DAVID BIANCULLI, HOST:
This is FRESH AIR. Guitarist and composer Mary Halvorson arrived on the jazz scene in the mid-2000s with a unique sound on her instrument. It was more slithery than stinging and was embedded by electronic loops. Her style was unmistakable, and her virtuosity commanded attention. In the past 10 years or so, she's also been building a formidable reputation as a composer. Her current sextet, which she calls "Amaryllis," the name of their first recording three years ago, features a stellar cast of musicians. Jazz critic Martin Johnson says that on their latest album, "About Ghosts," you can hear some of the defining trends of jazz in the 2020s.
(SOUNDBITE OF MARY HALVORSON'S "CARVED FROM")
MARTIN JOHNSON, BYLINE: In the past few years, guitarist Mary Halvorson has split her time between intimate settings such as her duet with the extraordinary pianist Sylvie Courvoisier and the collective trio Thumbscrew, and midsize groups, like her band Code Girl and her "Amaryllis" sextet. The larger ensembles often sound orchestral due to Halvorson's arrangements. That song we just heard, "Carved From," may remind you of classic mid-'60s horn voicings. This one, "Polyhedral," recalls Henry Threadgill's shifting grooves.
(SOUNDBITE OF MARY HALVORSON'S "POLYHEDRAL")
JOHNSON: Halvorson formed "Amaryllis" shortly after winning a MacArthur fellowship in 2019 for a one-off engagement in Brooklyn, where she lives. She assembled a band filled with players she admired - vibraphonist Patricia Brennan, bassist Nick Dunston, drummer Tomas Fujiwara, trombonist Jacob Garchik and trumpeter Adam O'Farrill. But the pandemic forced the cancellation of that performance. In the quiet months that followed, she kept writing for the band, and it was signed to none such records. Tours followed. And instead of a one-off, this ensemble of all-star contributors became a stellar working unit with deep rapport and intuitive interplay. They improvised much of this intro to "Full Neon" after playing it on the road.
(SOUNDBITE OF MARY HALVORSON'S "FULL OF NEON")
JOHNSON: For "About Ghosts," Halvorson expanded the group, inviting tenor saxophonist Brian Settles and alto saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins to play on several tracks. The expanded group, with its four horns, recalls Halvorson's octet from about ten years ago, but her writing has become much more intricate. There are layers of sound, different instruments melding and disconnecting. Solos emerge less from a pass-the-baton sequence than a lead voice emerging from a like-minded chorus, such as O'Farrill here on "Amaranthine."
(SOUNDBITE OF MARY HALVORSON'S "AMARANTHINE")
JOHNSON: Notice the little bit of the standard "My Ideal," a song once sung by Bing Crosby in O'Farrill's solo. There's a bit of that kind of musicological shoutouts on this recording. Halvorson's intro to her event title sounds a bit like "Monk's Mood," and the title track is in homage to a piece written by contemporary guitar great Liberty Ellman. There's a lot of merging of seemingly disparate influences and references going on in jazz these days. Artists are drawing their own lineages through the music's glorious history and coming up with music that's new, but not rootless. To that end, Halvorson wrote the album's "Endmost" with jazz standards in mind.
(SOUNDBITE OF MARY HALVORSON'S "ENDMOST")
BIANCULLI: Martin Johnson writes about jazz for The Wall Street Journal and DownBeat. He reviewed "About Ghosts," the new album from Mary Halvorson and her sextet, "Amaryllis." To keep up with what's on the show and get highlights of our interviews, follow us on Instagram at @nprfreshair.
(SOUNDBITE OF JENNY SCHEINMAN & ALLISON MILLER'S PARLOUR GAME'S "PLAY MONEY")
BIANCULLI: FRESH AIR's executive producer is Danny Miller. Sam Briger is our managing producer. Our senior producer today is Roberta Shorrock. Our technical director and engineer is Audrey Bentham, with additional engineering support by Joyce Lieberman, Julian Herzfeld and Diana Martinez. Our interviews and reviews are produced and edited by Phyllis Myers, Ann Marie Baldonado, Lauren Krenzel, Therese Madden, Monique Nazareth, Thea Chaloner, Susan Nyakundi and Anna Bauman. Our digital media producer is Molly Seavy-Nesper. Hope Wilson is our consulting visual producer.
For Terry Gross and Tonya Mosley, I'm David Bianculli.
(SOUNDBITE OF JENNY SCHEINMAN & ALLISON MILLER'S PARLOUR GAME'S "PLAY MONEY") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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