Oak Cliff, 8.25.2024

It's not every year you get to experience a total wish fulfillment gig, and this year, I've had two -- second Dennis Gonzalez Legacy Band show at Texas Theater, and last night's meeting of Max Kutner's Partial Custody and Trio Glossia with Jonathan F. Horne at The Wild Detectives. Two bands of master improvisers, playing well crafted compositions to a big (for the venue) and enthusiastic audience. My buddy Darrin Kobetich (whose banjo Max borrowed for one tune) and Austin muso Lacey Lewis posted some video on Facebook, but other than that, it wasn't documented that I am aware, so if you weren't in the room, you missed it. 

Trio Glossia -- Stefan Gonzalez on vibraphone and drums, Matthew Frerck on bass, and Joshua Miller on drums and tenor sax -- is my favorite band o' the moment, and their record, which you'll be able to buy in 2025, will undoubtedly be a top spin of mine next year. (I wrote liner notes, so I got to hear the mixes as soon as Aubrey Seaton finished them. How fortunate am I.) Now they're going from strength to strength as they get more comfortable with the pieces and have started reimagining them in live performance. 

The addition of Stefan's longtime collaborator Jonathan F. Horne on guitar -- fresh from dueting with Gregg Prickett at Full City Rooster the night before -- gave them an even higher level of energy and intensity as he tore into the tunes and soloed like a whole nest of angry hornets. Opening with Stefan's "Shedding Tongues," with its memorable theme and multiple tempo shifts, they continued with "Ode to Swamp Thing," with Horne joining in its gorgeous unisons, and Frerck's "Zoomorphology," inspired by a Henry Threadgill seminar at Oberlin, with Miller speaking in tongues through his tenor. Frerck was as virtuosic and expressive as he always is, after TWD's Ernesto Monteil had to intervene to quiet a barfly who seemed determined to tell the entire city his life story. Some people. But no matter, Trio Glossia and Mr. Horne still burned and soared.

The unenviable task of following them fell to Partial Custody, who proved themselves more than equal to the challenge. Max Kutner (Grandmothers of Invention, Captain Beefheart's Magic Band, Oingo Boingo Original Members) is a brilliant composer as well as a fiery, inventive guitarist, who combines stellar chops with a penchant for the sound of surprise. Ben Stapp is an improvising tubist in the grand tradition of Howard Johnson, Bob Stewart, and Joe Daley, playing fleetly fluid lines and holding down the bottom end on the big horn. James Paul Nadien is a mainstay of the Brooklyn free improv scene and currently mans the drum chair in Weasel Walter's Flying Luttenbachers. Not only can he play inside and outside time, but he occasionally seems to bend it to his will, and propels the music into unknown territories. Their self-titled album on Orenda is one of my favorites of this year. 

Their set opened with the loose-limbed second line funk of "Exaggeration Holmes," which grew heavier and morphed into something resembling the Meters jamming with Gentle Giant (with Nadien on glockenspiel, borrowed from Stefan Gonzalez's niece Issy) and thence into an arcing, achingly mixolydian ride from Kutner that sounded like every good note Frank Zappa played in the '80s, then back into more tortuously tight ensemble play. Max played the pointillistic study "Going" on my buddy Darrin's banjo, which gave it a more rustic sound than the recorded version as it followed a veritable Appalachian Trail of melody. Another set highlight was a crushing version of Brian Eno's obscure late period work "Bone Jump" (from 2010's Small Craft On A Milk Sea), with Stapp using some extended techniques on tuba. 

In sum, the New York boys brought it, and Stefan Gonzalez later expressed a desire to tour Trio Glossia with them -- it should happen. Today, Partial Custody heads for Houston, where they'll be at 1810 Ojeman tonight and Khon's tomorrow night. The last time I was this high from witnessing a show, I got shitcanned from my straight and didn't even care (for a couple of weeks, at least). Mileage varies, but if you're in H-Town, you owe it to yourself. Or you can use the Bandcamp link below to experience it in the privacy of your own home.