FireLife Trio is a Texan free jazz meets free-improv working trio featuring the Houston-based soprano and alto sax player Danny Kamins, known for his work with Alvin Fielder, Vinny Golia, Ra Kalam Bob Moses. And Damon Smith, and the Dallas-based González brothers – Aaron on double bass and Stefan on drums and percussion, the sons of the late legendary trumpeter Dennis González (they played in his Dennis González Yells At Eels). They are members of the Portuguese guitarist Luís Lopes Humanization 4tet, and have played with American masters such as Douglas Ewart, Alvin Fielder, Ronald Shannon Jackson, and Oliver Lake.
Stefan González is also a member of the Norwegian bass hero Ingebrigt Håker Flaten’s The Young Mother. Flaten released the Firelife Trio debut album, The Space Around The Sound Resounds, on his Sonic Transmissions label. The album was recorded at Ochre House Theater in January 2025. Stefan González did the cover artwork.
The name of the trio was suggested by Aaron’s child, Keir, and already sets its aesthetics – fiery, passionate, and poetic. The trio began working five years ago, but nothing prepared it for the day of the recording session. Kammins had a dramatic, painful bulge in his left leg, yet to be diagnosed as non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and had to lean on the theater’s wall during the live performance, assuming a «sexy sax man» kind of pose. Three strong double IPA’s at the bar next door helped to minimize the pain.
Luckily, this painful bulge did not affect the quality of music, the best performance of the trio so far, according to Kamins. The trio played three freely improvised, extended pieces, yet highly structured in the free jazz legacy, faithfully capturing the Texas heat. Kamins sax playing was integrated organically with the restless and powerful rhythm section of the González brothers, which keeps the fiery mode on a free pulse, and the trio’s dynamics leave enough space for the strong-minded, wiser beyond words (as the piece is titled) individual voices. Kamins’ soulful, melodic playing added an emotional, poetic dimension, and his extended, circular breathing techniques and multiphonics injected an experimental edge, triggering timbral explorations from the González brothers.
A most promising statement.
Eyal Hareuveni
Danny Kamins (soprano saxophone, alto saxophone), Aaron González (double bass), Stefan González (drums, percussion)
