For this pair of jazz bands, it's not just another gig.Byline: Serena Markstrom The Register-Guard Wayne Horvitz Wayne Horvitz (b. 1955) is a composer, keyboardist and producer. Horvitz has led the groups The President, Pigpen, Zony Mash, and the Four Plus One Ensemble. He has recorded or performed with John Zorn, Bill Frisell, Elliott Sharp, Tucker Martine, Butch Morris, Fred Frith, is probably better known in this area for his work with Zony Mash than with Sweeter Than the Day. But anyone who caught the acoustic Zony Mash show at Luna in 2002 has seen Sweeter Than the Day. Horvitz will be back through Eugene today with his Seattle-based Sweeter Than the Day, one of his ongoing projects. The composer, pianist and electronic musician This article is about musicians. For the magazine, see Electronic Musician. An electronic musician is a musician who composes or plays music from synthetic sounds generated with synthesizers, samplers, drum machines or music sequencers. has had a very busy career. He co-founded the New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Composers Orchestra and continues to collaborate with musicians he knows from that experience, such as guitarist Bill Frisell William Richard "Bill" Frisell (born March 18, 1951) is a North American jazz guitarist, progressive folk musician and composer. Frisell uses a wide range of effects (delay, distortion, reverb, octave shifters, and volume pedals, to name a few) to create unique sounds from his , who played the Shedd in March. Horvitz is the leader of the Four Plus One Ensemble, Ponga ponga Noun a tall New Zealand tree fern with large leathery leaves [Maori] , Pigpen, the President and Joe Hill. He also hires out for commercial work and motion picture soundtracks. Sweeter Than the Day started in 1999 as the acoustic version of Zony Mash. At some point, Horvitz decided it needed its own name to match its distinct sound. Horvitz read the phrase "sweeter than the day" in an old hymnal that he found with a pump organ he bought with his wife, fellow pianist and composer Robin Holcomb. He first named a composition "Sweeter Than the Day," but liked the phrase so much he attached it to his band. The quartet is now on a West Coast tour - for no particular reason, Horvitz said when reached by cell phone on the morning of a Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. show. Before the tour, it had been a year since the band had played live, so Horvitz decided to hit the road. He called his friend, Dave Trenkel of Eugene's Eleven Eyes, and asked where would be a good place to play. For an acoustic, instrumental band like Sweeter Than the Day, it doesn't get much better than the Shedd in Eugene. It will be the first time the two bands share a billing, an unusual event for the Shedd, which generally showcases one act at a time and doesn't book openers. Members of Eleven Eyes played a smaller hall at the Shedd for last year's CD release party for "Scope," but this will be the band's first performance in the Jaqua Concert Hall. Horvitz said the tour has gone well so far. Original members Timothy Young (guitars) and Keith Lowe Keith Lowe could be:
"I really missed playing with these guys," said Horvitz, who for the past year has been enjoying more time at home, composing songs on his piano. He's also working on a recording with his new project, the Gravitas grav·i·tas n. 1. Substance; weightiness: a frivolous biography that lacks the gravitas of its subject. 2. Ensemble. On the ride south from Seattle, the group listened to its three recordings to get Eagle up to speed. "We were quickly showing him the music," Horvitz said. "They seemed almost studied. When you play live, a lot and new stuff starts to happen. It's never the same each time." On this tour alone, the band has had one show Horvitz described as "almost like a rock show." The next night, "It was almost like chamber music. "It just depends of the energy of the room. You feel like you are exploring." Eleven Eyes relishes opportunity Eleven Eyes is a band that knows a little something about exploring. Like Horvitz's band, it's a group of experienced improvisors who react to the vibe of the room they are playing. The Eleven Eyes horn section In a symphony orchestra the horn section is the group of musicians who play the horn (sometimes referred to as the French horn). In non-Classical musical groups, the horn section , saxophone saxophone, musical instrument invented in the 1840s by Adolphe Sax. Although it uses the single reed of the clarinet family, it has a conical tube and is made of metal. player Matt Calkins and trumpet trumpet, brass wind musical instrument of part cylindrical, part conical bore, in the shape of a flattened loop and having three piston valves to regulate the pitch. player Tim McLaughlin, sat down in the band's headquarters, the south Eugene home where they live and practice, to talk about the band's show with Sweeter Than the Day. The pair said the band is "stoked stoked adj. Slang 1. Exhilarated or excited. 2. Being or feeling high or intoxicated, especially from a drug. " about it. "It's going to give us a chance to do a different show than we usually do - a lot of material that's not geared toward the club scene," McLaughlin said. "We have a lot of intricate, jazz-based material that we just don't get to play in those other scenarios, so this will be a chance to stretch out and try those other things. `Most people won't recognize what we're playing as far as standard club repertoire." The WOW Hall's voting public chose Eleven Eyes as its favorite local band for 2005. The group formed in 2002, and the first big gig was at the Eugene Celebration The Eugene Celebration is an annual community celebration and civic event held in downtown Eugene, Oregon, United States. Featuring bands and performers from throughout the Pacific Northwest, the three-day festival is held in early September and attracts more than 40,000 attendees . The band has played most of the local venues and toured along the West Coast. The mud-caked tour bus in the driveway is evidence of the most recent tour, which ended in time for members to get back and teach music camps at the Shedd over spring break. "It's covered in Colorado," Calkins said of the bus. Drummer Steve Weems left the band to accept a teaching job in California, so DJ Turntable A digital turntable used by disc jockeys (DJs) who orchestrate prerecorded music for parties and events. The devices are CD players that have a slip pad disc like a platter on an analog turntable. Enabler has shifted to drums. With what Calkins called the "sonic space" left vacant by that switch, McLaughlin and Trenkel have picked up laptops to trigger beats and work in samples. Mike Pardew is still on guitars. The loss of Weems has pushed the direction of the band, Calkins noted. "We make mistakes like everyone else does for sure, but our learning curve's getting a little better every time we try something new," Calkins said. "There's a certain amount of intuitiveness that comes with ex- perience. `The older we get, the more we do this, the better that intuition gets." After having a laugh for slipping into "musicese," McLaughlin summarized the status of the band like this: "We still like to make noise. That's the bottom line." CONCERT PREVIEW Sweeter Than the Day, Eleven Eyes What: Instrumental, jazz-based improvisation improvisation Creation of music in real time. Improvisation usually involves some preparation beforehand, particularly when there is more than one performer. Despite the central place of notated music in the Western tradition, improvisation has often played a role, from the When: 7:30 p.m. today Where: Shedd, 285 E. Broadway Tickets: $15 to $20 CAPTION(S): Sweeter Than the Day, named after a line in a hymnal, is playing live again after a year off. "We still like to make noise. That's the bottom line." TIM MCLAUGHLIN ELEVEN EYES TRUMPET PLAYER |
|
||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion