New York's white guitarist Mary Halvorson, an alumna of Anthony Braxton and
a former member of a trio called Map documented on Six Improvisations For Guitar Bass And Drums (july 2002) and Fever Dream,
recorded in a duo with violist Jessica Pavone, another
Braxton alumna, a series of chamber jazz albums:
Prairies (2005), On & Off (2007),
Thin Air (october 2008)
and
Departure of Reason (2011).
Opulence (february 2007) was a live session with drummer Weasel Walter.
She formed her first trio, documented on Dragon's Head (february 2008), with bassist John Hebert and drummer Ches Smith, but she kept trying different combinations:
Calling All Portraits (2008) featured Devin Hoff, Jessica Pavone and Ches Smith;
Crackleknob (november 2006) featured trumpeter Nate Wooley and bassist Reuben Radding; and
Mystery Meat (september 2008),
Electric Fruit (november 2009) and Mechanical Malfunction (april 2012) featured trumpeter Peter Evans and drummer Weasel Walter.
Halvorson also played in People, formed by Storm & Stress' drummer Kevin Shea.
Her quintet added trumpeter Jonathan Finlayson and alto saxophonist Jon Irabagon
to the rhythm section of Hebert and Smith for
Saturn Sings (2010) and Bending Bridges (2012), probably the
peaks of her art, often inspired by
rock and soul music.
She also played on Tom Rainey's
Camino Cielo Echo (may 2011) with
Ingrid Laubrock on sax and Tom Rainey on drums.
Secret Keeper, formed with bassist Stephan Crump, debuted with
Super Eight (july and november 2011), followed by
Emerge (june 2013).
These Arches, formed by drummer Ches Smith with
Tony Malaby
(tenor sax), Mary Halvorson (guitar) and Andrea Parkins (accordion and
electronics) released
Finally Out Of My Hands (2010),
Hammered (december 2011), featuring Tim Berne (alto sax),
and the live International Hoohah (july 2012).
Mary Halvorson's Sifter (Kirk Knuffke on cornet and Matt Wilson on drums) debuted with Sifter (october 2011), mostly composed by Knuffke and Wilson.
Halvorson expanded the quintet of
Saturn Sings to a
septet on
Illusionary Sea (september 2012) by adding
Ingrid Laubrock (tenor sax) and Jacob Garchik (trombone).
Ghost Loop (2013) documents a live date
with John Hebert on double-bass and Ches Smith on drums.
A collaboration among Eugene Chadbourne (banjo), Mary Halvorson (guitar), Jessica Pavone (viola), Barry Mitterhof (mandolin), Evan Gallagher (keyboards, percussion & electronics) and Stephanie Rearick (piano) yielded Click Beetle (Chadula, 2013) recorded in 2008 and 2009 and Credited to Insect and Western.
Thumbscrew (april 2013 - Cuneiform, 2014) was a collaboration among guitarist Mary Halvorson, drummer Tomas Fujiwara and bassist Michael Formanek,
which debuted live in March 2012.
There are moments of genius (like the crippled flamenco moves that surface in
iThumbscrew, the suspended guitar solo in the middle of
Still Doesn't Swing,
the syncopated and catchy theme of Line To Create);
but too much of this disc sounds sedated, perhaps due to the fact that the
trio tried a bit too hard to keep a democratic balance.
Highlights are the funereal pow-wow dance that opens Fluid Hills In Pink,
only to drown in Halvorson's extended intellectual doodling, and
the brainy post-rock alienation of Buzzard's Breath.
Plymouth (Rare Noise, 2014) launched a new project with Jamie Saft (organ, echoplex piano, Fender Rhodes), Joe Morris (electric guitar), Chris Lightcap (electric bass), Gerald Cleaver (drums) and Mary Halvorson (electric guitar)
Reverse Blue (december 2013) debuted a new project with
with Chris Speed on tenor sax & clarinet, Eivind Opsvik on
double bass and Tomas Fujiwara on drums.
Mary Halvorson's solo guitar Meltframe (november 2014) contains jazz covers.
Noel Akchote & Mary Halvorson (february 2016) was a collaboration with fellow guitarist Noel Akchote that yielded twenty audio miniatures.
Can I V flirts with several genres in one song, from country finger-picking to neoclassical/baroque dances. The eccentric slavic Icare Easter is contrasted with
the psychedelic syncopated Flowers (in which Halvorson's tonal distortions sound like a synth), the oddly melodic and samba-like Pline and the
bluesy John Abercrombie tribute Aber-lied (that are relatively straightforward)
drown in
the convoluted and dissonant avant-swing skit Vuiper Trout
and the
free-form cacophony of Hune Lune.
The album also contains several covers
(the standard All The Things You Are, Ornette Coleman's Him & Her, Misha Mengelberg's Weer is Een Dag Voorbij, Jacques Thollot's Entre Java Et Bali, Bill Frisell's Strange Meeting, Pat Metheny's The Bat)
as well as a new version of May 20th (an old Recyclers song).
Fujiwara is the real hero on
Thumbscrew's Convallaria (july 2015 - Cuneiform, 2016).
Halvorson's hard-rocking Cleome and
Hawaiian-esque ballad Inevitable are not particularly memorable, and
Halvorson's nine-minute Convallaria is actually highlighted more by Fujiwara's lengthy drum solo then by her arpeggiated minimalism.
Formanek's frenzied bass-guitar dialogue Tail of the Sad Dog
and his subdued eight-minute fantasia Spring Ahead do not amount to much, while his Danse Insense is mainly notable for the percussive noises that duet with the guitar.
The standouts are Fujiwara's Brazilian-flavored carnivalesque Barn Fire Slum Brew and Fujiwara's eight-minute Trigger, that begins recalling Peter Green's psychedelic jazz and then turns increasingly abstract and noisy, fading away in languid desolate wails.
As for Halvorson, she is more effective in the pieces composed by the others.
Notably, Formanek's menacing Screaming Piha is devastated by a maelstrom of horrible guitar noise.
The Out Louds (december 2014) documents a trio with
Ben Goldberg on clarinet and
Tomas Fujiwara on drums.
The six pieces of Illegal Crowns (may 2014) document a quartet with Taylor Ho Bynum (cornet & flugelhorn), Benoit Delbecq (prepared & unprepared piano) and Tomas Fujiwara (drums).
Halvorson further expanded the septet of
Illusionary Sea to an octet by adding
Susan Alcorn (pedal steel guitar) on
Away With You (december 2015). That concluded the transformation of her original trio into a small chamber ensemble.
Halvorson collaborated with pianist Sylvie Courvoisier on Crop Circles (august 2016).
Halvorson and Fujiwara also played in Mike Reed's Sun Ra-inspired ensemble Living By Lanterns for New Myth/Old Science (Cuneiform, 2012), on
cellist Tomeka Reid's debut album Tomeka Reid Quartet (Thirsty Ear) and
on clarinetist Ben Goldberg's The Out Louds (Relative Pitch).
And they also play in Taylor Ho Bynum's Thirteenth Assembly.
The guitar trio of Elliott Sharp, Mary Halvorson and Marc Ribot recorded Err Guitar (july 2016).
Mary Halvorson expanded the Thumbscrew trio (drummer Tomas Fujiwara and bassist Michael Formanek) with Ambrose Akinmusire (trumpet) and Amirtha Kidambi (voice) to record the double-disc song-based Code Girl (december 2016).
Thumbscrew released
Ours (june 2017),
the collection of covers
Theirs (june 2017),
and Never Is Enough (september 2019).
Seed Triangular (New Amsterdam, 2018) was a collaboration with
multi-instrumentalist Robbie Lee (flutes, clarinet, sax, melodica and bells).
Traversing Orbits (april 2018) documents the guitar duo of Mary Halvorson and Joe Morris, and The Maid With The Flaxen Hair (april 2018) documents
the guitar duo with Bill Frisell (ten ballads paying tribute to guitarist Johnny Smith).
Contemporary Chaos Practices (december 2017) contains the 24-minute Contemporary Chaos Practices and the 18-minute Vogelfrei, both composed by Ingrid Laubrock and performed by a jazz quartet (Halvorson, Kris Davis on piano, Nate Wooley on trumpet and Ingrid Laubrock on saxes) and a symphonic orchestra.
The Tom Rainey Trio, with Mary Halvorson (guitar), Ingrid Laubrock (saxophone) and Tom Rainey (drums), recorded Pool School (september 2010), Camino Cielo Echo (may 2011), Hotel Grief (december 2013), and Combobulated (september 2017) that contains the 19-minute Combobulated.
Taylor Ho Bynum (cornet, flugelhorn), Mary Halvorson (guitar), Benoit Delbecq (piano) and Tomas Fujiwara (drums) recorded The No-Nosed Puppet (november 2017).
Michael Formanek, Tim Berne and Mary Halvorson formed the Very Practical Trio first documented on Even Better (february 2019).
A Tangle Of Stars (december 2018) documents a collaboration between Mary Halvorson and Deerhoof's John Dieterich.
The Tomeka Reid Quartet (cellist Tomeka Reid, Halvorson, bassist Jason Roebke and drummer Tomas Fujiwara) recorded Old New (april 2018) .
Thumbscrew's drummer
Tomas Fujiawara released the impressive Triple Double (february 2017)
and 7 Poets Trio (october 2018).
Code Girl's Artlessly Falling (december 2019) debuted a new lineup:
Amirtha Kidambi (vocals), Adam O'Farrill (trumpet), Maria Grand (sax), Michael Formanek (bass), Tomas Fujiwara (drums).
Robert Wyatt guests as a vocalist in three of eight pieces.
Crop Circles (august 2016) and
Searching For The Disappeared Hour (june 2021) are duets
pianist Sylvie Courvoisier.
The super-quintet of Ben Goldberg (clarinet), Mary Halvorson (guitar), Ellery Eskelin (sax), Michael Formanek (bass) and Tomas Fujiwara (drums) recorded Everything Happens To Be (june 2018) devoted to Goldberg compositions.
Belladonna (september 2021) contains five compositions for guitar and a string quartet.
Amaryllis (september 2021) contains six improvisations for a sextet featuring Adam O'Farrill (trumpet), Jacob Garchik (trombone), Patricia Brennan (vibraphone), Nick Dunston (bass) and Tomas Fujiwara (drums).
An electric guitar trio with Noel Akchote and Bill Frisell recorded the double-disc Loving Highsmith (august 2020), the soundtrack for a documentary, composed by Akchote.
Thumbscrew's Multicolored Midnight (september 2021) focused on
Fujiwara’s vibraphone and
contains
Formanek's I'm a Senator!,
Shit Changes, Fidgety, Capsicum Annuum and Should Be Cool;
Fujiwara's Song For Mr Humphries, Future Reruns and Nostalgia and Brutality and Beauty;
Halvorson's Survival Fetish, Multicolored Midnight and Swirling Lives.
Halvorson also played in Trevor Dunn's Trio-Convulsant, as documented on
Sister Phantom Owl Fish (february 2004 - Ipecac, 2004)
and
Séances (january 2022 - Pyroclastic, 2022).
In 2014 Tomas Fujiwara founded Illegal Crowns with Taylor Ho Bynum (cornet and flugelhorn), Mary Halvorson (guitar), and Benoit Delbecq (piano and prepared piano), documented on Illegal Crowns (may 2014), The No-Nosed Puppet (november 2017) and Unclosing (june 2022).
Strings & Things (2014) documents duets with bassist Jamaaladeen Tacuma.
Crossings Four (august 2022) documenting a collaboration between Ned Rothenberg (clarinets and alto sax), Sylvie Courvoisier (piano), Mary Halvorson (guitar and effects) and Tomas Fujiwara (drums).
The Myra Melford Quintet, with Mary Halvorson (guitar), Ingrid Laubrock (tenor and soprano saxes) and Tomeka Reid (cello), recorded For The Love Of Fire And Water (july 2021) with percussionist and Hear The Light Singing (november 2022) with percussionist Lesley Mok.
She led Patricia Brennan (vibraphone), Nick Dunston (bass), Tomas Fujiwara (drums), Jacob Garchik (trombone) and Adam O'Farrill (trumpet) and even guest Laurie Anderson on violin on Cloudward (maarch 2023) .
Thumbscrew returned with their eight album, Wingbeats (september 2023).