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Jazz Articles about Mary Halvorson
Trevor Dunn: Séances
by Mike Jurkovic
Holy bank shot Batman! Is Seances, (bassist Trevor Dunn's dissertation on the how humans tend to forget and repeat, ever a radical and electrifying take on things. Anything and everything goes the distance for Dunn and the combined mad genius of his Trio-Covulsant cronies, wickedly cool guitarist Mary Halvorson and the chaotic meter of drummer Ches Smith. It has been eighteen turbulent years since this threesome last convened for the opaquely conversant Sister Phantom Owl Fish (Ipecac, 2004) ...
Continue ReadingTrevor Dunn's Trio-Convulsant avec Folie À Quatre: Séances
by Mark Corroto
If you thought the Hang Mike Pence and Three Percenters crowd are just a phenomenon of the 21st century, let me introduce you to the Convulsionnaires of Saint-Médard, an 18th century Christian sect with the hysterical practices of coprophagia (yes, eating feces), spontaneous milk-vomiting and levitation. After the established religious authorities cracked down on the Convulsionnaires, many were sent to mental asylums, but others continued with less public séances or 'sessions.' Composer and bassist Trevor Dunn unearths this ...
Continue ReadingColumbia Icefield: Ancient Songs of Burlap Heroes
by Jerome Wilson
Trumpeter Nate Wooley can create impressive large-scale compositions. His Seven Storey Mountain VI, (Pyroclastic, 2021) is a massive work, dealing with the rights of women, that used fourteen musicians and singers. His group, Columbia Icefield, achieves similar results with just four members, Wooley himself on trumpet and amplifier, Mary Halvorson on electric guitar, Susan Alcorn on pedal steel guitar and Ryan Sawyer on drums plus Mat Maneri and Trevor Dunn guesting on some tracks. This music moves at a glacial ...
Continue ReadingColumbia Icefield: Ancient Songs of Burlap Heroes
by Troy Dostert
Nate Wooley refuses to make trivial music. Whether the endlessly creative trumpeter and composer is rethinking the relationship between artistic production and community, as on Mutual Aid Music (Pleasure of the Text, 2021), or pursuing ways to re-envision music's spiritual potential, seen most recently on 2020's Seven Storey Mountain VI (Pyroclastic Records), he always provides his listeners with a lot to ponder. This is no less evident with his Columbia Icefield project, which dives headlong into humankind's fraught relationship with ...
Continue ReadingMary Halvorson, Josh Sinton, Pat Thomas & The Big Room
by Maurice Hogue
Guitarist Mary Halvorson's new double album marks her debut for Nonesuch. You'll hear a sample from em>Amaryllis and Belladonna. You'll also get a taste of Slovenian guitarist Samo Salamon's terrific new recording Pure And Simple with the great Arild Andersen and Rakalam Bob Moses. Other new trio sets come from baritone saxophonist Josh Sinton and the international threesome of English pianist Pat Thomas and Swedes saxophonist Sture Ericson and drummer Raymond Strid, France's The Big Room & Germany's Blechbarrage. Quartets ...
Continue ReadingMyra Melford: For The Love Of Fire And Water
by John Sharpe
Inspired by artist Cy Twombly, pianist Myra Melford has produced a superb album which combines notated signposts with unbridled exchanges. She's helped by an all star agglomeration comprising some of New York's most accomplished instrumentalists: guitarist Mary Halvorson, saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock, cellist Tomeka Reid and drummer Susie Ibarra. As might be expected of the city's brightest talents, their paths have crossed on multiple occasions, but never in this particular permutation until they appeared as part of a Melford residency at ...
Continue ReadingFestival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville 2022
by Mike Chamberlain
Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville Various Venues Victoriaville, Quebec, Canada May 19-22, 2022 The weekend of May 19-22, was the first time since 2019 that artistic director Michel Levasseur and the team at the Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville (FIMAV, or Victo, as it is popularly known) were able to mount a full program of concerts and other presentations (sound installations, films) without tight pandemic restrictions. This meant that, ...
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