassette.