Dennis González
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Dennis González, often credited Dennis Gonzalez (August 15, 1954March 15, 2022), was an American jazz trumpeter, artist, and educator from Texas. He hosted ''Miles Out'' on
KERA-FM KERA (90.1 MHz) is a non-commercial, listener-supported public radio station in Dallas, Texas. It is a member of National Public Radio (NPR). KERA 90.1 FM, KKXT 91.7 FM and KERA-TV 13, a PBS affiliate, are owned by North Texas Public Bro ...
for over twenty years.


Early life

González was born in
Abilene, Texas Abilene ( ) is a city in Taylor County, Texas, Taylor and Jones County, Texas, Jones counties, Texas, United States. Its population was 125,182 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is the principal city of the Abilene metropolitan ar ...
, on August 15, 1954. He relocated to
Oak Cliff Oak Cliff is an area of Dallas, Texas, United States that was formerly a separate town in Dallas County; established in 1887 and annexed by Dallas in 1903, Oak Cliff has retained a distinct neighborhood identity as one of Dallas' older establ ...
in 1976. He later established the Dallas Association for Avant-Garde and Neo Impressionistic Music (daagnim) in the late 1970s, doing so at the suggestion of
Anthony Braxton Anthony Braxton (born June 4, 1945) is an American experimental composer, educator, music theorist, improviser and multi-instrumentalist who is best known for playing saxophones, particularly the alto. Braxton grew up on the South Side of Chi ...
and
Art Lande Art Lande is an American musician who was born in New York City, United States, on 5 February 1947. Born in New York, Lande began piano at age 4. He attended Williams College and moved to San Francisco in 1969. In 1973 he recorded '' Red Lanta,' ...
. The daagnim organization, which functioned both as a group of musicians and as a record label, was based on and named after the AACM.


Career

González' primary musical instrument was the
trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz musical ensemble, ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest Register (music), register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitche ...
(including B♭, C, and pocket trumpets), though he has also played
drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a ...
s,
flute The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...
,
synthesizer A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...
, and
baritone saxophone The baritone saxophone (sometimes abbreviated to "bari sax") is a member of the saxophone family of instruments, larger (and lower-pitched) than the tenor saxophone, but smaller (and higher-pitched) than the bass saxophone, bass. It is the lowe ...
. ''
AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...
'' describes González as " talented trumpeter who has recorded a consistently rewarding string of lesser-known dates," whose "playing falls between advanced
hard bop Hard bop is a subgenre of jazz that is an extension of bebop (or "bop") music. Journalists and record companies began using the term in the mid-1950s to describe a new current within jazz that incorporated influences from rhythm and blues, gospe ...
and
free jazz Free jazz, or free form in the early to mid-1970s, is a style of avant-garde jazz or an experimental approach to jazz improvisation that developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s, when musicians attempted to change or break down jazz conventi ...
." ''
The Penguin Guide to Jazz ''The Penguin Guide to Jazz'' is a reference work containing an encyclopedic directory of jazz recordings on CD which were (at the time of publication) currently available in Europe or the United States. The first nine editions were compiled b ...
'' observed that González' recordings during the 1980s for
Silkheart Records Silkheart Records is a Swedish record company and label dedicated to improvised music and free jazz. Lars-Olof Gustavsson and Keith Knox founded Silkheart in 1985. In 1991, Jimmy Johnson of Forced Exposure suggested that Silkheart "could easily ...
represented "part of a determined effort to wrest creative initiative back from New York and the West Coast." ''The Penguin Guide'' commented among González' greatest achievements was having coaxed saxophonist Charles Brackeen out of retirement during the late 1980s, and that by the early 1990s, González "more than ever before... seems the heir of
Don Cherry Donald Stewart Cherry (born February 5, 1934) is a Canadian former ice hockey player, coach, and television commentator. He played one game in the National Hockey League (NHL) with the Boston Bruins. After concluding a playing career in the A ...
." Additionally, Henry Grimes' November 2003 appearance on González' ''Nile River Suite'' was the bassist's first official
recording A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, re ...
in more than thirty-five years. González began working for Dallas radio station
KERA-FM KERA (90.1 MHz) is a non-commercial, listener-supported public radio station in Dallas, Texas. It is a member of National Public Radio (NPR). KERA 90.1 FM, KKXT 91.7 FM and KERA-TV 13, a PBS affiliate, are owned by North Texas Public Bro ...
in 1978. There, he hosted a music program called ''Miles Out''. He ultimately worked with KERA for 21 years, but left after the station had largely shifted from music programming to a news and talk format. González was also employed as a teacher and taught at Spence Middle School, Woodrow Wilson High School, and
North Dallas High School North Dallas High School is a public secondary school located in the Oak Lawn area of Dallas, Texas, United States. It enrolls students in grades 9- 12 and is a part of the Dallas Independent School District. As of 2017, the principal administ ...
. For several years during the 1990s, González retired from jazz performance and recording. In 2001, he formed a trio, Yells at Eels, with his sons Aaron (
double bass The double bass (), also known as the upright bass, the acoustic bass, the bull fiddle, or simply the bass, is the largest and lowest-pitched string instrument, chordophone in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding rare additions ...
) and Stefan (
drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...
,
vibraphone The vibraphone (also called the vibraharp) is a percussion instrument in the metallophone family. It consists of tuned metal bars and is typically played by using Percussion mallet, mallets to strike the bars. A person who plays the vibraphone ...
). In 2010, the trio recorded with
Ariel Pink Ariel Marcus Rosenberg ( ; born June 24, 1978), professionally known as Ariel Pink, is an American musician, singer, and songwriter whose work draws heavily from the popular music of the 1960s–1980s. His lo-fi aesthetic and home-recorded al ...
, appearing on the song "Hot Body Rub" on the album '' Before Today'', and on a
vinyl Vinyl may refer to: Chemistry * Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a particular vinyl polymer * Vinyl cation, a type of carbocation * Vinyl group, a broad class of organic molecules in chemistry * Vinyl polymer, a group of polymers derived from vinyl ...
EP, ''Ariel Pink With Added Pizzazz''. González's most recent offering with Yells at Eels is a collaboration with Fort Worth experimental drone rock outfit Pinkish Black, entitled ''Vanishing Light in the Tunnel of Dreams'', which was released in May 2020.


Personal life

González was married to Carol until his death. Together, they had two children: Aaron and Stefan. González died on March 15, 2022, at Methodist Dallas Medical Center in
Dallas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...
. He was 67, and suffered from several unspecified health issues prior to his death.


Discography

As leader *''Air Light (Sleep Sailor)'' (Daagnim 01, 1979) *''Kukkia'' (Daagnim 04, 1981) *''Stars / Air / Stripes'' (Daagnim 05, 1982) *''Witness'' (Daagnim 08, 1983) *''Anthem Suite'' (Daagnim 11, 1984) *''Little Toot'' (Daagnim 13, 1985) *'' Stefan'' ( Silkheart, 1986) with John Purcell *''
Namesake A namesake is a person, place, or thing bearing the name of another. Most commonly, it refers to an individual who is purposely named after another (e.g. John F. Kennedy Jr would be the namesake of John F. Kennedy). In common parlance, it may ...
'' (Silkheart, 1987) with Charles Brackeen, Malachi Favors *''Dallas-London Sextet: Catechism'' (Daagnim CD01, 1987) *''Debenge, Dbenge'' (Silkheart, 1988) *''The Desert Wind'' (Silkheart, 1989) with Charles Brackeen *''Hymn for a Perfect Heart of a Pearl'' (Konnex, 1990) *''The Earth and the Heart'' (Konnex, 1989) with
Nels Cline Nels Courtney Cline (born January 4, 1956) is an American guitarist and composer. He has been a guitarist for the band Wilco since 2004. In the 1980s he played jazz, often in collaboration with his twin brother Alex, a percussionist. He has wor ...
, Alex Cline, Andrew Cyrille *''Welcome to Us'' (GOWI Records, 1994) with Band of Nordic Wizards *''Forever the Falling of Stars'' (Daagnim, 1995) *''Home'' (Daagnim CD06, 2001) *''Old Time Revival'' (Entropy, 2002) *''NY Midnight Suite'' (Clean Feed, 2004) *''Nile River Suite'' (Daagnim CD09, 2004) *''Idle Wild'' (Clean Feed, 2005) *''No Photograph Available'' (Clean Feed, 2006) *''Dance of The Soothsayer’s Tongue'' (Clean Feed, 2007) * ''The Gift of Discernment'' (Not Two, 2008) *''Renegade Spirits'' (Furthermore, 2008) *''Hymn for Tomasz Stanko'' (2009)
Faruq Z. Bey Faruq Z. Bey (born Jesse Davis; February 4, 1942 – June 1, 2012) was an American jazz saxophonist and composer from Detroit, Michigan. Bey was known for his work with Griot Galaxy, which played distinct compositions, often by Bey. Odd meters and ...
w/ Northwoods Improvisers Septet *''A Matter of Blood'' (Furthermore, 2009) *''Songs of Early Autumn'' ( NoBusiness, 2009) *''The Great Bydgoszcz Concert'' ( Ayler, 2009) *''ScapeGrace'' (Clean Feed, 2009) *''Cape of Storms'' (Ayler, 2010) *''The Hymn Project'' (Daagnim, 2011) with
Ingebrigt Håker Flaten Ingebrigt Håker Flaten (born 23 September 1971 in Oppdal Municipality, Norway) is a Norwegian double bass, bassist active in the jazz and free jazz genres. (in Norwegian) Store Norske Leksikon (in Norwegian) Career Flaten played electric ba ...
*''So Soft Yet'' (Clean Feed, 2011) *''Resurrection and Life'' (Ayler, 2011) *''Colorado at Clinton'' (Ayler, 2013) *''In Quiet Waters'' (ForTune, 2014) With Charles Brackeen *'' Bannar'' (Silkheart, 1987) *'' Attainment'' (Silkheart, 1987) *'' Worshippers Come Nigh'' (Silkheart, 1987) With Alvin Fielder *'' A Measure of Vision'' (Clean Feed, 2007) With Tina Marsh and the Creative Opportunity Orchestra *''The Heaven Line'' (CreOp Muse 002, 1994)


References


External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gonzalez, Dennis 1954 births 2022 deaths Free jazz trumpeters Post-bop trumpeters American jazz trumpeters American male trumpeters Musicians from Abilene, Texas Musicians from Dallas Avant-garde jazz trumpeters Jazz radio presenters 21st-century American trumpeters Jazz musicians from Texas 21st-century American male musicians American male jazz musicians Clean Feed Records artists Music & Arts artists NoBusiness Records artists