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Next month Earshot Jazz is producing a retrospective commemorating Wayne's 20 years in
Seattle:
Saturday, November 1st, 2008, 9PM
Pigpen
Zony Mash
with horns
Tractor Tavern, Seattle
Sunday, November 2nd, 2008, 8PM
HMP (Horvitz/Miles/Previte)
Trio
Robin Holcomb: Larks, They Crazy
Seattle Art Museum
Monday, November 3nd, 2008, 7PM
The New York
Composers' Orchestra
The
President
The Triple Door, Seattle
You can find more information about the shows at the
Earshot Jazz Festival
website.
In connection with the retrospective, we will be having special activities between now
and November 3rd:
- Daily blogging by Wayne. The focus will be on the history of the bands, some musical
issues of interest, and anecdotes with an emphasis on NYC in the 80s and 90s and Seattle in the
90s. Check it out at
blog.waynehorvitz.net.
- Wayne will be posting never
before published scores for music by The President, Pigpen, and the HMP
trio as well as horn charts for Zony Mash. These will be available for free for
a limited time. Look on the scores page.
- Between now and midnight PST October 31st, we will be having a major sale on CDs:
2 for $20, 3 for $25 and 4 for $30. The CDs available in this sale can be viewed on the
merchandise page.
If you'd like to order CDs, please send us e-mail at
salemerch@waynehorvitz.net.
With four new releases this year, Wayne's CDs have been getting a lot of critical
attention. Here are a few examples of recent CD reviews:
Jan P. Dennis,
Audiophile
Audition
Jennifer Kelly,
PopmMatters
Stephen Eddins,
All
Music Guide
Sergio Piccirilli,
El Intruso
(in Spanish)
There are tour dates for Gravitas
Quartet on the calendar page.
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RECENT CD RELEASES:
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Joe Hill, 16 Actions for Orchestra, Voices and Soloist was released on
New World Records on
April 1, 2008. From the liner notes by Paul de Barros:
Perhaps the best way to characterize Wayne Horvitz's Joe Hill: 16 Actions for
Orchestra, Voice, and Soloist, based on the life and times of the legendary labor
activist and organizer is as a radio play that tells the story of a man's life in
words, instrumental music and songs. Like a song cycle, Joe Hill incorporates
much previously-written material (nearly all of it re-harmonized). There are
songs by Hill himself, such as The Rebel Girl and There is Power in the Union,
but also by others, including the folk poem The Lumberjack's Prayer,
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Mississippi John Hurt's Spike Driver's Blues, and an old English street
cry, Chairs to Mend. It also employs spoken word, including Joe Hill's
famous Last Will and Testament, plus words used as narration and dramatic
dialogue. But song cycles don't usually include ravishingly beautiful
stretches of chamber music, much less a completely open line in the score for an
improvising guitarist in this case, the most influential one of our time, Bill
Frisell. This Rubik's cube of jazz, folk, classical and popular music is
strikingly elegiac and autumnal in tone, more requiem and lament than celebration
or call to action. This is appropriate to its theme of martyrdom, though
there are also many exhilarating, jaunty, and humorous sections. Apart from
classical music and the blues, its' other major influences are what has come to
be called Americana, or to be more specific, Appalachian music's nasal
vocals, affection for open fifths, ambiguity between major and minor thirds, and
the jazzy Broadway writing of Leonard Bernstein, particularly his penchant for
rapid time-signature changes. Horvitz has chosen to tell Hill's story in
music that is both complex and direct, ironic and sentimental, dissonant and
gorgeous, popular and artful, and that relishes a well-wrought song as much as
long-form development.
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beautiful solos, and the group interplay that the band is so well known
for. "This is more of a playing record", says Horvitz. "It
isn’t live, but it’s a lot closer to that feeling than Forever or Sweeter
Than the Day - a little looser and a little edgier: it’s got more up-tempo tunes
and we stretch more. Tim does some things that just knock my socks off. We
actually recorded this the same week I recorded the new Gravitas CD, and we do three
or four of the same tunes. The contrast is fantastic between the two bands, and
I am blessed to have not one, but two ensembles bringing so much life to my
pieces."
Some of that edge can be heard on The 29th Day of May, despite its gentle
theme, as well as on A Moment for Andrew (for pianist Andrew Hill),
and Between The Floors, both featuring a mutated swing feel driven by newest
member Eric Eagle (drums). Other highlights include Tim Young’s
blues groove on A Walk in the Rain, two gorgeous ballads, Good Shepherd
and Undecided, and the lovely Waltz from Woman of Tokyo, excerpted from
a score for the silent film of the same name by the iconic Japanese director Yasujiro
Ozu.
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VARMINT came into being on New Years Eve 2005 as a one time only covers project. It featured Robin Holcomb and Danny Barnes as the principal singers, along with Tucker Martine - drums, Tim Young - guitar, Steve Moore - wurlitzer piano, Wayne Horvitz - Hammond B-3, and Keith Lowe - bass. Shortly thereafter, Tia Freeborn (ex-O.K. Hotel) opened a small bar called Lottie’s Lounge in Columbia City. Lottie’s was just a few minutes from the home of Horvitz and Holcomb who approached Tia with the idea of leaving the Hammond B-3 there and doing a weekly gig each Tuesday.
Shows began with the members of Zony Mash/Sweeter Than the Day in addition to Holcomb on vocals and Jon Hyde on pedal steel, and lasted for almost 2 years. Each week featured special guest vocalists and the band maintained a strict rule of "no original material, and no rehearsals." Guests over the years included Reggie Garrett, Karen Pernick, The Tallboys, Dave Keenan, Nova Devione, Arni Adler, Grant Dermoday, Orville Johnson, Laura Veirs, Joe Miller, Casey MacGill, Del Ray, Garfield High Horns, Jed Jedrzejewski, Jim Burns, Paul Hiraga, Terri Moeller, and many more, including two Christmas shows where the entire bar sang along.
A typical night with VARMINT might include renditions by Holcomb of Black Jack Davey and Cluck Old Hen (traditional), Mister Man on the Moon (Michael Hurley), Enlightenment (Sun Ra), Dues (Ronee Blakley from the movie Nashville), the Al Green version of I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry (Hank Williams) and Close To You (Burt Bacharach), with Tim Young singing Solitary Man (Neil Diamond) and It Won’t Be Long (Johnny Paycheck), as well as Jon Hyde singing Last Date (Floyd Cramer) and rippin‘ through the instrumental Bar Hoppin. Dave Keenan would sit in on Reuben’s Train (trad), Laura Veirs would sing Frieght Train (Elizabeth Cotton), and Arni Adler would guest on If He Swings on a String (made famous by Marlene Dietrich).
In the summer of 2006, the core band went to Montana to record at Snowghost Studios with engineer Brett Allen. In just 2 1/2 days the band burned through 20 tunes with a "catch it live while it’s hot" attitude. With very few fixes or overdubs, these tracks, mixed over a year later, will be released at the end of February with a guest-filled CD release extravaganza at the Tractor Tavern, Seattle.
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OTHER NEWS:
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