Sweeter and Sweeter (Than the Day)

Wayne Horvitz/Sweeter Than the Day @ An Die Musik, Baltimore, MD
Saturday, October 18, 2008

Wayne Horvitz: piano
Timothy Young: guitar
Keith Lowe: bass
Eric Eagle: drums

In my years living in Seattle I was fortunate to absorb the music of Wayne Horvitz through several live encounters like this one. His melodic sensibilities flow through my veins. His arrangements resonate with my core. Difficult days are often countered with a dose of Zony Mash or Pigpen. Sweeter Than the Day takes the Zony Mash songbook into a piano quartet where the stripped down, spare parts bring the melodic ingenuity of these pieces to the forefront. While ear-catching and engaging on first listen, this music has a sneaky, addictive quality lurking beneath the deceptive simplicity of these tunes. The steadfast, occasionally funky sense of time that courses through this music completes a sound that appeals to the mind and body. A combination of Erik Satie, Thelonius Monk and Otis Spann with a tight rhythm section.

Guitarist Timothy Young has been playing with Wayne Horvitz for over a decade. He knows these tunes inside and out. As the only player without a stand of sheet music before him on the stage his ability to play and improvise from within has developed to a devastating level of musicianship. Hearing him play music I know almost as well as he does reinforced the chemistry he has in collaborating with Horvitz.