Trio Glossia began without much in the way of a concrete plan.
A dynamic three-piece steeped in the long, proud history of North Texas avant-garde jazz, Trio Glossia — tenor saxophonist and drummer Joshua Canate, acoustic bassist Matthew Frerck and vibraphonist and drummer Stefan Gonzalez — first coalesced in 2022.
“Me and Matthew go back to 2017 or 2018, when we used to play with another saxophonist,” Gonzalez said during a recent conversation. “But we met Joshua a few years later … and we both took great notice that not only is he a kick-ass drummer, but he also wails on tenor saxophone in the moments where he’s not playing drums.”
That notice eventually begat Trio Glossia, which made its first live appearances at the Molten Plains Festival in Denton.
“Those first two times were completely improvised with no formula whatsoever, other than to let the chemistry occur where it might occur, and the chaos occur where it would naturally occur,” Gonzalez said. “But it all clicked really well, even without tunes and just being free improvisation, it had a lyricism to it. The energy when we got really nasty with it, and went into this screaming and glossolalia-type territory, it just really clicked, like we had all been playing in this trio for a long time.”
The free jazz group will celebrate Trio Glossia’s release with a March 1 performance at Full City Rooster Coffee Roasting Studio in Dallas.
“We, of course, as many musicians, overthink stuff,” Gonzalez said. “When we left [the recording session] we were all talking in the group chat, before we got the rough mixes … like ‘Oh man, I think we should have done a second take of this or that.’ … The way we played these songs immediately after we did the recording session, we took them even further out than we could have ever imagined.”
Beyond the March 1 appearance, Gonzalez said Trio Glossia intends to perform elsewhere in America, and, eventually, Europe (with an assist from its label), while also forging ahead closer to home.
“You have to have a level of self-determination playing this kind of jazz in North Texas,” Gonzalez said. “I’m really grateful to people who have asked us to play shows [but] there’s also a lot of dry spells where we won’t … it’s hard to find too many places that we can call home regularly. That’s the reason why we went with Full City Rooster … it’s a really nice, intimate listening room, which we need more of in this town. It’s really valuable to teach, especially people in North Texas, who are notorious for talking over things.”
Trio Glossia album release at Full City Rooster Coffee Roasting Studio, Dallas. 7 p.m. March 1. $10 cover.
Preston Jones is a North Texas freelance writer and regular contributor to KXT. Email him at preston@kxt.org or find him on Bluesky (@prestonjones.bsky.social).Our work is made possible by our generous, music-loving members. If you like how we lift up local music, consider becoming a KXT sustaining member right here.
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