Dallas, 8.8.2024

Our first time at Full City Rooster, a congenial coffee roaster and intimate music venue located in Dallas' oldest neighborhood, The Cedars, just down the street from the Longhorn Ballroom. It's a good sounding room, well suited to the requirements of acoustic or lightly amplified instruments. 

I was stoked to hear Trio Glossia after writing liner notes for the album they recorded at the end of June. Their set consisted of four selections from the album -- "Shedding Tongues," "Arcane's Dance," "Ode to Swamp Thing," and "Zoomorphology" -- and highlighted the band's signature strengths: an ability to write catchy, memorable tunes, which they reinvent with each performance; a joyously exuberant energy; and the flexibility that comes from having two distinctive lead voices in Stefan Gonzalez's vibraphone and Joshua Miller's tenor, as well as two aggressively swinging drummers (the same two musicians). Bassist Matthew Frerck is a dazzling virtuoso who pushed the band to compose material rather than sticking to the free improvisation they started out with. I will take any opportunity to see this band. If you haven't, and dig excitingly visceral creative music, you owe it to yourself.

This was our second night in a row seeing the duo of Houston multi-reedist Danny Kamins on sopranino and Polish bassist Marcin Bozek. They took advantage of the room sound to play a set of varied dynamics. The music they make together is a blend of virtuosity, quick thinking, deep listening, and an extreme close-up view of the physicality of instrumental play -- the raw sounds of breath and friction. Kamins is a master of multiphonics, circular breathing, and extended techniques, but even when he removes the mouthpiece from his horn and mutes it with his thigh, the sounds he produces are eminently musical. Bozek's five-string bass guitar has an unusually bright tone, and he uses every imaginable attack (no pedals!) to generate sounds that can be rhythmic and propulsive or spectral and haunting. These spontaneous composers were so in tune with each other that at times, they even phrased together. They'll record in Arkansas this weekend; looking forward to hearing the results. After that, they'll continue their tour with dates in Fayetteville, AR; St Louis; Bloomington, IN; and three shows in Chicago. Hoping they come through DFW again sooner than later.

Meanwhile, guitarists Gregg Prickett and Jonathan F. Horne will be playing Full City Rooster as a duo on August 24. All I ever need is something to look forward to.