Mary Halvorson
This Brazilian cultural matrix positions Mary Halvorson globally...
Curation
CURATION
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from this page:
by Matrix
The Integrated Global Creative Economy
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Name:
Mary Halvorson
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City/Place:
Brooklyn, NY
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Country:
United States
Life & Work
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Bio:
Guitarist and composer Mary Halvorson has been described as “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), and in recent Downbeat Critics Polls she has been celebrated as guitarist, rising star jazz artist, and rising star composer of the year.
Halvorson has released a series of critically acclaimed albums on the Firehouse 12 label, 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), and most recently debuted Code Girl (2018), a new ensemble featuring vocalist Amirtha Kidambi (singing Halvorson’s own lyrics), trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire, bassist Michael Formanek, and drummer Tomas Fujiwara.
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.
More
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Quotes, Notes & Etc.
“...Mary Halvorson is the most future-seeking guitarist working right now, thinking out the instrument on a level most couldn’t comprehend.”
- Lars Gotrich, NPR.org
“She is the most critically acclaimed jazz guitarist to emerge (in the past dozen years)... an unflinching original who has revealed new possibilities within the music.”
- Nate Chinen, New York Times
“Simply put, no one is making music like this.”
- Lloyd Sachs, JazzTimes
“...Halvorson’s is a devastatingly original voice.”
- Marcus O’Dair, theartsdesk.com
My Recordings
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Discography:
UPCOMING RELEASES
Mary Halvorson & John Dieterich- a tangle of stars (New Amsterdam Records, 2019)
Michael Formanek Very Practical Trio- Even Better (Intakt Records, 2019)
CURRENT RELEASES
Taylor Ho Bynum 9-Tette- The Ambiguity Manifesto (Firehouse 12 Records, 2019)
Illegal Crowns- The No-Nosed Puppet (Rogue Art, 2019)
Nate Wooley- Columbia Icefield (Northern Spy, 2019)
Tom Rainey Trio- Combobulated (Intakt Records, 2019)
Joe Morris and Mary Halvorson- Traversing Orbits (Rogue Art, 2018)
Ingrid Laubrock- Contemporary Chaos Practices (Intakt Records, 2018)
Various Artists- A Day in the Life: Impressions of Pepper (Verve Records, 2018)
Robbie Lee and Mary Halvorson- Seed Triangular (New Amsterdam, 2018)
Mary Halvorson with Bill Frisell- The Maid With The Flaxen Hair: A Tribute to Johnny Smith (Tzadik Records, 2018)
Thumbscrew- Ours (Cuneiform Records, 2018)
Thumbscrew- Theirs (Cuneiform Records, 2018)
Mary Halvorson- Code Girl (Firehouse 12 Records, 2018)
María Grand- Magdalena (Biophilia Records, 2018)
Greg Saunier, Mary Halvorson & Ron Miles- New American Songbooks Volume I (Sound American, 2017)
John Zorn- Paimon: Mary Halvorson Quartet plays Masada Book Two (Tzadik Records, 2017)
Tomas Fujiwara- Triple Double (Firehouse 12 Records, 2017)
Jason Moran, Ron Miles and Mary Halvorson- Bangs (Yes Records, 2017)
Elliott Sharp with Marc Ribot and Mary Halvorson- Err Guitar (Intakt Records, 2017)
Sylvie Courvoisier & Mary Halvorson- Crop Circles (Relative Pitch Records, 2017)
Kristo Rodzevski- Bitter Almonds (Much Prefer Records, 2017)
Mary Halvorson Octet- Away With You (Firehouse 12 Records, 2016)
Taylor Ho Bynum- Enter The Plustet (Firehouse 12 Records, 2016)
Taylor Ho Bynum, Mary Halvorson, Tomas Fujiwara & Benoît Delbecq- Illegal Crowns (Rogue Art, 2016)
Mary Halvorson & Noël Akchoté (Noël Akchoté Downloads, 2016)
Thumbscrew- Convallaria (Cuneiform Records, 2016)
Tomas Fujiwara, Ben Goldberg & Mary Halvorson- The Out Louds (Relative Pitch Records, 2016)
Michael Formanek Ensemble Kolossus- The Distance (ECM Records, 2016)
Mary Halvorson solo guitar- Meltframe (Firehouse 12 Records, 2015)
Marc Ribot & The Young Philadelphians- Live in Tokyo (Enja Records, 2015)
Alicia Hall Moran- Heavy Blue (Yes Records, 2015)
Jacob Garchik- Ye Olde (Yestereve Records, 2015)
Tomeka Reid Quartet- S/T (Thirsty Ear Records, 2015)
Tom Rainey Trio- Hotel Greif (Intakt Records, 2015)
Kristo Rodzevski- Batania (Much Prefer Records, 2015)
Ingrid Laubrock’s Anti-House- Roulette of the Cradle (Intakt Records, 2015)
Secret Keeper (Mary Halvorson & Stephan Crump duo)- Emerge (Intakt Records, 2015)
Tomas Fujiwara & The Hook Up- After All Is Said (482 Music, 2015)
Ches Smith & These Arches- International Hoohah (For Tune Records, 2014)
Mary Halvorson- Reverse Blue (with Chris Speed, Eivind Opsvik & Tomas Fujiwara; Relative Pitch Records, 2014)
Ingrid Laubrock Octet- Zurich Concert (Intakt Records, 2014)
People- 3xaWoman: The Misplaced Files (Telegraph Harp, 2014)
Plymouth- Plymouth (Rare Noise Records, 2014)
Mary Halvorson, Michael Formanek & Tomas Fujiwara- Thumbscrew (Cuneiform Records, 2014)
Mary Halvorson Trio- Ghost Loop (For Tune Records, 2013)
Xiu Xiu- Nina (Graveface Records, 2013)
Taylor Ho Bynum Sextet and 7-tette- Navigation (Firehouse 12 Records, 2013)
Anthony Braxton- Trio (NYC) 2011 (New Braxton House, 2013)
Brian Questa Trio- Jazz Booty (Fold by Fold Music, 2013)
Mary Halvorson Septet- Illusionary Sea (Firehouse 12 Records, 2013)
Kirk Knuffke, Mary Halvorson & Matt Wilson- Sifter (Relative Pitch Records, 2013)
Anthony Braxton Septet- Echo Echo Mirror House (Victo Records, 2013)
Secret Keeper (Mary Halvorson & Stephan Crump duo)- Super Eight (Intakt Records, 2013)
Ches Smith & These Arches- Hammered (Clean Feed Records, 2013)
Curtis Hasselbring- Number Stations (Cuneiform Records, 2013)
Ingrid Laubrock Anti-House- Strong Place (Intakt Records, 2013)
Weasel Walter, Mary Halvorson & Peter Evans- Mechanical Malfunction (Thirsty Ear, 2012)
Living by Lanterns- New Myth/Old Science (Cuneiform Records, 2012)
Jessica Pavone- Hope Dawson is Missing (Tzadik, 2012)
Joy Mega- Forever is Something Inside You (New Atlantis, 2012)
Mary Halvorson Quintet- Bending Bridges (Firehouse 12 Records, 2012)
Tomas Fujiwara & The Hook Up- The Air is Different (482 Music, 2012)
Aych- As The Crow Flies (Relative Pitch Records, 2012)
Tom Rainey Trio- Camino Cielo Echo (Intakt Records, 2012)
The Thirteenth Assembly- Station Direct (Important Records, 2011)
Mary Halvorson & Jessica Pavone- Departure of Reason (Thirsty Ear Records, 2011)
Taylor Ho Bynum Sextet- Apparent Distance (Firehouse 12 Records, 2011)
Weasel Walter- Ominous Telepathic Mayhem (UgEXPLODE, 2011)
Weasel Walter, Mary Halvorson & Peter Evans- Electric Fruit (Thirsty Ear Records, 2011)
Matthew Welch- Blarvuster (Tzadik, 2010)
Mary Halvorson Quintet- Saturn Sings (Firehouse 12 Records, 2010)
Tomas Fujiwara & The Hook Up- Actionspeak (482 Music, 2010)
Ches Smith & These Arches- Finally Out Of My Hands (Skirl Records, 2010)
Mary Halvorson & Hubert Bergmann- MixTour EP (Mudoks, 2010)
Ingrid Laubrock- Anti-House (Intakt Records, 2010)
Christian Marclay- Graffiti Composition (Dog W/A Bone, 2010)
Tom Rainey Trio- Pool School (Clean Feed, 2010)
MAP (Tatsuya Nakatani, Mary Halvorson & Reuben Radding)- Fever Dream (Taiga Records, 2010—vinyl only)!
Nate Wooley, Mary Halvorson & Reuben Radding- Crackleknob (HatHut, 2009)
Mary Halvorson & Jessica Pavone- Thin Air (Thirsty Ear Records, 2009)
The Thirteenth Assembly- (un)sentimental (Important Records, 2009)
Mary Halvorson Trio- Dragon’s Head (Firehouse 12 Records, 2008)
Taylor Ho Bynum Sextet- Asphalt Flowers Forking Paths (HatHut Records, 2008)
Anthony Braxton Quartet (Moscow) 2008 (Leo Records, 2008)
Jessica Pavone, Mary Halvorson, Devin Hoff & Ches Smith- Calling All Portraits (Skycap Records, 2008)
Mary Halvorson & Weasel Walter- Opulence (UgEXPLODE, 2008)
Stephen Haynes & Taylor Ho Bynum Double Trio (Engine Records, 2008)
Anthony Braxton 12+1 tet (Victoriaville) 2007 (Victo Records, 2008)
Anthony Braxton Trio (Victoriaville) 2007 (Victo Records, 2007)
People- Misbegotten Man (I & Ear, 2007)
Mary Halvorson & Jessica Pavone- On and Off (Skirl Records, 2007)
Anthony Braxton 12+1tet- 9 Compositions (Iridium) 2006 (Firehouse 12 Records, 2007)
Taylor Ho Bynum Sextet- The Middle Picture (Firehouse 12 Records, 2007)
Ted Reichman’s My Ears are Bent (Skirl Records, 2006)
MPTHREE- Sleep Cells (Utech, 2006)
People- People (I & Ear, 2005)
Mary Halvorson & Jessica Pavone- Prairies (Lucky Kitchen, 2005)
Anthony Braxton Quintet (London) 2004- Live at the Royal Festival Hall (Leo, 2005)
Trevor Dunn’s Trio-Convulsant- Sister Phantom Owl Fish (Ipecac, 2004)
Assif Tsahar’s New York Underground Orchestra- Fragments (Hopscotch, 2004)
Infidel?/Castro! and Friendly Bears- A Split Experience (Rice Control Records, 2003)
MAP- Six Improvisations for Guitar, Bass and Drums (H&H Production, 2003)
Clips (more may be added)
There are certain countries, the names of which fire the popular imagination. Brazil is one of them; an amalgam of primitive and sophisticated, jungle and elegance, luscious jazz harmonics — there’s no other place like it in the world. And while Rio de Janeiro, or its fame anyway, tends toward the sophisticated end of the spectrum, Bahia bends toward the atavistic…
It’s like a trick of the mind’s light (I suppose), but standing on beach or escarpment in Salvador and looking out across the Baía de Todos os Santos to the great Recôncavo, and mindful of what happened there (and here; the Bahian Recôncavo was final port-of-call for more enslaved human beings than any other place throughout the entirety of mankind’s existence on this planet, and in the past it extended into what is now urban Salvador), one must be led to the inevitable conclusion that one is in a place unique to history, and to the present:
Brazil absorbed over ten times the number of enslaved Africans taken to the United States of America, and is a repository of African deities (and their music) now largely forgotten in their lands of origin.
Brazil was a refuge (of sorts) for Sephardim fleeing an Inquisition which followed them across the Atlantic (that unofficial symbol of Brazil’s national music — the pandeiro — was almost certainly brought to Brazil by these people).
Across the parched savannas of the interior of Brazil’s culturally fecund nordeste/northeast (where wizard Hermeto Pascoal was born in Lagoa da Canoa — Lagoon of the Canoe — and raised in Olho d’Águia — Eye of the Eagle), much of Brazil’s aboriginal population was absorbed into a caboclo/quilombola culture punctuated by the Star of David.
Three cultures — from three continents — running for their lives, their confluence forming an unprecedented fourth. Pandeirista on the roof.
That's where this Matrix begins:
Wolfram MathWorld
The idea is simple, powerful, and egalitarian: To propagate for them, the Matrix must propagate for all. Most in the world are within six degrees of us. The concept of a "small world" network (see Wolfram above) applies here, placing artists from the Recôncavo and the sertão, from Salvador... from Brooklyn, Berlin and Mombassa... musicians, writers, filmmakers... clicks (recommendations) away from their peers all over the planet.
This Integrated Global Creative Economy (we invented the concept) uncoils from Brazil's sprawling Indigenous, African, Sephardic and then Ashkenazic, Arabic, European, Asian cultural matrix... expanding like the canopy of a rainforest tree rooted in Bahia, branches spreading to embrace the entire world...
Recent Visitors Map
Great culture is great power.
And in a small world great things are possible.
Alicia Svigals
"Thanks, this is a brilliant idea!!"
—Alicia Svigals (NEW YORK CITY): Apotheosis of klezmer violinists
"Dear Sparrow: I am thrilled to receive your email! Thank you for including me in this wonderful matrix."
—Susan Rogers (BOSTON): Director of the Berklee Music Perception and Cognition Laboratory ... Former personal recording engineer for Prince; "Purple Rain", "Sign o' the Times", "Around the World in a Day"
"Dear Sparrow, Many thanks for this – I am touched!"
—Julian Lloyd Webber (LONDON): Premier cellist in UK; brother of Andrew (Evita, Jesus Christ Superstar, Cats, Phantom of the Opera...)
"This is super impressive work ! Congratulations ! Thanks for including me :)))"
—Clarice Assad (RIO DE JANEIRO/CHICAGO): Pianist and composer with works performed by Yo Yo Ma and orchestras around the world
"We appreciate you including Kamasi in the matrix, Sparrow."
—Banch Abegaze (LOS ANGELES): manager, Kamasi Washington
"Thanks! It looks great!....I didn't write 'Cantaloupe Island' though...Herbie Hancock did! Great Page though, well done! best, Randy"
"Very nice! Thank you for this. Warmest regards and wishing much success for the project! Matt"
—Son of Jimmy Garrison (bass for John Coltrane, Bill Evans...); plays with Herbie Hancock and other greats...
I opened the shop in Salvador, Bahia in 2005 in order to create an outlet to the wider world for magnificent Brazilian musicians.
David Dye & Kim Junod for NPR found us (above), and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (he's a huge jazz fan), David Byrne, Oscar Castro-Neves... Spike Lee walked past the place while I was sitting on the stoop across the street drinking beer and listening to samba from the speaker in the window...
But we weren't exactly easy for the world-at-large to get to. So in order to extend the place's ethos I transformed the site associated with it into a network wherein Brazilian musicians I knew would recommend other Brazilian musicians, who would recommend others...
And as I anticipated, the chalky hand of God-as-mathematician intervened: In human society — per the small-world phenomenon — most of the billions of us on earth are within some 6 or fewer degrees of each other. Likewise, within a network of interlinked artists as I've described above, most of these artists will in the same manner be at most a handful of steps away from each other.
So then, all that's necessary to put the Brazilians within possible purview of the wide wide world is to include them among a wide wide range of artists around that world.
If, for example, Quincy Jones is inside the matrix, then anybody on his page — whether they be accessing from a campus in L.A., a pub in Dublin, a shebeen in Cape Town, a tent in Mongolia — will be close, transitable steps away from Raymundo Sodré, even if they know nothing of Brazil and are unaware that Sodré sings/dances upon this planet. Sodré, having been knocked from the perch of fame and ground into anonymity by Brazil's dictatorship, has now the alternative of access to the world-at-large via recourse to the vast potential of network theory.
...to the degree that other artists et al — writers, researchers, filmmakers, painters, choreographers...everywhere — do also. Artificial intelligence not required. Real intelligence, yes.
Years ago in NYC (I've lived here in Brazil for 32 years now) I "rescued" unpaid royalties (performance & mechanical) for artists/composers including Barbra Streisand, Aretha Franklin, Mongo Santamaria, Jim Hall, Clement "Coxsone" Dodd (for his rights in Bob Marley compositions; Clement was Bob's first producer), Led Zeppelin, Ray Barretto, Philip Glass and many others. Aretha called me out of the blue vis-à-vis money owed by Atlantic Records. Allen Klein (managed The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Ray Charles) called about money due the estate of Sam Cooke. Jerry Ragovoy (Time Is On My Side, Piece of My Heart) called just to see if he had any unpaid money floating around out there (the royalty world was a shark-filled jungle, to mangle metaphors, and I doubt it's changed).
But the pertinent client (and friend) in the present context is Earl "Speedo" Carroll, of The Cadillacs. Earl went from doo-wopping on Harlem streetcorners to chart-topping success to working as a custodian at PS 87 elementary school on the west side of Manhattan. Through all of this he never lost what made him great.
Greatness and fame are too often conflated. The former should be accessible independently of the latter.
Yeah this is Bob's first record contract, made with Clement "Sir Coxsone" Dodd of Studio One and co-signed by his aunt because he was under 21. I took it to Black Rock to argue with CBS' lawyers about the royalties they didn't want to pay (they paid).
Matrix founding creators are behind "one of 10 of the best (radios) around the world", per The Guardian.
Across the creative universe... For another list, reload page.
This list is random, and incomplete. Reload the page for another list.
For a complete list of everybody inside, tap TOTAL below:
TOTAL
Ex Terra Brasilis
Susan Rogers
Julian Lloyd Webber
Clarice Assad
Kamasi Washington
Randy Brecker
Matt Garrison
RÁDIO MATRIX