His music may have rests, but Wayne Horvitz doesn't

Wayne Horvitz's Very Busy Year continues with a performance by the Gravitas Quartet at the Chapel Performance Space in Wallingford on Saturday. Gravitas — just one of the Seattle-based composer/keyboardist's many projects — is something like an improvisatory jazz combo colored by classical instrumentation: piano, cello (Peggy Lee), trumpet (Ron Miles) and bassoon (Sarah Schoenbeck).

The quartet's second release, "One Dance Alone" (on the Songlines label), has received good reviews for its melancholy atmospherics punctuated by occasional bursts of melody. It's one of at least four albums Horvitz is issuing with various collaborators this year.

Horvitz is a familiar figure locally and internationally. As a composer, he's received commissions from the Kronos Quartet, Seattle Chamber Players and Earshot Jazz. He was a sound designer for Gus Van Sant's "Psycho," and has recorded with numerous artists, including John Zorn, Elliott Sharp, Bill Frisell, Fred Frith and composer Robin Holcomb, his wife.

Gravitas plays the Chapel after a one-night appearance at the Vancouver International Jazz Festival and will undertake a European tour in winter 2009. (Read more about the Vancouver Jazz Festival on Page 7.)

Lynn Jacobson: 206-464-2714

or ljacobson@seattletimes.com.