Denton/Dallas, 6.28.2025

Rolled out of the rack late after a good STC practice last night. Regrettably, the video on my phone was shot in slo-mo, so I couldn't upload it to YouTube, but I was able to view it at regular speed on my phone and have to say we played a pretty tight version of "Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White." Cam improved us the way a good drummer always does a band. Not that we were planning on it, but this might actually be giggable by the fall, if there's anyplace that would have us. I always say the Stooge band was the most fun I ever had, but this is giving it a run for its money, plus I can remember every time we've played.

My buddy Mike came by and picked me up for the drive up to Denton and KUZU-FM's Revolution Record Convention, which included Spinning Bricks: Record Stores As Cultural Hubs, a lively and spirited panel discussion moderated by Sonido Tumbarrancho producer Ernesto Montiel, with record people Daniel Salas (of Fort Worth's Doc's), Mike West (of Denton's Recycled), Karla Grisham (of Chicago's Dusty Groove), and Kate Siamro (of Oak Cliff's Spinster). The passion for music and community these folks displayed reminded me why slinging platters was the only one of the numerous ways I've made a buck that I would go back to. Kudos to Ernesto for putting them together and asking the questions that sparked their discussion.

In the evening, my wife and I headed to Dallas' The Cedars neighborhood, home of Full City Rooster, recently featured on Good Morning America, and my favorite listening spot in Dallas along with The Wild Detectives (where Ernesto Montiel books the music). The occasion was the recording of a live album by the Monks of Saturnalia, guitarist-composer Gregg Prickett's long-lived Mingus and Ayler-influenced vehicle. 

I first heard Gregg in the last edition of Ronald Shannon Jackson's Decoding Society back in 2012, and I've since dug his work with Unconscious Collective and They Say the Wind Made Them Crazy, among others, but the Monks are his oldest aggregation -- a going concern for 25 years now. It takes a lot to maintain a band playing original creative music; a touring NYC muso recently remarked that the reason everyone in that city does improv is that no one can afford to rehearse without grant money, and the same is true here in Texas (with fewer foundation grants) as the cost of living spirals. As tenorman Steve Brown, the large-toned mainstay of the Monks' reed section, told me, "making art always requires a sacrifice."

Besides Steve, bassist Drew Phelps (perhaps Gregg's ideal collaborator), and drummer Alan Green (an understated but hard-swinging marvel who always serves the music well), the current Monks lineup includes newcomer Aden Sears on baritone sax, a SoCal native and recent UNT grad who was visibly delighted to be playing this music with these people, and, with Steve, summoned the spirits of Pepper Adams and Booker Ervin in the '50s Mingus band as they squared off for muscular section work and fiery glossolalia. The palpable joy in this section lifted the music, and watching the nonverbals between the two reedmen as they riffed behind other soloists or faced off for simultaneous expressive flights was a visual highlight.

The music itself was like a sixth presence on the stage, and it moved and danced like a living thing: the winds its breath, the rhythm section its pulse, and Prickett's guitar -- whether playing pianistic chords, splintering single note solos, or using tasteful distortion to add another textural element -- was its voice. It's going to be a gas to be able to enjoy recordings of longtime favorites like the Ayler-inspired "He Walked Into the River" (which I first heard at Shannon Jackson's last-ever concert at the Kessler), the Mingus homage "(Not Because I Have To, But Just for the Hell of It) I Pledge Allegiance," and "Hika," dedicated to Gregg's beloved pet wolf (one of three he raised, now all departed). And a new tune -- "So new it doesn't even have a chart," shades of Mingus at Town Hall in '63 -- sounded as bold and assured as the repertory tunes. But you really have to be in the room to appreciate this music as the players bring it to life. The third element is you.