All That Jazz

On keyboardist Wayne Horvitz’s 2006 Gravitas Quartet album, there’s a song called “One Morton” – the address of the rehearsal studio that Horvitz and his wife, singer Robin Holcomb, rented when they first moved to New York. For several years at the end of the ’70s, some of downtown’s avant-garde progenitors – people like Bill Laswell, Billy Bang and John Zorn – used that spot as a performance space. Horvitz and Zorn continued working together for nearly two decades. Horvitz also collaborated with such forward-thinking musicians as Carla Bley, Bill Frisell and Fred Frith, as well as heading his own groups, including Zony Mash and, more recently, the Gravitas Quartet.

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Horvitz and Holcomb have collaborated, too, recording on each other’s albums and deeply influencing each other’s music. Still, their backgrounds and training are very different, resulting in divergent techniques and sounds -- which you can hear firsthand at Metro State’s Eighth Annual Jazz Celebration.

Tonight at 6:30 p.m., Holcomb will perform her own compositions, backed by the Metro State Jazz Voices and a rhythm section from the school (there’s a possibility that Horvitz might join her on a few tunes). Tomorrow, Horvitz will lead a composition master class from 1 to 2 p.m., then perform at 6:30 p.m. with the Metro State Big Band under the direction of local trumpeter Ron Miles. All events are in the King Center Concert Hall on the Auraria campus; tickets range from $5 to $10. For more information, call the King Center box office at 303-556-2296.
Thu., April 16, 6:30 p.m.; Fri., April 17, 6:30 p.m., 2009