About Ghosts Mary Halvorson

• 1 Full of Neon 07:01
• 2 Carved From 05:28
• 3 Eventidal 06:18
• 4 Absinthian 04:57
• 5 About Ghosts 05:12
• 6 Amaranthine 07:28
• 7 Polyhedral 02:14
• 8 Endmost 05:30
• Total Runtime 44:08

Info for About Ghosts

‘About Ghosts’ features eight new compositions by guitarist/composer Mary Halvorson performed with her sextet Amaryllis, the improvisational band featured on her critically acclaimed albums Amaryllis, Belladonna and Cloudward: Patricia Brennan (vibraphone), Nick Dunston (bass), Tomas Fujiwara (drums), Jacob Garchik (trombone) and Adam O'Farrill (trumpet). Saxophonists Immanuel Wilkins and Brian Settles are featured on five tracks, and Halvorson adds synthesiser overdubs for pocket piano on a number of tracks. The album was produced and mixed by John Dieterich of Deerhoof.

“I started writing this record in the fall of 2023, for Amaryllis, and I thought, ‘You know what? I want to add more saxophones.’ And I just started writing,” Halvorson says. “It felt like an experiment. I was just feeling ... denser harmony, more horns. But I wanted to stick with Amaryllis, so it felt natural to add a couple of saxophones to Amaryllis rather than doing an entirely new thing; I’d been playing so much at that point with Amaryllis and we were in a really good place.

“I guess I do that a lot. Take something that already feels good and then add an element, kind of throw a wrench in it, and see what happens,” she laughs.

Another instrument that can be heard on “Carved From,” among other tracks, is a Pocket Piano synthesizer that Halvorson’s childhood friend Owen Oborn, from Critter & Guitari, recently gave her. “I’ve never played a synthesizer before, but I thought, ‘Wow, if he gave this to me, I should really figure out how to play it.’ I used it on a bunch of tracks, as overdubs. You’ll hear weird non-guitar sounds woven in throughout,” Halvorson says.

“I wasn’t using it to improvise. I was trying to find an additional layer to build into the compositions, the whole time being like, ‘I’ll throw it out if I don’t like it.’ But John Dieterich, who mixed the record, incorporated the synth perfectly. It felt like a subtle layer had settled there, which could almost escape one’s notice. Sort of like the ghost member of the band.”

Pitchfork noted in its review of Halvorson’s last album, “There is something curiously absolute about Cloudward, whose eight pieces seem chiefly to express their own elegant systems of order and disorder, rather than reaching outside themselves to convey particular emotions or images.” And Bandcamp noted, “Halvorson continues to give her excellent band plenty of freedom in how the pieces come together, producing her most richly contrapuntal music yet. That achievement speaks to the elasticity, presence, and imagination of her bandmates, who built spectacular, rigorous marvels from her malleable frameworks.”

In addition to her three previous Nonesuch recordings, Halvorson has released a series of critically acclaimed albums, from Dragon’s Head (2008), her trio debut featuring bassist John Hébert and drummer Ches Smith, expanding to a quintet with trumpeter Jonathan Finlayson and alto saxophonist Jon Irabagon on Saturn Sings (2010) and Bending Bridges (2012), a septet with tenor saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock and trombonist Jacob Garchik on Illusionary Sea (2014), and finally an octet with pedal steel guitarist Susan Alcorn on Away With You (2016). She also released the solo recording Meltframe (2015). Her ensemble Code Girl, featuring vocalist Amirtha Kidambi, trumpeter Adam O’Farrill, saxophonist and vocalist María Grand, bassist Michael Formanek, and drummer Tomas Fujiwara, released two albums, in 2018 and 2020.

One of New York City’s most in-demand guitarists, over the past decade, Halvorson has worked with such diverse musicians as Tim Berne, Anthony Braxton, Taylor Ho Bynum, John Dieterich, Trevor Dunn, Bill Frisell, Ingrid Laubrock, Jason Moran, Joe Morris, Tom Rainey, Jessica Pavone, Tomeka Reid, Marc Ribot, and John Zorn. She is also part of several collaborative projects, most notably the longstanding trio Thumbscrew with Michael Formanek on bass and Tomas Fujiwara on drums.

Mary Halvorson, guitar (tracks 1-8), synth (Pocket Piano) (tracks 1–3, 8)
Immanuel Wilkins, alto saxophone (tracks 1-2, 4-5)
Brian Settles, tenor saxophone (tracks 1-2, 5, 8)
Adam O’Farrill, trumpet (tracks 1-8)
Jacob Garchik, trombone (tracks 1-8)
Patricia Brennan, vibraphone (tracks 1-8)
Nick Dunston, bass (tracks 1-8)
Tomas Fujiwara, drums (tracks 1-8)

Mary Halvorson
One of improvised music’s most in-demand guitarists, Mary Halvorson has been active in New York since 2002, following jazz studies at Wesleyan University and the New School. Critics have called her “a singular talent” (Lloyd Sachs, JazzTimes), ”NYC’s least-predictable improviser” (Howard Mandel, City Arts), “one of the most exciting and original guitarists in jazz—or otherwise” (Steve Dollar, Wall Street Journal), and “one of today’s most formidable bandleaders” (Francis Davis, Village Voice). The Philadelphia City Paper’s Shaun Brady adds, “Halvorson has been steadily reshaping the sound of jazz guitar in recent years with her elastic, sometimes-fluid, sometimes-shredding, wholly unique style.”

After three years of study with visionary composer and saxophonist Anthony Braxton, Ms. Halvorson became an active member of several of his bands, including his trio, septet and 12+1tet. To date, she appears on over ten of Mr. Braxton’s recordings. Ms. Halvorson has also performed alongside iconic guitarist Marc Ribot, in his bands Sun Ship and The Young Philadelphians, and with the bassist Trevor Dunn in his Trio-Convulsant. Over the past decade she has worked with such diverse bandleaders as Tim Berne, Taylor Ho Bynum, Tomas Fujiwara, Ingrid Laubrock, Jason Moran, Joe Morris, Tom Rainey, Tomeka Reid and John Zorn.

As a bandleader and composer, one of Ms. Halvorson’s primary outlets is her longstanding trio, featuring bassist John Hébert and drummer Ches Smith. Since their 2008 debut album, Dragon’s Head, the band was recognized as a rising star jazz band by Downbeat Magazine for five consecutive years. Most recently she has formed an octet, adding trumpeter Jonathan Finlayson, saxophonists Jon Irabagon and Ingrid Laubrock, trombonist Jacob Garchik, and pedal steel guitarist Susan Alcorn. Their debut 2016 release, Away With You, on the Firehouse 12 Record label, was called “radiant” by the New York Times and “one of the most intricate and entrancing sets of her career” by Pitchfork. Ms. Halvorson is also a part of several collaborative projects including Thumbscrew (with Michael Formanek and Tomas Fujiwara), Secret Keeper (with Stephan Crump), a chamber-jazz duo with violist Jessica Pavone, and the avant-rock band People.

This album contains no booklet.