Angel City Jazz Festival

Wayne Horvitz: Zony Mash and Electric Circus

About

The Angel City Jazz Festival consistently features the most innovative and original musicians working today, balancing established artists with emerging talent, and focusing on West Coast creative jazz—past, present, and future. 

 

Zony Mash

Organized and established by veteran composer and pianist Wayne Horvitz in 1995, Zony Mash features Tim Young on guitar, Keith Lowe on bass, and Andy Roth on drums. The Seattle-based jazz-funk group was originally the Tuesday night house band at the OK Hotel. Across the ’90s and early aughts, it released a number of albums, including Cold SpellUpper Egypt, and American Bandstand. Following the instrumentation of The Meters, whose album inspired the group’s name, this performance highlights Horvitz’s spectral compositions. 

 

Electric Circus 

Wayne Horvitz leads a large electric ensemble of local musicians to remix classical soul, funk, and rock in an experimental, psychedelic montage. Horvitz uses “conduction”–in the tradition of Lawrence “Butch” Morris–to direct improvisation utilizing riffs and grooves from recordings by James Brown, Sly and the Family Stone, Los Lobos, The Pointer Sisters, Sun Ra, Parliament Funkadelic, and many more. 

 

Wayne Horvitz’s music remains multifaceted and transportable, from the hinterlands of avant classical to down-home folksy charm, from small group getups to large-ensemble blowouts.

John Ephland, All About Jazz

about the artists

Wayne Horvitz

Recipient of the 2019 American Prize in Orchestral Composition, composer Wayne Horvitz performs extensively throughout Europe, Japan, and North America. In addition to creating work for his own ensembles, he has created new work for The Kitchen, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Seattle Symphony, Berlin Jazz, North Corner Chamber Orchestra, Vienna Radio Orchestra, Centrum, and A Contemporary Theatre, among others. He has received awards from The MAP Fund, McKnight Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, Meet the Composer, and The Shifting Foundation. Narrative works include pieces centered around the life of Joe Hill, the story of the Everett Massacre, and the poems of Richard Hugo. Installation work has been presented at Fort Worden, Seattle Art Museum, and Arizona State Museum of Art. He is the recipient of the 2016 Doris Duke Performing Artist Award.

Horvitz has collaborated with Robin Holcomb, Bill Frisell, Reggie Watts, Butch Morris, Alex Guy, Ikue Mori, George Lewis, Steve Swallow, Yukio Suzuki, Billy Bang, Carla Bley, Eyvind Kang, John Zorn (Naked City), Bill Irwin, Paul Taylor, Beth Fleenor, Rinde Eckert, Yohei Saito, Barbara Earl Thomas, David Moss, Carey Perloff, Paul Taylor, Dayna Hanson, and Gus Van Sant. He has produced recordings for the World Saxophone Quartet, Human Feel, Fontella Bass, Marty Ehrlich, John Adams, Bill Frisell, Robin Holcomb, and Eddie Palmieri.

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credits

Zony Mash

Wayne Horvitz – Hammond B3

Timothy Young – guitar

Keith Lowe – bass

Andy Roth – drums

 

Electric Circus

Tim Young – guitar

Keith Love – electric bass

Andy Roth - drums

Alex Noice  (Music BFA 08) – guitar

Miller Wren (Music MFA 17) – upright bass

Motoko Honda (Music MFA 02) – keys

Mikaela Elson (Music MFA 23) – vocals

Sara Schoenbeck (Music MFA 99) – bassoon

Nicole McCabe – alto sax  

Tatiana Tate – trumpet