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Jazz Articles about Mary Halvorson
Thumbscrew: The Anthony Braxton Project
by Mark Sullivan
The Thumbscrew trio celebrates avant-garde legend Anthony Braxton's 75th birthday with this project. Given access to the Tricentric Archives of Braxton's work, they focused on previously unrecorded pieces by the composer, multi-wind master and bandleader. In addition to their playing history together guitarist Mary Halvorson, double bassist Michael Formanek and drummer/vibraphonist Tomas Fujiwara have all had extensive experience working with Braxton, making them ideally suited to these interpretations of his music. Seeking scores that fired their imaginations (as ...
Continue ReadingMary Halvorson, Arthur Briggs, Theo Hill and More
by Joe Dimino
This week we open with innovative guitarist Mary Halvorson. She brings great insights on her career and this new COVID-19 jazz world. We also listen and interview New York City pianist Theo Hill, who is now in Costa Rica during the global pandemic. Finally, we hear from Roberto Magris in Italy during the quarantine. Playlist Mary Halvorson My Mind I Find in Time" Code Girl (Firehouse 12 Records) 00:00 Host talks 6:58 New Mayfair Orchestra Time on my ...
Continue ReadingTomeka Reid Quartet: Old New
by Ian Patterson
Tomeka Reid cut her teeth in Chicago, recording with Anthony Braxton, Roscoe Mitchell and Nicole Mitchell, but the cellist's 2016 move to New York seems to have fired her creative juices even more. The prolific Reid has appeared on nearly twenty recordings in that time, notably including the Art Ensemble of Chicago's We Are On The Edge (Pi Recordings, 2019), and also touring with the group in celebration of its fiftieth anniversary. Given the demands on Reid's time, it is ...
Continue ReadingTaylor Ho Bynum 9-tette: The Ambiguity Manifesto
by Giuseppe Segala
All'interno della generazione di musicisti che si sono formati con Anthony Braxton negli anni Novanta, studiando presso di lui alla Wesleyan University e collaborando ai suoi lavori di quel periodo, Taylor Ho Bynum spicca insieme a Mary Halvorson per versatilità dinamica e dovizia progettuale. Bynum, nel periodo in cui ha diretto la Tri-Centric Foundation, dal 2010-2018, ha pure prodotto molti importanti lavori di Braxton, tra cui due poderose opere della serie Trillium e due spettacoli di Sonic Genome. La sua ...
Continue ReadingMichael Formanek Very Practical Trio: Even Better
by Giuseppe Segala
Trigonometria musicale? Triangolazioni sonore? Certamente, la formula del trio ha sempre riscosso un'attenzione speciale nel jazz, non solamente nella sua forma classica e costantemente esplorata, che affianca pianoforte, contrabbasso e batteria. In particolare Jimmy Giuffre, negli anni Cinquanta e Sessanta, ne ha esplorato con grande profondità e acume alcune possibili varianti, sondando dinamiche, centri di gravità e connessioni, applicandole agli organici strumentali allora più insoliti e giungendo a risultati tuttora ricchi di significato, soprattutto insieme a Paul Bley e Steve ...
Continue ReadingTaylor Ho Bynum: The Ambiguity Manifesto
by Mark Corroto
Cornetist, composer, organizer and curator Taylor Ho Bynum marshals his recording The Ambiguity Manifesto into the categories of before and after, as in AM/PM, BC/AD, and maybe more appropriately before AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians) and after AACM. With the entire breadth of recorded jazz history available, Bynum chose the concepts of the AACM as the tipping point(s) for this recording. This is a natural progression from his apprenticeship with Anthony Braxton and also his work with ...
Continue ReadingTaylor Ho Bynum 9-tette: The Ambiguity Manifesto
by Karl Ackermann
Taylor Ho Bynum's The Ambiguity Manifesto, with its oxymoronic title, is the third album in what the cornetist-composer calls an accidental trilogy." Following his Firehouse 12 Records releases Navigation (Possible Abstracts XII & XIII) (2013) and Enter the Plus Tet (2016), Bynum recognized a form--however unconventional--both in the composition and performing of these large ensemble works. With a 9-tette made up of members of his sextet and Plus Tet, Bynum adds Stomu Takeishi on electric bass. Bynum cites ...
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