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Jazz Articles about Mary Halvorson
Mary Halvorson: Alchemist Supreme
by Doug Collette
Produced and mixed by John Dieterich, with complementary cover art of paintings by DM Stith, the two companion pieces constituting the Nonesuch Records debut by Brooklyn-based guitarist, composer and MacArthur fellow Mary Halvorson restore truth to the often-cliched phrase 'the complete package.' Amaryllis features master improvisers in the company of a string quartet rendering arrangements devised to continually freshen explorations of the material. Meanwhile, Belladonna is a set of challenging compositions written specifically for the guitar in conjunction with that ...
Continue ReadingMyra Melford's Fire and Water Quintet: For The Love Of Fire And Water
by Mark Corroto
While the now infamous quote “writing about music is like dancing about architecture" may befit jazz criticism, writing music about painting is actually achievable. Proof of that is pianist Myra Melford's For the Love of Fire and Water; her quintet sets out to perform music inspired by the American painter Cy Twombly's (1928-2011) Bay of Gaeta drawings “For the Love of Fire and Water." Melford has taken inspiration from visual artists in the past, specifically on her solo ...
Continue ReadingTomas Fujiwara's Triple Double: March
by Jerome Wilson
This is the second release by drummer and vibraphonist Tomas Fujiwara's unique double trio with himself and Gerald Cleaver on drums, Mary Halvorson and Brandon Seabrook on guitar and Taylor Ho Bynum and Ralph Alessi on brass, a group that can be configured as two trios, three pairs of instruments or something in between. The sound of the resulting combinations can come out ambient or raucous, but tends towards an angular prog-jazz fusion sound, that can pack the punch of ...
Continue ReadingTomas Fujiwara's Triple Double: March
by Mark Corroto
Drummer, composer and vibraphonist Tomas Fujiwara did not set out to rebut the saying “familiarity breeds contempt," but March from his sextet Triple Double does just that. His combination of three pairs of double instruments—guitarists Mary Halvorson and Brandon Seabrook, cornet/trumpets Taylor Ho Bynum and Ralph Alessi, plus double drummers Gerald Cleaver and Tomas Fujiwara himself—creates respect, the opposite of contempt. The harmonious and organic nature of this music, first heard on their self-titled debut album Triple Double (Firehouse 12, ...
Continue ReadingTomas Fujiwara's Triple Double: March
by Troy Dostert
Drummer Tomas Fujiwara's March, another offering from his Triple Double sextet, was recorded in December 2019, prior to the widespread racial unrest that followed the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and many others in 2020. But it feels completely of a piece with those protests, with an unsettled anger and impatience that animate every moment of this absorbing album. Creating music that seems perfectly suited for a tumultuous age, Fujiwara's compositional instincts are spot-on, and he once again marshals ...
Continue ReadingFestival Music Unlimited 35 In Wels, Austria
by Ziga Koritnik
A collection of photos from Music Unlimited 35 Festival in Wels, Austria from November 5, 2021 to November 7, 2021 featuring Tumido Orchestra, (Susanna Gartmayer, Irene Kepl, Noid, Manu Mayr, Alexander Kranabetter, Thomas Berghammer, Lukas König, Mario Stadler, Bernhard Breuer, Gigi Gratt), Gabbro 4, (Hanne de Backer, Agnes Hvizdalek, Henrik Munkeby Nørstebø, Raphael Malfliet), Irreversible Entanglements, (Camae Ayewa, Keir Neuringer, Aquiles Navarro, Luke Stewart, Tcheser Holmes), Mary Halvorson & Code Girl, (Mary Halvorson, Brian Settles, Amirtha Kidambi, Adam O'Farrill, Michael ...
Continue ReadingSylvie Courvoisier / Mary Halvorson: Searching for the Disappeared Hour
by Jerome Wilson
Here pianist Sylvie Courvoisier and guitarist Mary Halvorson come together for the second time on record in a set of amorphous, ever-changing music that combines their two distinctive approaches into something unique. The musicians' individual sounds are very complimentary as Halvorson's strums and swoops interlock tightly with Courvoisier's precise notes. Together they show a friskiness not often heard in their individual work. Their playing has a dreamy, disoriented surface that sounds like other-dimensional cocktail music and often embeds ...
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