WAYNE HORVITZ GRAVITAS QUARTET
Way Out East

Songlines

The Gravitas Quartet, led by pianist Wayne Horvitz, is essentially a classical chamber ensemble that can perform group improvisation within the framework of structured compositions. That makes them fairly unusual, as does the group’s instrumentation. Horvitz handles piano and electronics, and is joined by cellist Peggy Lee (there’s a hilarious reference in Horvitz’ liner notes about a hapless journalist mistaking the musicians for the late singer), trumpeter Ron Miles, and bassoonist Sara Schoenbeck.

Listen to Ron Miles’ trumpet solo on the title track, and you instantly appreciate his stuttering improvisational line in the context of the group’s tightly performed background riff. Around 3’08” into the piece things start to loosen up as Miles gains momentum, and it feels, briefly, like a jazz group. But then they are back into the precision of composition again, sounding like a very tight chamber ensemble. On Track 8, “You Were Just Here,” Horvitz plays a swinging right hand piano line over the harmonic accents of Shconbeck’s bassoon couples with Miles’ trumpet. Yes, there’s jazz here, and there’s music in the classical European chamber tradition, but there’s more than that. Whatever genre this music is, it is more than the obvious sum of its parts.

Horvitz' compositions here are simply gorgeous, possessing the strength of the memory of some other season, some other time in one’s life. It’s frustrating to listen to Way Out East, and then realize that very few people will ever come into contact with this music. Obvously, it has marketing issues: it can’t be marketed as straight chamber music nor can it be foisted on jazz fans as truly jazz. The group blurs the lines between composition and improvisation as well. There are passages where it seems clear that Miles or Horvitz is soloing freely over whatever is happening, but then there are times when it seems as though the musicians can’t have reacted that quickly to what is happnening.

On several pieces Horvitz incorporates electronics into the mix, and the results are very good, adding yet another dimension to this genre-smashing performance. On “Reveille” the electronics bubble and burble beneath the surface while Ron Miles plays over them. Eventually the electronics become more deeply layered and both Peggy Lee and Sara Schoenbeck begin to add additional texture. The album’s closer, “World Peace and Quiet”is an ambient track, with electronic layers that are relatively static beneath Schoenbeck’s bassoon work. On “Between Here and Heaven,” Horvitz plays both acoustic piano and electronics.

The music on Way Out East is addictive as well. The more one listens, the more it fits together and the more interesting the listening experience is. In his liner notes Horvitz speaks of being drawn to these musicians because of their ability to become part of a whole, giving life to the music: “They had a profound sense of being part of a whole, really being part of an ensemble and seeing each piece as a composition, despite the lack of pre-ordained structure.” This group of musicians is terrific and seems able to have had time to devote to learning the songs as well as having become comfortable enough with each other to carry off the improvisational sections.

‘Chamber jazz’ is a phrase that became popular at one time among music journalists to describe the ECM sound, and Way Out East conforms to this description and also shares an aesthetic with many ECM recordings, down to the cover art, a beautiful photograph entitled “Snowfall Hradcany Castle, Prague, Czech Republic” by Daniel Coleman Sheehan. The music contained on this CD, though, is anything but staid or stuffy, despite its classicism. It’s music that is both engaging and engaged, and it’s well worth checking out both for fans of modern classical music and improvisational music alike.