Gravitas Quartet: 21st century chamber jazz

November 6, 8:39 PMSF Music ExaminerDerk Richardson

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Gravitas Quartet. By Daniel Sheehan

Wayne Horvitz knows that if he still lived in New York, his Gravitas Quartet, which performs at the San Francisco Jazz Festival on Sunday, Nov. 9, might be a bigger deal.

But the pianist/keyboardist/composer moved to Seattle with his wife, Robin Holcomb, 20 years ago, and besides distancing himself from such long-standing musical friends as John Zorn, Marty Ehrlich, Butch Morris and Doug Wieselman, the migration removed Horvitz from the media limelight that shines on Manhattan musicians, even those in the avant-garde Downtown scene of which he was a key player.

Horvitz,  however, has grown even more prolific in recent years (in addition to fathering two kids, daughter Nica and son Lowell, with Holcomb). He recently released four new recording projects: A Walk in the Dark, a new album by his Sweeter Than the Day band (with Timothy Young on guitars, Keith Lowe on acoustic bass and Eric Eagle on drums); Mr. Man in the Moon, a playful CD of eclectic traditional and cover tunes (Jimmy Webb, Neil Diamond, Sun Ra, Hank Williams) with a side project called Varmint; the recording from an ambitious theatrical tribute, Joe Hill: 16 Actions for Chamber Orchestra, Voice and Soloist, a 90-minute oratorio inspired by the Wallace Stegner novel Joe Hill; and the second Gravitas Quartet album, One Dance Alone.

"It's hard enough to sell one CD these days," Horvitz says, "so it's not very smart [that] I have four CDs coming out, all at the same time."

The Gravitas Quartet, he notes, is the outlet for his contemporary "new music" writing. To that end, he sought to fashion "an ensemble that could somehow bridge the gap between the through-composed chamber music I have been focusing on in the last five years, and my lifelong love of small group improvisation. Despite the occasional reference to blues or jazz language, this band is essentially a contemporary chamber ensemble that happens to improvise."

And with trumpeter Ron Miles, cellist Peggy Lee and bassoonist Sara Schoenbeck, and Horvitz adding electronics as well as piano, Gravitas realizes Horvitz' focused vision in ways that more people ought to hear.

Watch Wayne Horvitz with Naked City: