Wayne Horvitz: The Pianist And The Poet

Hear the radio episode here: http://n.pr/1MYIVOY The last time we went to Seattle, we met a piano player and bandleader named Wayne Horvitz. Among other things, he books a club called the Royal Room, teaches at Cornish College of the Arts, directs a high school ensemble, and writes and performs many different sorts of music. Jazz and improvised music frames a lot of what he does — but as an artist, it's certainly not the only language he speaks. "I'm an American composer, not a jazz composer," he says. "My whole life, I've [never] thought of myself as a jazz composer. I've always been in this weird gray area where jazz musicians were the only people who don't consider me a jazz musician. Everybody else does." Ever since he moved westward from New York in 1988 — he's still remembered by some as the keyboardist in John Zorn's band Naked City — he's integrated himself deep into Seattle's music community. Fittingly, one of his latest projects was inspired by a Seattle-born poet named Richard Hugo, who wrote often about the American West (and the small-town bars he found in them). The songs based on the poems are collected in a new album called Some places are forever afternoon — a line taken from a poem about the working-class Seattle neighborhood of White Center. That music takes two of Horvitz's bands — a chamber-music group called the Gravitas Quartet and an Americana-tinged outfit called Sweeter That The Day — and melds them into a larger ensemble. Jazz Night In America went to the Earshot Jazz Festival in Seattle to catch a performance of this music, and learn how exactly the poet triggered the pianist. SKIP TO 2:12 - “Money Or A Story” 5:44 - How Wayne turned poetry into jazz 9:23 - “The Car That Brought You Here Still Runs” 22:17 - The roots of Hugo’s poetry 24:22 - “All Weather Is Yours No Matter How Vulgar?” Recorded Oct 10, 2015 @ Cornish College of the Arts WATCH THE FULL RICHARD HUGO FILM HERE    • "Richard Hugo: Kicking the Loose Gravel Ho...   MUSICIANS Wayne Horvitz (piano), Ron Miles (cornet), Sara Schoenbeck (bassoon), Peggy Lee (cello), Tim Young (guitar), Keith Lowe (bass), Eric Eagle (drums) FOLLOW US! Facebook:   / jazznight   Twitter:   / jazznight   Instagram:   / jazznightinamerica