Fire Music Monday’s at Trixie’s Bar in Hamtramck is where I cut my teeth as a free improviser. It became a place where I could express myself outside of the institution with musicians who challenged me like I had never been challenged before. People pushed me to think and create deeper, surrender completely to the moment and the music surrounding me in that moment. I learned to honor what I played and be unapologetic in my delivery, but I also learned to get out of my own way to serve the music and what was needed for the group’s sound as a whole.

The way this session worked was if we as performers had groups of people we wanted to play with, we would reach out to Dave Hurley who organized the session and see what dates were open, or Dave would reach out to the community and book people who were available. Often times the configurations of improvisers played for the first time together at Fire Music, never to perform together again. These sessions are unique and very special for that reason: once in a lifetime encounters you either experienced or you missed. The three pieces you hear on Live at Trixie’s were just that—two trios that played together for the first time on that stage, never to join again.

Live at Trixie’s is uncut and vulnerable, but that’s precisely the feeling we shared while onstage making this music. There are flaws and triumphs, tender, raw, abrasive, and cathartic sounds, but I wouldn’t trade them for anything in the world.

Kaleigh Wilder - baritone saxophone
David Hurley - drums/percussion (gongs)
Karen Tomalis - percussion (pandeiro, bells, shakers, floor tom, suspended cymbal, cuica, woodblocks, tamborim)
Tristan Cappel - Carnatic flute