Things we like: Danny Kamins, El Mantis

The pandemic lockdown brought a resurgence of solo recording surpassing even the '70s, when solo performance was a rite of passage for members of Chicago's influential Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians. In the enforced solitude Covid-19 brought, musicians were forced (or inspired) to explore the depths and dimensions of their personal musical languages. Retainer, just out on the UK cassette label Sound Holes, is one such recording from Danny Kamins. The Houston-based saxophonist runs the jazz program at Rice University and books experimental/avant-garde shows in H-Town, as well as performing solo and with various ensembles. 

The cassette medium is uniquely suited to capture the intimacy of an essentially private event. On Retainer, Kamins demonstrates his ability to keep a big column of air moving via circular breathing, embellishing his long tones and quicksilver runs with multiphonics, and covering the whole range of the baritone. His sopranino excursions sometimes recall Eric Dolphy's birdsong impressions on flute.

Back in January, Kamins was in Dallas as part of the Dennis Gonzalez Legacy Band. The following night, he was in Denton with his trio El Mantis. That band teams him with Andrew Martinez on electric guitar, bass, and vocals, and Angel Garcia on drums, wooden flute, and vocals. Formed in 2021, the band's music blends psychedelic rock, free jazz, and impassioned balladry, infused with Afro-Cuban rhythm, with Garcia's operatic vocals adding dramatic flair. Houston-based CIA Records released their sophomore album, II, in February. 

Opener "El Espectaculo" is a good introduction to El Mantis's capabilities: a two-chord chant coupled with a freeblow exorcism. On "For Wendell," Kamins plays a plaintive lament on alto that his bandmates envelop in layers of swirling ambience. (In the studio, Martinez adds oud, sitar, trumpet, and sax to his array of instruments.) When bass and drums introduce a pulse, Kamins becomes more exploratory. "Pharaoh's Birds" sits astride the juncture of the vinyl sides. Starting with a Crimsonoid ostinato, it carries an air of hovering menace until it breaks down to a lysergic focus on microscopic detail. 

The trip continues on side 2, led by Martinez's F/X-laden guitar, with Kamins careening off into the stratosphere. The little march "La Muixeranga" evokes both the cinematic image of a village band and Chilean composer Sergio Ortego's "The People United Will Never Be Defeated." It sets the stage for the album's most danceable number, "Por La Noche," and its most prog-influenced, "Sin Alma."  El Mantis is a band of myriad strengths, whom I need to make sure to see next time they venture up this way.