Old vintages are precious gifts for some ears, produced by Dennis Gonzáles and the amazing Polish jazz promoter and human being Marek Winiarski (with Zdzislaw Gogulski), Welcome To Us was released ten years ago and has become a timeless album to listen to.
Texan trumpeter and educator Dennis Gonzales saliently allays here soothing phrases and impeccable sounds along Sidsel Endrensen uttering on “Prologue”. Gonzales’s “Song for A Poet” encapsulates the colour of each regard and the hope that he gives off. The title track “Welcome To Us” is mood glowing. Gonzáles blows notes in roomy musings. On “Monkey Scratch Dance” Dennis takes off on a groovy line that brings about pleasant sounding textures with scrumptious detail, releasing bassist Terje Gewelt, drummer Pĺl Thowsen and trumpeter Nils Petter Molvaer to a sustaining, unbridled book-ending smoothly the tune.
“Kraków Na Wiosne” captures us quite friendly with glorious horn solos pacing on and off Slavinian flurries, the melody being wound up by pianist Bugge Wesseltoft and Thowsen’s drums. “Song for A Singer” honors a touching vocal celebration, evolving in an assiduous replenished orchestration. Dennis González Band of Nordic Wizards attempts peculiar rakes and resonances. Their music is highly spirited and fluent on “Song For A Singer” and “Epilogue”.
Trumpeter Dennis Gonzáles blazes every space he uses with such elegance, poetry and pertinence (a trait which sets him apart from the swollen widespread denominator of snot-ridden trumpeters). It’s in the subtlety of his playing and generosity that Gonzáles is big-hearted and particularly on his acute attacks, sparkling voice, and upper substantiality that kicks off as casual. After a decade, Welcome To Us testifies the important place Dennis Gonzáles holds in the jazz escene.
Tracks:
Prologue, Warszawa, Song for a Poet, Welcome To Us, Monkey Scratch Dance, Kraków Na Wiosne, Song for a Singer, Rail, Epilogue
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