[photos courtesy of P Squared Photography]
Mary Halvorson is a multi-talented, multifaceted musician who represents the best of the New York scene, which is to say that she seems to be everywhere all at once. A survey of her recent shows includes everything from more sedate jazz gigs at Cornelia Street Cafe, appearances with Tim Berne at the avant-jazz club Roulette, a show in the band People at Death By Audio, and of course, her current performances as opening act for Buzz Osborne aka King Buzzo of the Melvins, currently promoting his new solo album (that recording soon). As the New Yorker put it more succinctly, “she’s in tons of bands”.
While we have tried to feature many of the best-known current virtuoso guitarists on this site, this is a first appearance for Halvorson, a slight embarrassment to us given both her talent and how prolific she is. As this set at Bushwick’s The Wick demonstrated, she is a singular improviser who in a single set can cut across generations and genres. For this set, Halvorson chose to go the all-covers route, including songs by Ornette Coleman, Oliver Nelson, the bassist Chris Lightcap, and a host of other U.S. and international leading lights of jazz and guitar music. To their credit, Buzzo’s metal-minded audience understood what was going on, giving Halvorson her due. She deserves all that and more.
I recorded this set with a simplistic onstage rig of two small Countryman omnidirectional microphones split two and a half feet apart. While there is some ambient noise evident at points, the sound quality is excellent. Enjoy!
Stream “Platform” [Chris Lightcap]
Download the complete set: [MP3] | [FLAC]
Mary Halvorson
2014-07-14
The Wick
Brooklyn, NY USA
Exclusive download hosted at nyctaper.com
Recorded and produced by acidjack
Countryman B3 (onstage, split 2.5ft)>CA-UBB>Sony PCM-M10>24bit/44.1kHz WAV>Izotope Ozone 5 (effects, EQ)>Adobe Audition CS 5.5 (adjust levels, compression)>Audacity 2.0.3 (fades, tracking, amplify, balance, dither)>FLAC ( level 8 )
Tracks
01 Sadness [Ornette Coleman]
02 Cheshire Hotel [Noël Akchoté]
03 Ida Lupino [Carla Bley]
04 Blood [Annette Peacock]
05 Cascades [Oliver Nelson]
06 [banter]
07 Someday My Prince Will Come [Frank Churchill]
08 Solitude [Duke Ellington]
09 Platform [Chris Lightcap]
10 Reflections [Thelonious Monk]
If you enjoyed this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT Mary Halvorson, visit her website, and buy records from her substantial discography, which isn’t available all in one place but can generally be purchased at Discogs.
Great work. But sad that Sadness is missing from the zip.
Thanks for letting us know. That issue is fixed.
Cool. Thanks for the quick fix.
Thanks for recording this show. I caught the tour in Hamden, CT and the crowd would not shut up. I was probably the only one there who came specifically for Mary. She played pretty much the same set, but didn’t bring out the acoustic.
Wow, that’s too bad. Crowd in Bushwick was very respectful. I got the sense a decent number were there to see her or at least knew who she was, which I guess makes some sense in a hometown crowd.