Name Dennis Gonzalez Website www.dennisgonzalez.com | Instruments Trumpet | |
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Occupation(s) Trumpeter, composer, visual artist, writer, educator Labels daagnim, Clean Feed, others Role Musician · dennisgonzalez.com Albums The Hymn Project, So Soft Yet, Boston Project Similar People Ingebrigt Haker Flaten, Ellery Eskelin, Mark Helias, Oliver Lake, Ken Filiano Profiles | ||
Associated acts daagnim, Yells At Eels |
Dennis González & Faruq Z Bey with Northwoods Improvisers Septet - Ilam
Dennis González (often credited as Dennis Gonzalez; b. 1954, Abilene, Texas) is a jazz musician, poet, visual artist and music educator based in Dallas, Texas.
Contents
- Dennis Gonzlez Faruq Z Bey with Northwoods Improvisers Septet Ilam
- Dennis Gonzalez Yells at Eels featuring Jason Jackson Live in Houston January 2011
- Biography
- As leader
- Songs
- References
Dennis Gonzalez Yells at Eels featuring Jason Jackson Live in Houston January 2011
Biography

González' primary musical instrument is the trumpet (including B♭, C, and pocket trumpets), though he has also played drums, flute, synthesizer, and baritone saxophone. Allmusic describes González as "[a] talented trumpeter who has recorded a consistently rewarding string of lesser-known dates," whose "playing falls between advanced hard bop and free jazz." As of December 2006, González has released at least 28 albums under his own name.
The Penguin Guide to Jazz notes that González' recordings during the 1980s for Silkheart Records represented "part of a determined effort to wrest creative initiative back from New York and the West Coast." The Penguin Guide further notes that one of González' greatest achievements is 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." González has also been instrumental in double bassist Henry Grimes' return to performing and recording. Grimes' November 2003 appearance on González' Nile River Suite was the bassist's first official recording in more than thirty-five years.
During the late 1970s, González started the Dallas Association for Avant-Garde and Neo Impressionistic Music, or daagnim, at the suggestion of Anthony Braxton and Art Lande. The daagnim organization, which functioned both as a group of musicians and as a record label, was based on and named after the AACM.
In 1978, González began working for Dallas radio station KERA-FM, where he hosted a music program, Miles Out. He worked with KERA for 21 years, but left after the station had largely shifted from music programming to a news and talk format.
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) and Stefan (drums, vibraphone). In 2010, the trio recorded with Ariel Pink, appearing on the song "Hot Body Rub" on the album Before Today, and on a vinyl EP, Ariel Pink With Added Pizzazz.
As leader
With Charles Brackeen
Songs
CatechismGonzalez - Dennis: Catechism · 2011
NamesakeHymn for Tomasz Stanko · 2009
ScapegraceScapegrace · 2009