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A D V E R T I S E M E N T
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A D V E R T I S E M E N T
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Yeti at the Wreck Room
By Ken Shimamoto
Back in 1978, I was at the Recovery Room in Dallas, watching Miles Davis’ ’50s-era pianist Red Garland sit in with tenor saxophonist Marchel Ivery’s hard bop quartet, when the strangest, coolest thing happened. Around the time the band was taking a break, a van emblazoned with “Moffett Family, Fort Worth, Texas” rolled into the parking lot and disgorged Ornette Coleman’s ’60s-era drummer Charles Moffett and his three sons, ages 10, 12, and 18. The kids took their places on bass, drums, and tenor and proceeded to blow the wildest free shit I’ve ever heard in my life — hearing them was like standing next to the sun. Then they jumped back in the van and headed back to Cowtown. I stayed amazed for weeks.
Something similar will undoubtedly occur on Halloween, when Dallas avant-gardist Dennis Gonzalez brings his band Yells At Eels to the Wreck Room. Gonzalez is a multi-instrumentalist (who leans toward trumpet), poet, visual artist, teacher, and family man who once helmed KERA’s jazz programming (back when such an animal existed) and headed daagnim (short for Dallas Association for Avant-Garde and Neo-Impressionist Music). Widely ignored here at home, where the audience for improvised music is a lot smaller than that for straight-ahead jazz or for the room spray that passes for music on The Oasis, he’s played with many of the leading lights in his genre and is well-known in Europe, where he’s released numerous records on the Swedish label, Silkheart.
A forward-looking visionary akin to Miles or Ornette, Gonzalez leaves his ears wide open to new sounds like Nine Inch Nails, Einsturzende Neubaten, Eyehategod, and Napalm Death. In Yells At Eels, bass and drums are handled by his sons Aaron and Stefan, who also play together in the hardcore punk band Akkolyte. Expect a confluence of sounds and styles as well as generations. And bring the sunscreen.
Thu, Oct. 31, with Yeti at the Wreck Room, 3208 W 7th St, FW. 817-348-8303.
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