Wayne Horvitz

One of the most idiosyncratic musicians in jazz, Thelonious Monk is also one of the most popular. KNKX jazz host Abe Beeson is a big fan, but he’s been wondering: just what is it that makes Monk’s music so cool?

Composer, pianist and bandleader Wayne Horvitz's original score to the 1920 silent film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, will be performed to a screening of the film live at The Royal Room in Seattle's Columbia City this Halloween night. Thursday afternoon, we were there for a preview.

Seattle's Earshot Jazz Festival is coming into the final stretch of its nearly six-week series of events.  This Sunday, November 8 at 2:00pm on Jazz Northwest  (88.5 KPLU and online at KPLU), we'll sample some of the artists who'll be appearing at venues around the Seattle area. Included is music by vocal artist Jay Clayton, clarinetist Anat Cohen, pianist/composer Wayne Horvitz, Larry Fuller and Brad Mehldau,  In addition, this program opens with music of Billy Strayhorn whose centennial is being celebrated this year.  Several of the remaining concerts have already sold out.  

Seattle's biggest jazz event of the year is the Earshot Jazz Festival, encompassing dozens of performances from Benaroya Hall to intimate jazz clubs such as Tula's.  The Wayne Shorter Quartet (pictured) headlines this year's festival on October 11, but there are many outstanding jazz groups playing all around Seattle from October 9 through November 18.  Earshot's Executive Director John Gilbreath joins Jim Wilke on Jazz Northwest (Sunday, 2 PM Pacific on 88.5 KPLU) to talk about and share music by some of the performers in the first weeks of the festival.

Each Sunday, Jazz Northwest presents music by resident and visiting musicians in the Pacific Northwest. This week's show includes Triology from Vancouver BC, Wayne Horvitz and the Royal Room Music Collective Ensemble, Dave Frishberg from Portland, and New York based saxophonist Steve Wilson playing in downtown Port Townsend during the jazz festival in July.  Jazz Northwest airs Sundays at 2 PM on 88.5 KPLU and streams at kplu.org

Something about late Summer encourages reminiscence and as we planned this show, that seemed to emerge as a theme.  Included are a couple of songs from the 60s, "Wichita Lineman" and "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" in new versions by Marc Seales and Alex Guilbert.   Wayne Horvitz' new CD "Some Places are Forever Afternoon" was inspired by the NW poet Richard Hugo (1923-1982).  Wayne Horvitz visited some of the places and people that inspired Hugo as he composed this music that balances between nostalgia and the future, chamber music and improvisation.

The Westerlies are a new young brass ensemble based out of New York City. They’re an all-over-the-musical-map group whose first album is already garnering critical praise.

And this first bit of success could have something to do with their Seattle roots. All four musicians, all in their 20s, grew up in Seattle where they absorbed much of the local music scene. They’re the product of two of the best high school jazz programs in the country: Garfield and Roosevelt high schools. And their debut album, recorded in a family friend’s cabin on Lopez Island, is a reinterpretation of an eclectic mix of compositions by Seattlelite Wayne Horvitz.

The bloodiest event in Pacific Northwest labor history, the event that left 7 people dead and many more seriously injured, is the subject of a new mini-opera by Wayne Horvitz and Robin Holcomb at Seattle's ACT Theatre.

Called "Smokestack Arias," the work tells the story of the events of Nov. 5, 1916 when two boatloads of Industrial Workers of the World -- "Wobblies" -- arrived from Seattle to Everett.