Dallas, 11.29.2024

My buddy Mike was just back from a week in Mexico, so he, my wife, and I headed over to the Bath House Cultural Center on the shores of White Rock Lake to catch the Dennis Gonzalez Legacy Band's record release show for Live At the Texas Theatre, which dropped today on Astral Spirits. All the musicians from the recorded concert last January were present save one: trumpeter Jawwaad Taylor was sidelined due to illness; he might still make the Austin or Houston dates (Dadalab tonight and Lawndale Arts Center Monday, respectively). 

The Bath House performance space is a great sounding room, which provided a much better view of the musicians than the tiny stage behind the screen at Texas Theatre. I would have liked to hear Lily Taylor's mellifluous vocals a little higher in the mix, as she was often swamped by the four-horn front line in ensembles, but she was clearly audible for her feature, "Song for a Singer."

The set consisted of the four pieces that comprise the record, plus a closing "Hymn for Julius Hemphill." As on the record, it opened with the horns -- Rob Mazurek (trumpet and cornet), Joshua Canate (tenor), Danny Kamins (tenor and sopranino), and Gaika James (trombone) -- playing the fanfare from "Hymn for Mbizo," conducted by Drew Phelps, one half of the "bass section" flanking the drum kit, with Aaron Gonzalez on the other side. Then Stefan Gonzalez's hyperactive kick drum announced the start of "Hymn for Toshinori Kondo," Yells At Eels' signature tune that never fails to increase my pulse rate.

At the first Legacy Band concert back in 2023, the sound of multi-horn polyphony with Dennis's music brought tears to my eyes. It still does. You have to go back to his Silkheart records from the late '80s to hear such in his discography. The recorded show in January brought a joyful esprit to his tunes -- I'd never thought of "Namesake" or "Hymn for Julius Hemphill" as dance tunes, but in this lineup's rendering, they could be. Much of that had to do, I thought, with Joshua Canate, who kicks the traps when Stefan is playing vibraphone and at all times radiates positive energy. 

At the Bath House, we heard a group of musicians who are comfortable enough with the material and each other to take significant chances. From the first number, there were sections of free improvisation, where the horn players took up percussion instruments (Gaika James' Brazilian pandeiro and singing bowl were particularly noteworthy) in the manner of the Art Ensemble of Chicago. There was no predetermined order of solos; instead, spontaneous duos sprung up, giving way to solos. On "Namesake," Mazurek directed the horns to play hits behind soloists. Band members vocalized spontaneously, the sound of a cathartic release. The band dug deep and used Dennis's compositions as vehicles to take us on a journey. 

Throughout, Stefan played with fierce authority and directed the band from behind the drums and vibraphone, taking an extended rest during "Song for a Singer" to listen and appreciate what his band mates were putting down. When Lily was struggling to be heard during "Document for Walt Dickerson," he cued the horns to quiet their ecstatic riffing so she could be heard; they blew on regardless and he let it go. At that point, the machine was running on pure momentum. So many highlights: Mazurek and Kamins' virtuosity; Joshua's wide Ben Webster-via-Ayler-and-Shepp vibrato; Gaika James' synthesis of New Orleans, Fred Wesley, and Afrobeat; Drew and Aaron's bass conversations; Lily's soaring voice. Dennis's music, as played by these musicians, possesses the kind of soul and spirit we need to sustain us in the days to come. If you haven't yet, get you some.

Gary Rasmussen, 1950-2024

I'm sitting here at my desk, looking at a picture of Michigan musician Gary Rasmussen with Sonic's Rendezvous Band, on a flyer for a concert recording from 1980 that Easy Action Records released awhile back. News came through this morning that Gary had passed following a short illness. As recently as last Monday, he was onstage in Lansing with the Broken Arrow Blues Band, playing a benefit for the local food bank. I've written about Gary's musical exploits in the '60s and '70s but we never met, except by phone. We were acquainted on social media and I looked forward to seeing his food posts. Thinking now of his longtime partner Marla Swartz and their family. 

Back in the turbulent late '60s, Gary was at the epicenter of Detroit's politicized hip underground, playing bass in the Up with his brother Bob on guitar, Frank Bach on vocals, and Scott Bailey on drums. They were the "house band" for the White Panther Party after the MC5 vacated the position. The Up eventually morphed into Uprising, with future Mitch Ryder drummer Wilson Owens. 

Late in 1976, Gary replaced W.R. (Ron) Cooke as bassist in the aforementioned Sonic's Rendezvous Band, a Detroit supergroup of sorts that also included Fred "Sonic" Smith (MC5) and Scott Morgan (Rationals) splitting guitar and vocal duties and ex-Stooges drummer Scott "Rock Action" Asheton. Their one vinyl release, the single "City Slang," is revered by fans from Sydney to Stockholm as an exemplar of high energy Detroit rock. Although they remained a strictly local phenomenon during their existence, fans traded live tapes for years, and there have been many archival releases in the 21st century. After Fred Smith folded the band in 1980, Gary and Rock continued playing with Morgan as the Scott Morgan Band and Scots Pirates until the late '90s.

Gary, Fred, and Rock backed Iggy Pop on tour in Europe in 1978, and Gary joined Fred in accompanying Fred's wife, Patti Smith, on her 1988 album Dream of Life (which included the durable anthem "People Have the Power"). In the early Aughts, Gary accompanied rocking blues revivalist Alvin Youngblood Hart, recording the album Motivational Speaker with him. (There's video on YouTube of Hart performing the Sonic's Rendezvous Band song "Electrophonic Tonic" with Gary.) 

Gary continued gigging frequently with Michigan rock and blues bands, even after a bout with leukemia. He was a revered elder in the Michigan music community, and a vital link to a crucial moment in social and musical history. Gentle passing to him, and peace and comfort to all who knew him.

Denton, 11.20.2024

I'm not going to lie: It's been kind of an ass kick since the election. While I'm not as freaked out as some of my friends (SSRIs help), it's clear to anyone with eyes who hasn't buried their head in the sand that what's coming is not good. Which means it's imperative that we push back in any way we can. Right now, that mostly means being aware of what's going on, and being prepared to use our presence, our voices, and our bodies to protect vulnerable ones (right off the bat, that'd be queer and trans folk, and anyone whose appearance might evoke suspicion from a soldier at a checkpoint who's been ordered to look for "illegals"). 

I was talking to Rachel Weaver at Molten Plains last night, expressing my admiration for the way she (and Sarah Jay and Sarah Ruth Alexander) combine creative work with environmental activism. She said that the skills that serve well in one arena can be equally useful in the other -- "mainly listening." It also occurred to me that those of us who play or support unpopular musics already understand what it is to operate on society's fringes and be supportive of one another. The same is true whether or not one is the target of real oppression, and it's worth remembering. 

Listening is the cornerstone of improvised music, and last night's Improv Lotto gave us the opportunity to observe four different examples, approaches, and outcomes. Improv Lotto originator Aaron Gonzalez was performing in a play at Dallas' Ochre House, so Molten Plains co-curator Ernesto Monteil made the selections of musicians for a quartet and three trios. 

First out of the hat was the quartet of Marissa Rodriguez on vocals and electronics, Rob West (Bobo) on guitar, Mallory Frenza (Smothered) on bass, and Dallasite Jess Garland on harp. West led off with some skronky atonal guitar, which proved to be the pacing item for the entire set. Rodriguez sang and read in English and Spanish, using some electronic treatments on her voice. I'd been looking forward to hearing Garland, of whom I've been a fan since hearing her with Dennis Gonzalez's Ataraxia, but the volume level onstage limited her to some washes of sound and inaudible single-note flurries. Frenza struggled to find a tonal center in between these elements, but ultimately, everyone was reduced to making their loudest noise, which was the only alternative to silence.

Next up was the trio of Kourtney Newton (Bitches Set Traps) on cello, Kristina Smith on accordion and vocals, and Michael Meadows on guitar -- another lineup where the volume differential between electric and acoustic instruments could have been problematic. The result was quite the opposite -- a sublime three-way conversation that several folks I spoke with afterward agreed was their favorite set of the night. Newton's a consummate improviser, with a wide array of techniques and effects at her disposal using just the acoustic instrument. On this occasion, she was more amplified than usual, but Meadows modulated his volume and used his harmonic-rich tone and array of effects in ways that complimented and supported his bandmates. (At times, it was a challenge to discern which sounds originated from which musician -- a measure of success, to these feedback-scorched ears.) At the center (both physically and sonically) was Smith's folkloric lament (she may have been referring to a text, because the music stand in front of her gave her the same aspect as everyone at the last Dennis Gonzalez Legacy Band show). A haunting and riveting performance by all.

The next trio brought together Paul Slavens (Ten Hands and KXT radio) on piano, Joshua Canate (Trio Glossia, Same Brain) on drums, and the aforementioned Sarah Jay on vocals and electronics. Jay set the pace early, using electronic treatments on her voice that included instrumental and percussive sounds. Canate responded to the latter with cymbal crashes and tom rolls, while Slavens split the difference between his two collaborators, interacting with one or the other at different times. (The collision of his virtuosic technique with Canate's thunder put me in mind of Cecil Taylor and Tony Williams in their one encounter on The Joy of Flying.) At one point, Canate traded sticks for brushes and Jay became more audible. Later, they couldn't remember whether it was choice or accident, but it restored balance to the set, which wound down to a satisfying conclusion.

The closing set belonged to Stacy Stacis on Omnichord, Oak Cliff OG free jazzer Gerard Bendiks (Swirve, Tidbits), and Michael Briggs (Civil Audio) on vocals and electronics. The sound check served notice this was going to be a loud one. Stacis performed with a balaclava over her head (no eyeholes), looking like what one observer described as "a black metal Pussy Riot," holding the Omnichord like a guitar. Bendiks added a second kick drum to the house kit and brought along an electric guitar, which proved in the event not to be audible. Briggs electronically manipulated his voice to sound like the encroaching void, which Stacis filled with stars and planets. At one point they reached what appeared to be a conclusion, but Bendiks -- who likes to stir the pot -- played on, using lots of negative space, until the others joined in, reached another crescendo, then brought it down again, just in time for a passing train to add its sounds. Finally, Stacis turned off her instrument, and the steady tone that had been in the background throughout the episode disappeared. Finis.

This year's Molten Plains Fest will be at Rubber Gloves (of course) on Saturday, December 14. The one-day event will feature eight sets by White Mountain Apache polymath Laura Ortman; a trio of violinist gabby fluke-mogul, guitarist Tom Carter, and bassist Aaron Gonzalez; the Kory Reeder-Ryan Seward-Andrew Weathers trio that recorded this year's Two Ballads from the High Plains; an unaccompanied dance duo of Sarah Gamblin and Carla Weaver; a trio of Zachary James Watkins (Black Spirituals) with Stefan Gonzalez (Trio Glossia, Young Mothers) and Joshua Canate; saxophonist Caroline Davis; a duo of Chicago-based bass clarinetist-vocalist Emily Rach Beisel and Austin percussion eminence Lisa Cameron; and a collaboration of Python Potions, Monte Espina, and Sarah Ruth Alexander. It will be a busy day for Alexander, as earlier in the day, she'll be performing with Sounds Modern at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth (which will include a set by Bitches Set Traps). An embarrassment of riches to steel us for whatever 2025 has to offer.

Things we like: Andrew Hill, Ohad Talmor, Joe Fonda

I told myself I wasn't going to write any more record reviews until after the election, but one can only write so many postcards to voters before needing the distraction of a different task. A few interesting artifacts have come across my desk this month, either in corporeal (CD) form, or via download. 

To begin with, Andrew Hill's A Beautiful Day, Revisited -- out November 1 on Palmetto -- is an expanded and sonically improved upgrade of a classic from a peak in the esteemed pianist-composer's recording career. In 2002, Hill and a big band he dubbed his Sextet Plus 10 played three nights at Birdland that provided the raw material for the original A Beautiful Thing. His 2000 Palmetto release Dusk -- for my two cents, maybe his finest (sorry, Point of Departure) -- had topped year-end polls in Downbeat and Jazz Times, and for the follow-up, he took the same group, augmented with three reeds and seven brass, to the stage to record a new set of material live: an audacious move. The result mixes gorgeous horn polyphony with stunning solos from reedmen Marty Ehrlich and Greg Tardy and trumpeter/musical director Ron Horton. 

Twenty years later, Palmetto founder/producer Matt Balitsaris revisited the multitracks for the album, using technology that didn't exist when A Beautiful Day was first released to fine tune the sound, bringing up elements -- solos that were off-mic, sections when they switched instruments -- that weren't optimally audible in the original mix. For Revisited, Balitsaris restored the six-minute Birdland version (including band introductions) of the closing track "11/8" (which was edited down to a minute for the original release), and added a 16-minute alternate take of the title track which shows how Hill's material -- which was rehearsed in short sections that could be resequenced in performance -- changed from night to night. The producer's work has paid off, creating a more spacious soundscape. For proof, dig the confluence of Scott Colley's bass, Jose Davila's tuba, and Nasheet Waits' drums around the leader's piano on "New Pinocchio." 

It always pleases me to hear contemporary musicians playing the music of Ornette Coleman (like Tim Berne's Broken Shadows band, who came to Texas but sadly not DFW). As long as his music is heard, he yet lives. So naturally I was interested when a friend pulled my coat to Ohad Talmor's Back to the Land, a recent release on Swiss label Intakt. Talmor's a French-born Israeli-American tenor saxophonist-composer who spent formative years in Switzerland and now lives in Brooklyn. He was mentored by Ornette's associate Dewey Redman (his first teacher) and Lee Konitz, with whom he played and co-led bands for three decades.

The spark for Back to the Land came from three DAT tapes Talmor found in Konitz's collection following his mentor's death in 2020. The tapes documented the May 1998 rehearsals in Ornette's loft of a Coleman-Konitz-Charlie Haden-Billy Higgins quartet that played a single gig, at that year's Umbria Jazz Festival. Coleman had written ten new, unnamed pieces for the date that were never subsequently published, until now. Talmor transcribed the tunes and obtained permission from Ornette's estate to perform them. 

The model for Talmor's presentation of the new material is Ornette's 1987 double LP In All Languages, which featured one record of his 1959 quartet and another of his electric band Prime Time, including versions of some tunes by both ensembles. Thus, the first disc of Back to the Land features Talmor playing the pieces in short versions with his trio (Chris Tordini on bass, Eric McPherson on drums), adding vibraphonist Joel Ross and either David Virelles or Leo Genovese on piano (playing Konitz's old Steinway) for larger ensemble variations. The second disc adds live electronics (by Genovese on Moog and Sequential synths) and sound treatments (created in Ableton software and triggered by Talmor in performance), along with trumpeters Russ Johnson, Shane Endsley, and Adam O'Farrill, and (on the closing "Quintet Variations on Tune 10") harmonicist Gregoire Maret.  

In addition to inhabiting and expanding on the newly-discovered Coleman compositions, Talmor and his musicians take on some other related material: a smooth and languid take on "Kathelin Grey" (listed as "Kathlyn Grey" here) from Ornette's Song X collaboration with Pat Metheny; the main theme from Ornette's 1986 string quartet-with-drums piece Prime Design/Time Design (here entitled "New York," with a bass solo that finds Tordini exploring Charlie Haden's world of deep song); and two Redman tunes, "Mushi Mushi" (from Keith Jarrett's Bop-Be) and "Dewey's Tune" (from the first Old and New Dreams album, heard here in a quintet version with piano and vibraphone). Talmor also quotes the melody from "Peace Warriors" (a tune played twice on In All Languages) at the end of his solo on "Quartet Variations on Tune 4."

Talmor's musical archaeology and composer's craft have combined with his and his collaborators' interpretative skills to render a fitting tribute to Ornette, Dewey, and Lee, one that also stands tall on its own merits. But all tributes need not be posthumous. 

On Eyes on the Horizon -- out November 15 on the Italian label Long Song -- bassist Joe Fonda pays tribute to the trumpeter-composer Wadada Leo Smith, a mentor since the early '80s, when Fonda joined the Connecticut-based Creative Music Improvisers Forum, a cooperative co-founded by Smith and vibraphonist Bobby Naughton. The album comprises seven new Fonda compositions, inspired by his association with Smith. The quartet on the date includes Wadada as well as two other long-time Fonda collaborators: pianist Satoko Fujii, with whom the bassist has recorded five duet albums since 2015, and drummer Tiziano Tononi, with whom he's made seven albums since 2018.

Fonda's compositions have a meditative cast, seamlessly blending written and improvised sections, with strong unison themes and occasional solo and duo intervals -- most notably Smith with Fonda on the Naughton dedication "Like no other," but also Smith with Tononi on "Bright lights opus 5" and Fujii with Fonda on "We need members opus 1." Smith's ringing clarity plays well with Fujii's chordal density, Fonda and Tonini are equally expressive and supportive, and the result is chamber jazz of the highest order.