Meltframe Mary Halvorson

• 1 Cascades 04:07
• 2 Blood 04:04
• 3 Cheshire Hotel 02:59
• 4 Sadness 03:41
• 5 Solitude 05:49
• 6 Ida Lupino 04:18
• 7 Aisha 05:20
• 8 Platform 05:21
• 9 When 03:58
• 10 Leola 03:33
• Total Runtime 43:10

Info for Meltframe

Mary Halvorson’s "Meltframe" is the product of three years of gestation and refinement. Initially conceived as a solo guitar album made up of jazz standards, the final document is comprised of modern compositions long admired by Mary, the oldest being Duke Ellington’s "Solitude". The remainder of the pieces date between the early 1960s through to Tomas Fujiwara’s "When", a recent addition to the book of music for The Hook Up, an ensemble in which Halvorson is a charter member. In a twist befitting a player with such an original voice, the pieces Mary chose to interpret are not exclusively from composers who have informed her playing and music from the beginning, such as Roscoe Mitchell, Ornette Coleman and Oliver Nelson, but also by contemporaries of hers, Chris Lightcap, Noël Akchoté and Tomas. Viewed as the personal, and often revealing statement that solo documents often are, "Meltframe" traces Mary’s path from the beginning to the present.

"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." (AllAboutJazz)

Mary Halvorson, guitar

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.