Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Mary Halvorson: Meltframe

Mary Halvorson: Meltframe

By Dan Bilawsky
August 8, 2015
View read count

It should come as no shock that Mary Halvorson's first solo guitar album is a mind-bender. In the past, regardless of where she's gone and who she's gone with, Halvorson has managed to surprise by liberally mixing uncommonly aggressive assaults, open-ended exploration(s), and, on occasion, calm(ing) cogitation. Here, standing all by her lonesome, all three of those aspects are in play.

What's most shocking about this one is the material that Halvorson uses and the way she positions herself as an antagonist and semi-loyalist while interpreting these pieces. It's hard not to be impressed with the way she speaks to the mindset of Oliver Nelson's "Cascades" while jolting the listener with her Tom Morello-esque rawness. Later, she further connects and confounds, stripping Duke Ellington's "Solitude" bare while touching perfectly on the topic at hand and beautifully shaping Carla Bley's "Ida Lupino," a piano-centric composition that seems perfectly suited for guitar when Halvorson gets done with it.

There are balms and bombs to be found in this music, trap doors and doors of perception to travel through, and flirtations with conventional ideas and the great unknown. Ornette Coleman's "Sadness" becomes a masterclass in bent pitch gesticulation, somewhat warped yet solidly shaped; Tomas Fujiwara's "When" is a grungy rocker turned curious traveler; Roscoe Mitchell's "Leola" is pure cosmic energy; and Annette Peacock's "Blood" is a beautifully-executed masterwork, pure and not-so-simple.

Some musicians paint worlds when they perform, but Halvorson paints entire solar systems with her guitar. There is nobody capable of doing what she does here: Mary Halvorson gently coaxes out melodies and delivers distorted truths that ring on long after this album concludes.

Track Listing

Cascades; Blood; Cheshire Hotel; Sadness; Solitude; Ida Lupino; Aisha; Platform; When; Leola.

Personnel

Mary Halvorson

guitar

Mary Halvorson: guitar.

Album information

Title: Meltframe | Year Released: 2015 | Record Label: Firehouse 12 Records

PREVIOUS / NEXT

Steely Dan at Blossom Music Center
< Previous

Jazz and Other Four Letter Words
Next >

Mary Halvorson Concerts

Sep 18 Thu

Mary Halvorson: Amaryllis

Regattabar
Cambridge, MA

Sep 18 Thu

Mary Halvorson: Amaryllis

Regattabar
Cambridge, MA

Sep 20 Sat

Mary Halvorson: Amaryllis

Solar Myth
Philadelphia, PA

Support All About Jazz

All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.