Artist: Mary Halverson
Her album Away With You features pedal steel player Susan Alcorn (later described in Something Else! as "the Mary Halvorson of the pedal steel guitar"), cellist Tomeka Reid and saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock. The album Code Girl was Halvorson's first attempt at writing lyrics for her original works, which are sung by Amirtha Kidambi and inspired by the songwriting of Robert Wyatt and Elliot Smith.
Halvorson won Best Guitar in DownBeat's International Critics Poll between 2017 and 2019. In 2019, she was awarded a MacArthur "Genius" Grant for music.
Although Halvorson is often categorized as a jazz guitarist, her music includes elements of many other genres, such as flamenco, rock, noise, and psychedelia.
In 2012, Troy Collins of All About Jazz called Halvorson "the most impressive guitarist of her generation", and wrote, "The future of jazz guitar starts here." Jon Garelick of The Phoenix identified Halvorson's search for her own sound as a key component of her success as a musician and composer.
Further information about Mary Halverson is found at MaryHalverson.com.
This content was excerpted from the Wikipedia article, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Halvorson, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/).
Mary Halverson is an American avant-garde jazz composer and guitarist from Brookline, Massachusetts.
Halvorson began her musical education on violin but was enthralled with the idea of playing guitar after discovering Jimi Hendrix. She initially enrolled in Wesleyan University to study biology, but dropped her prospective major after sitting in on one of saxophonist Anthony Braxton's music classes. She quickly connected with him and he heavily encouraged her to find her own expression on guitar.
Halvorson's 2008 recording Dragon's Head was as the leader of a trio containing bassist John Hébert and drummer Ches Smith. Her later album, Saturn Sings, added saxophonist Jon Irabagon and trumpeter Jonathan Finlayson. In 2012, she played with trumpeter Peter Evans and drummer Weasel Walter on the trio album Mechanical Malfunction. In 2013, the trio of Halvorson, bassist Michael Formanek, and drummer Tomas Fujiwara recorded the first of several albums as the band Thumbscrew.
In 2017, 2018, and 2019 Halvorson won Best Guitar in DownBeat's International Critics Poll. In 2019, she was awarded a MacArthur "Genius" Grant for music. Halvorson is on faculty at the School of Jazz (The New School).
Mary Halvorson Quintet: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert
Mary Halverson: Videos
Mary Halvorson - Night Shift (Live at Roulette in Brooklyn)
BIMHUIS TV Presents: SYLVIE COURVOISIER & MARY HALVORSON