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Royal Room with Saxophonist Skerik and Cellist Peggy Lee

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Royal Room with Saxophonist Skerik and Cellist Peggy Lee Keyboardist Wayne Horvitz (left) performs at his club The Royal Room with saxophonist Skerik and cellist Peggy Lee. DANIEL SHEEHAN es, antique-looking ceiling lamps and win- dows to the sidewalk, the Royal Room has a warm, welcoming feel. Many nights there is ROYAL ROOM: no cover charge. Horvitz says running the club is “the hard- est thing I’ve ever done in my life,” thanks to SEATTLE STYLE the meager margins and precarious econom- ics of a small venue. "e Royal Room accom- ouring musicians will tell you Seattle Cline, but also served as a “project room,” as modates 120–150 guests, and a few bad nights has one of the country’s !nest jazz Horvitz likes to call it, for Seattle-based art- can add up quickly. But his partners in the clubs—Dimitriou’s Jazz Alley—and ists such as violist Eyvind Kang, French horn venture, Steve and Tia Freeborn, have exten- TEmerald City players are lucky to have their player Tom Varner, trumpeter Cuong Vu and sive business experience, having run Seattle’s own showcase in the cozy Belltown boîte called funky sax man Skerik. On any given night fabled OK Hotel, where everyone from Nirvana Tula’s. But pianist, composer and bandlead- you might hear alt-country, blues, rock, jazz, to Charles Gayle used to play. Despite the chal- er Wayne Horvitz, who moved to Seattle from avant-garde classical music or—on alter- lenges, Horvitz and the Freeborns have kept the New York in 1988, thought there was some- nate Mondays—Horvitz’s Collective Music place a$oat. "ey’ve also earned the loyalty of thing missing. Four years ago he decided to Ensemble, a “conduction” project inspired by the community. remedy that with "e Royal Room. Horvitz’s old bandmate Morris. “People stop me in elevators downtown and “I wanted something that felt more like a But the town’s best young straightahead say, ‘You’re Wayne Horvitz!’” the pianist said community place, a place that mostly served improvisers can be found there, too, particular- with a smile. “I’m always hoping they’re going local music but was nice enough that people on ly at the 10 p.m. Monday “Monk Jams,” or the to say how much they like my music, and they tour could come through,” Horvitz explained. club’s “Home for the Holidays” series featuring say, ‘"ank you so much for the Royal Room.’ Known for an eclectic body of work that local youngsters shaped by the city’s renowned "at’s one of the things that keeps me going.” includes the chamber opera Joe Hill, rock and high school jazz band programs. It keeps the scene going, too. funk groups like Pigpen and Zony Mash, an Ensconced in the corner of a building “You can fail gracefully there,” said Skerik. “I avant-garde trio with the late Butch Morris owned by a venerable African-American really see it in the lineage of the Knitting Factory and manning the keyboards in John Zorn’s social club, the Royal Room is in Columbia and the OK Hotel, a very cool extension of that.” Naked City, Horvitz came up in the 1980s as City, a recently gentri!ed neighborhood full "e venue accommodates musicians with a part of New York’s “downtown” scene. "e of bars and restaurants about !ve miles south Steinway piano, full drum kit, Hammond B-3 Royal Room was partly inspired by the Tin of downtown. "e triangular, 2,500-square- organ, Fender Rhodes, Wurlitzer piano and a Palace, an East Village club located down the foot spot is actually three venues in one: a Clavinet keyboard. street from CBGB’s. performance space with a large stage and a “I’m not smart enough to solve the problem “It was a hang,” said the animated, 60-year- score of four-seater dinner tables; a full-ser- of a local drummer being able to make a liv- old musician. “"at’s kind of what I had in mind.” vice bar, with extra seating at high count- ing wage,” Horvitz joked, “but if they play here, "e concept has caught on. Over the years, ers; and a corner area sometimes curtained at least they’re not going to have to drag their "e Royal Room has hosted the likes of Bill o# for late-night sessions like the Monk drums to the car at 2 in the morning.” Frisell, Bobby Previte, Allison Miller and Nels Jam. With revealed brick and wood surfac- —Paul de Barros 52 DOWNBEAT FEBRUARY 2016.
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