The Wayne Horvitz free download series: “An Open Letter to George Bush”

This week’s free Wayne Horvitz track is from his 1992 release Miracle Mile, which was my introduction to his music as band leader.  As I’ve mentioned in previous columns featuring Horvitz’s 52 free downloads for 52 weeks, his sound can vary dramatically from moment to moment just as it evolves over time.  Today’s track, “An Open Letter to George Bush,” came from a time when Horvitz was adding heavy infusions of electronica to his addictive blend of folk, modern jazz and pop.  My favorite manifestations of that equation came in the form of moody, contemplative pieces that possessed an ever-present threat of volatility.  Today’s free track was one such piece, and it was a track that (thankfully) kept me coming back and checking out more of Horvitz’s work over all these years.  I’ve got a little bit of nostalgia wrapped up in today’s rec, which is part of the fun of revisiting all of these old Horvitz recordings as he rolls them out for this series.

Here’s that track…

Your album personnel (but not necessarily on this song):  Wayne Horvitz (keyboards, amplified piano, harmonica), Stew Cutler (guitar), J. A. Deane (trombone, electronics), Kermit Driscoll (electric bass), Bobby Previte (drums), Doug Wieselman (tenor saxophone, clarinet), Bill Frisell (guitar), Elliott Sharp (guitar), Denny Goodhew (saxophones) and Ben Steele (guitar controlled sampler).

Also, Horvitz is currently working on a new project and has a crowdfunding thing going for it.  You can learn more about it, as well as read some of Horvitz’s thoughts on today’s free track, on his Bandcamp page.  It’s also where you can download the free track (or just hit the word “download” on the embedded audio player above).

And remember, these tracks are only free for one week, so be sure to download it soon before it expires (approx. Tuesday April 26th).

And if you want to buy Miracle Mile, here’s a link to Amazon.