Mary Halvorson

Mary Halvorson – Amaryllis (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 37:55 minutes | 757 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Nonesuch

The belief that the more complex and layered a work of art is, the less it communicates to its audience is put to the test in Mary Halvorson’s Amaryllis. Any notion that this is too dense an album to draw listeners in is upended by Halvorson’s sextet: Adam O’Farrill (trumpet), trombonist Jacob Garchik (trombone), vibraphonist Patricia Brennan (vibraphone), Nick Dunston (bass), and Thomas Fujiwara (drums), whose creative skill is heard immediately on opener”Night Shift.” Brennan’s vibes play a pattern over the rhythm section’s fractured-yet-swinging beat and Garchik’s trombone slices and growls through the song, while Halvorson’s guitar plays counterpoint against his powerful solo.
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Mary Halvorson – Cloudward (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 47:36 minutes | 914 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Nonesuch

The album features eight compositions by Halvorson, performed with her sextet Amaryllis, the improvisatory band that performed on her critically praised 2022 albums ‘Amaryllis’ and ‘Belladonna’ comprising Halvorson, Patricia Brennan (vibraphone), Nick Dunston (bass), Tomas Fujiwara (drums), Jacob Garchik (trombone), and Adam O’Farrill (trumpet). Labelmate Laurie Anderson also is featured on the album track ‘Incarnadine’.

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Mary Halvorson – Cloudward (2024) [24Bit-96kHz] FLAC [PMEDIA] ⭐️
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 00:47:36 minutes | 914 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover

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Mary Halvorson – Code Girl (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:30:15 minutes | 1,88 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Firehouse 12 Records

Code Girl is the latest project of guitarist and composer Mary Halvorson, and her first project for which she has composed both lyrics and music. The band has already been described as “…a bold experiment in song form” by The New York Times. Deftly interpreted by Amirtha Kidambi (vocals), Ambrose Akinmusire (trumpet), Michael Formanek (bass) and Tomas Fujiwara (drums), the music synthesizes influences of jazz, folk and improvisation to create an original take on songwriting. The debut album will be released on Firehouse 12 Records March 2018.

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Mary Halvorson – Belladonna (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 37:19 minutes | 728 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Nonesuch

Attempts to bring the improvisatory aspects of jazz into the Western classical music tradition (and vice-versa) can result in brilliant work such as the Stan Getz/Eddie Sauter classic Focus and Miles Davis’ iconic Sketches of Spain, or diluted auditory mush that comes oozing out of the outdoor speakers at an overpriced Sunday brunch near you. On Mary Halvorson’s Belladonna, the result is a unique album that is as exciting for its superb writing as it is for the originality of its spur-of-the-moment solos. Opening track “Nodding Yellow,” sets the scene for the whole work: the Mivos Quartet— Olivia De Prato (violin), Maya Bennardo (violin), Victor Lowrie Tafoya (viola), and Tyler J. Borden (cello)—plays a melody reminiscent of the darkly moving strains of Maurice Ravel’s only string quartet; Halvorson’s inventive guitar tone plays counterpoint to the strings that is as daring as James Blood Ulmer’s groundbreaking Harmolodic Guitar with Strings. Ballad “Moonburn” sets Halvorson’s bracing guitar against a romantic figure that is slowly being explored and opened up to offset the quartet’s beauty.. “Flying Song” is reminiscent of Jim Hall’s improvisatory work with Gunther Schuller. The album’s longest work, “Haunted Head,” starts with a Halvorson melody layered with a high eerie figure from the Mivos Quartet that gives way to an evocative cello phrase. The interplay is so fluid that it is hard to tell when composition starts and improvisation ends.

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