MusicSpeak @ Lit Hop 2024
Saturday, August 24
MusicSpeak
EV | SARAH RUTH | CLANCY MANUEL
STEFAN GONZALES | AARON GONZALES
2-4pm @ Lucky Dog Books
10534 Garland Rd. (East Dallas)
EV | SARAH RUTH | CLANCY MANUEL | STEFAN GONZALES | AARON GONZALES
Stefan Gonzalez is a drummer, vibraphonist, percussionist, and vocalist featured on over thirty musical releases; their music groups have toured with throughout North America, Mexico, Canada, Colombia, Portugal, Switzerland, Lithuania, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Slovenia, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Sardinia, Poland, Russia, France, Denmark, and Austria. Having been raised in avant-garde jazz and in an overall creative household, Gonzalez rebelled through the often visceral and cacophonous expressions of punk and grindcore, only to re-discover and officially fall in love with jazz in their late teens. They studied drums with W.A. Richardson, Alvin Fielder, and Ronald Shannon Jackson and are best known for playing in their defunct family free jazz trio, Yells at Eels, with their late father, the world renowned trumpeter, Dennis Gonzalez, and their older brother Aaron Gonzalez on bass. The trio had a 22-year run. The Gonzalez siblings have a long running grindcore duo known as Akkolyte since1998 and still perform sporadically. Additionally, Stefan and Aaron have played as the joint rhythm section for many groups including Luis Lopes Humanization 4tet (with Rodrigo Amado), Fire Life Trio (with Danny Kamins), Unconscious Collective (with Gregg Prickett), Curtis Clark Trio, Trio No Mas (with Mars Williams), and The Chadbourne/Gonzalez Collusion (with Eugene Chadbourne). Other acts worth mentioning are Gonzalez’s long running industrial solo project turned duo, Orgullo Primitivo (with Abbas Khorasani), Ingebrigt Haker Flaten’s international supergroup The Young Mothers (with Frank Rosaly, Jonathan Horne, Jawwaad Taylor, and Jason Jackson), Denton psychedelic thrashers Heavy Baby Sea Slugs, the Dennis Gonzalez Legacy Band, a trio with Wendy Eisenberg and Damon Smith, and North Texas avant-garde jazz powerhouse Trio Glossia (with Joshua Miller and Matthew Frerck). Other collaborators and past groups include Alvin Fielder, Joe McPhee, Mars Williams, Maria Valencia, Famoudou Don Moye, German Bringas, Sabir Mateen, Louis Moholo-Moholo, Sarah Ruth, Assif Tsahar, Alex Coke, Tatsuya Nakatani, Remi Alvarez, John Dikeman, Michel Doneda, Rob Mazurek, Itzam Cano, Gabriel Lauber, Elliott Levin, Dan Clucas, Jandek, Mike Watt, Asukubus, Imperial Slaughter, Just Another Consumer, and many more.
Aaron Gonzales is a member of the illustrious Gonzales music family. D Magazine refers to the family as an “institution.” He primarily plays upright bass and has been publicly performing since he was a child. He and his brother began their own bands when they were in middle school. He has collaborated on numerous projects with his brother, Stefan—and like Stefan, he grew up performing with Yells at Eels and has toured the world with his own music and has dozens of recordings. He is also an actor, performance artist and multiple appearances as stage accompanist and actor for Matthew Posey’s Ochre House Theatre. Gonzales past appearances also include a Darius Safavi production The Numerology of Money.With Greg Prickett and Stefan Gonzales, he created Unconscious Collective, a daunting side project with the intention of unsettling your musical horizons with theatrical tribal costumes and spoken word interludes. The “Collective” invoked ancient musical realms and inspired contemporary improvisation channeling punk, free jazz, funk, blues, and metal. It was one of WordSpace’s most memorable concert presentations. The police thought so too and tried to shut it down. But Gonzales claimed his aesthetic rights. The police gave up and let the audience enjoy. Be prepared for expanded sensibilities in his articulation of music-speak.
EV is the stage name for Alicia Borman. She was born in Claremore, Oklahoma at a Native American hospital to the sound of tribal drumming and chanting over the loudspeaker. As a young child, her mother would take her along to a piano jazz bar in Tulsa while the waitstaff brought her Shirley Temples. Alicia was allowed to sit in the adjoining restaurant space, and peek through the open doorway while her mother took turns singing Jazz standards and show tunes. Encountering singing and music in this space ignited a spark deep inside her. Alicia studied Fine Arts at Oklahoma State University, but realized the poetry she had been writing since middle school were actually songs. That long embedded spark grew into a blazing desire to sing in public. Alicia moved to Dallas in 2003, and has been writing songs and performing all over North Texas for the last twelve years with her three piece Avant-Rock band, Atom & EV. She also has booked small cultural events since 2015, including for Top Ten Records. You may also know her from her production work on Avant to Leave This Planet, Run With Scissors, and Caustic Beats. She also occasional sidelines as a Novelty Music DJ. EV is one Dallas’s most interesting new songwriters and performers.
Sarah Ruth is the stage name of Sarah Ruth Alexander. She is a multi-instrumentalist, performer, music instructor, radio producer for Tiger D on KUZU 92.09 FM, co-curator for Molten Plains music series. She a recording artist with multiple albums, including God Made My Soul an Ornament. Her musical collaborations include productions with Aaron Gonzales and Greg Prickett. Sarah Ruth expands the notions of music and poetics with stunning soundscapes and atmospheric improvisations.
Clancy Manuel hosts this event. She is the media chair for WordSpace, a DJ, staging and musical director for multiple DFW productions, including the Fort Worth Modern Museum and performance artist Laney Yarber.
