Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Wayne Horvitz & Sweeter Than The Day: A Walk In The Dark

263

Wayne Horvitz & Sweeter Than The Day: A Walk In The Dark

By

View read count
Wayne Horvitz & Sweeter Than The Day: A Walk In The Dark


This cumbersomely-named combo have been together for nearly a decade, just one of keyboardist Wayne Horvitz's many band projects. The concept appears to revolve around a desire to embrace an almost-acoustic modern traditionalism, while retaining a slightly skewed stance that recalls some of Horvitz's earlier forays into electro-groove. Lately, he appears to have forsaken that predilection for plugged-in keyboards, attending to the heart of the acoustic piano.



The disc was recorded in the band's Seattle base, with Timothy Young (guitar), Keith Lowe (bass) and Eric Eagle (drums) and all of the tunes are written by Horvitz. They make a deeply atmospheric start on the title track, slinking along like the new cool school, delicately stippling with a capering finesse. They explore gently, with Young subtly dampening strings as Horvitz tiptoes with verbose uninhibitedness. Young has a technique of gently fuzzing up his guitar in a quiet drizzle of harnessed extremity that perfectly suits the restrained threat of the material. Horvitz is interested in a measured dapple, trinkling carefully over the band's pulse on the inspirational blues shuffle of "A Walk In The Rain."  It's perfectly poised until a spurt of guitaring in its final minute. Lusty drumming dominates "Between The Floors," forcing belligerence on the overall measured ponderousness.



The chief strategy is to alternate between these stalking urban groovers and a pool of sedate ballads, but even with "The 29th Day Of May," another softly scuzzed guitar solo disturbs the waters. "Inference' calls back a loping groove and now it's Lowe's moment, his pneumatic bass solo developing beside Eagle's brushed slither. The dominant character throughout is the tension between introverted romance and the swirling ghost of boogaloo, felt even without any Hammond organ in the house.

Track Listing

A Walk In The Dark; A Moment For Andrew; We Never Met; A Walk In The Rain; Undecided; Between The Floors; Waltz From Woman of Tokyo; The 29th Day of May; Inference; Good Shepherd; To a Toaster.

Personnel

Wayne Horvitz
keyboards

Wayne Horvitz: piano; Timothy Young: electric guitar; Keith Lowe: contrabass; Eric Eagle: drums.

Album information

Title: A Walk In The Dark | Year Released: 2008 | Record Label: Self Produced

Tags

Comments


PREVIOUS / NEXT




Support All About Jazz

Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

Near

More

Tramonto
John Taylor
Ki
Natsuki Tamura / Satoko Fujii
Duality Pt: 02
Dom Franks' Strayhorn
The Sound of Raspberry
Tatsuya Yoshida / Martín Escalante

Popular

Old Home/New Home
The Brian Martin Big Band
My Ideal
Sam Dillon
Ecliptic
Shifa شفاء - Rachel Musson, Pat Thomas, Mark Sanders
Lado B Brazilian Project 2
Catina DeLuna & Otmaro Ruíz

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.

Install All About Jazz

iOS Instructions:

To install this app, follow these steps:

All About Jazz would like to send you notifications

Notifications include timely alerts to content of interest, such as articles, reviews, new features, and more. These can be configured in Settings.