Search - Wayne Horvitz, Zony Mash :: Upper Egypt

Keyboardist Wayne Horvitz kicks off Upper Egypt with Pharoah Sanders's tune of the same name, citing it in the liner notes as a pivotal piece for his own musical development. Here it's transmogrified into Zony Mash's swamp jazz but remains recognizable via palpable echoes of guitarist Sonny Sharrock (who played it originally on Sanders's Tauhid) in Tim Young's playing. It's an homage that sounds at once pristine and totally Zony--such is the sound of this band that it's easily identifiable and very memorable. Horvitz has found a studied, smoking mix. Young's guitar and Keith Lowe's electric bass have that funny, shadowy character of being frontally grabbing yet subtle in their depths. On Hammond B-3, Horvitz touches both the blocky front parts and the keyboard's background details, making grainy clouds on the big organ that alternate between atmosphere ("The End of Time") and heavy riffing ("FYI"). --Andrew Bartlett