▼ Music Goodbye to a Giant Dallas lost music legend Dennis Gonzalez this week. BY CHRISTIAN MCPHATE D allas jazz music legend Dennis González recognized in his music, poetry and prose that he lived in a world of spirit. “When we see the husk, the body of a living being, we are seeing the out- ward manifestation of an internal spirit,” he told OneFinalNote.com in April 2001. González left the physical world for the ethereal one last Tuesday. He died at age 67. A jazz trumpeter and bandleader, González captured this belief in more than 35 albums, beginning with 1979’s Air Light, an album he self-produced and in which he played all instruments. In the liner notes, he wrote that the music was known as “intui- tive improvisational swing” and claimed that it came from the earthy melodies of the Third World with influences from the music of China and India, American march music, bebop and the sound of nature. “Most of the instruments I have never played before,” he said. “But I feel that as a musician opposed to a technician, I must al- ways try to express my inner voices, which are always singing for the Eternal Lord.” As a public school educator for decades in Dallas, González was always encouraging of creative movement within the strict mu- sical forms he taught. He valued his stu- dents’ individuality and wanted their music to sound like them. It was one of several rea- sons why he created La Rondalla, an Oak Cliff-based music nonprofit that provides students access to musical instruments. “Another value I ‘hold dear,’ as you put it, is racial unity, racial harmony,” he wrote in an email to OneFinalNote.com. “My ensembles PROFESSIONAL TATTOO SUPPLY FOR PROS ONLY Call for your appointment or design commissions today! WE CARRY CBD! HAND BUILT NOT BOUGHT. COME ON DOWN! FRANKLINS TATTOO AND SUPPLY 469-904-2665 • 4910 COLUMBIA AVE, DALLAS, TX 75214 puffnstuffsmokeshop.com 19 1 Jeff Liles have always been multi-ethnic and interra- cial in their makeup. I’ve always been in- trigued by the differences that make us all alike. When I teach languages, I stress the beauty of differences in ethnicity, in culture, in race, and how the synthesis of all these dif- ferent colors is a living music in our lives.” He instilled these values into his sons, Aaron and Stefan, who spent decades play- ing jazz and experimental music with their father while “making tireless contributions to the community through education and youth programs,” as the Observer wrote in 2015. They became known as the unofficial First Family of the Dallas music scene. Last week, his son Stefan announced the news of González’s passing on social media. “I’m so sorry to inform you all, family, friends, fans of the music, fellow creatives that our Father, Grandfather, husband, force of love and light, educator, musician, artist, and beloved Shaman, Dennis Gonzalez has left this plane of existence,” Stefan posted on Twitter. “He didn’t do it without a fight and was channeling positivity until the very end.” Raised in a Southern Baptist Church, González, who was born in Texas, became inspired by the music of the church which, in turn, came from Black spirituals and Southern hymns inspired by African-Ameri- can music. The late, great Dennis González forever changed the local music scene. At 10 years old, he picked up the trumpet and began a love affair that would last for 50 years. He started as a “rock ’n roller” but shifted to jazz in the 1970s because he felt the spirit of the hymns from the jazz music he was consuming as a child, such as Stan Keaton’s records, which he called experi- mental for its time, and Sam Rivers’ Con- tours, which featured Freddie Hubbard on trumpet. These influences began showing up in his own music on stage. “I lived as a child in a small town, where most of my neighbors were poor Hispanics, almost all Mexicans, who depended on the Catholic Church for their spiritual needs,” González said in a March 2010 Q&A with Clean Feed Records. At that time in the 1970s, Black Power and Black-Is-Beautiful movements had already been established. Black free jazz players were reluctant to work with Caucasians, yet they recognized that as a Latino, González was in a similar predicament because, as he told OneFinalNote.com, “‘My people’ were also struggling to be heard and recognized. We were also involved in the struggle to claim our civil rights, and they saw me as a ‘brother,’ not in color but in spirit.” González began working with mostly WE ARE OPEN! BEST KRATOM IN TEXAS! CURRENT STORE HOURS: MON-THUR 10AM - 10PM FRI & SAT 10Am - 11pm • SUN 12pm - 10pm THE BEST SELECTION & PRICES OF SMOKING ACCESSORIES AND MORE IN DFW! Black ensembles: John Purcell, Malachi Fa- vors, Ahmed Abdullah, Charles Brackeen, Max Roach, Cecil Taylor, “Kidd” Jordan, Al- vin Fielder, Roy Hargrove, Louis Moholo and many others. But he also worked with European musi- cians such as Elton Dean, Lado Jaksa and Svetlana Makarovic. In the late ’70s, González went to work for KERA when disc jockeys played a 12-hour jazz program at night and spent the next 21 years playing jazz from around the world on his music program Miles Out until manage- ment, which kept moving his program to dif- ferent time slots, finally did away with jazz and focused on news and talk radio. Throughout his long musical career, González recorded more than 30 albums for prominent international jazz labels, including Clean Feed from Portugal, Not Two Records from Poland and Konnex Records from Ger- many. He also recorded albums for American record companies Furthermore Recordings, 8th Harmonic Breakdown, Silkheart Records and Koch Jazz as well as his own label Daagnim Records, which also functioned as the Dallas Association for Avant-Garde and Neo Impressionist Music organization and promoted musicians from around the world. His latest offering was a collaboration with his sons called Yells At Eels. The band produced several albums, including 2001’s Home, 2011’s Resurrection and Life and 2014’s In Quiet Waters, which they had cre- ated to channel the health troubles and per- sonal turmoil they had been facing, according to a May 20, 2015 Observer article. In 2020, the jazz collective joined with Fort Worth drone rock duo Pinkish Black to create the psychedelic jazz album Vanishing Light in the Tunnel of Dreams. The Free Jazz Collective called it a perfect collaboration in a July 12, 2020 review. González’s prose and poetry appeared in two books, Xi and Cu, and several antholo- gies. As a visual artist, González exhibited his works around the world. More recently, he began creating art with his granddaugh- ter Isabella Anaïs Sisk-González, also known as “Issy.” They showcased their 5 Years of Collaborative Work on Nov. 12, 2021, at Top Ten Records in Dallas. His heart problems continued, and González had heart surgery and started re- ceiving dialysis, which allowed him to make a three-hour drive to Shreveport where they first introduced their exhibition. dallasobserver.comdallasobserver.com | CONTENTS | UNFAIR PARK | SCHUT |ZE | FEATURE | NIGHT+DAY | CULTURE | MOVIES | DISH | MUSIC | CLASSIFIED | CLASSIFIED | MUSIC DISH | CULTURE | UNFAIR PARK | CONTENTS DALLAS OBSERVER S OBSER MONTH XX–MONTH XX, 2014 MARCH 24–30, 2022
