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Mary Halvorson

Nate Chinen's Favorite Albums Of 2018

Mary Halvorson's volatile and cagey album Code Girl is her first set full of songs with lyrics, both a departure from and extension of her earlier work and one of Nate Chinen's favorite albums of 2018. Ross Mantle for NPR hide caption

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Ross Mantle for NPR

More Best Music Of 2018

Nate Chinen's Favorite Albums Of 2018

WBGO

For NPR Music's jazz critic and the editorial director of WBGO, 2018 was a year that saw music — not just jazz — in the throes of a creative boom, rocketing in many directions.

Mary Halvorson Re-Engineered Jazz Guitar. Now, She's Hacking Her Own Code

Mary Halvorson at The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh in March, just before a performance of songs from her latest album, Code Girl. Ross Mantle for NPR hide caption

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Ross Mantle for NPR

The Record

Mary Halvorson Re-Engineered Jazz Guitar. Now, She's Hacking Her Own Code

WBGO

Both as a player and composer, Halvorson has a decade-strong reputation as one of her field's least predictable. Her latest release, Code Girl, might be her most startling move yet.

Mary Halvorson Re-Engineered Jazz Guitar. Now, She's Hacking Her Own Code

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Why Mary Halvorson Sounds Like No Other Guitarist

Mary Halvorson's latest album, Away With You, is a collection of octets. Peter Gannushkin/Courtesy of the artist hide caption

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Peter Gannushkin/Courtesy of the artist

Music News

Why Mary Halvorson Sounds Like No Other Guitarist

With an approach once described as "anti-guitar," the 36-year-old composer and instrumentalist has made her name in a jazz scene dominated by men, leading her own groups and creating her own sound.

Why Mary Halvorson Sounds Like No Other Guitarist

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A Prog-Jazz Suite About Architecture? Jacob Garchik Does It All

Trombonist and composer Jacob Garchik enlisted three guitarists and a drummer for his winding new concept album, Ye Olde. Peter Gannushkin/Courtesy of the artist hide caption

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Peter Gannushkin/Courtesy of the artist

Music News

A Prog-Jazz Suite About Architecture? Jacob Garchik Does It All

The composer and trombonist has covered a lot of territory, from jazz to Balkan brass bands to arranging for Kronos quartet. His latest album enlists three guitars and one very esoteric concept.

A Prog-Jazz Suite About Architecture? Jacob Garchik Does It All

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Mary Halvorson Quintet, Live In Concert

The Mary Halvorson Quintet performs at the 2013 Newport Jazz Festival. Adam Kissick for NPR hide caption

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Newport Jazz Festival

Mary Halvorson Quintet, Live In Concert

WBGO

A guitarist who sounds like no other, Halvorson can both astound and confound, with craggy phrasing, strange pitch-bends and pedal effects galore. She arrives at Newport as a bandleader.

Mary Halvorson Quintet, Live In Concert: Newport Jazz 2013

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Mary Halvorson Quintet: Tiny Desk Concert

Mary Halvorson performs a Tiny Desk Concert on Dec. 12, 2012. Ryan Smith/NPR hide caption

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Tiny Desk

Mary Halvorson Quintet: Tiny Desk Concert

A guitarist with a decidedly non-standard approach to jazz's standard practices, Halvorson balances golden-era hard-bop order and free improvising entropy. At the NPR Music offices, her band strikes comforting tones, but also morphs, rephrases and implodes those ideas.

Mary Halvorson Quintet: Tiny Desk Concert

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Free Your Guitar, Free Your Mind

Sonny Sharrock (pictured here with Linda Sharrock, then his wife) approach his guitar like Albert Ayler played his saxophone — fiercely, yet tenderly out of bounds. Courtesy of the artist hide caption

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Take Five: A Jazz Sampler

Free Your Guitar, Free Your Mind

Rock music may give the electric guitar fire, but avant-garde jazz musicians often re-think the instrument beyond its basic, melody- and rhythm-based functions. Here are five musicians who eschew standard conventions and instead approach the guitar as a device of pure sound.

First Listen: Mary Halvorson Quintet, 'Saturn Sings'

Mary Halvorson's Saturn Sings is an abstract jazz cliff-dive inspired by Thelonious Monk, Sam Cooke and Robert Wyatt. Amani Willett hide caption

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Amani Willett

First Listen

First Listen: Mary Halvorson Quintet, 'Saturn Sings'

With inspiration cast wide, from Thelonious Monk and Sam Cooke to Robert Wyatt, Saturn Sings is an abstract cliff-dive. But in the midst of Mary Halvorson's mind-bogglingly knotty guitar work, there's a backbone of smart jazz composition that reaches deeper. Hear the full album until its release on Oct. 5.

New Mix: Syd Barrett And A Bee Invasion

All Songs Considered

New Mix: Syd Barrett And A Bee Invasion

On this All Songs Considered, we've got a cut from a new collection of some of Syd Barrett's best work. Also Bee Vs. Moth and Sea of Bees, new music from Swans, the Mary Halvorson Quintet, and more.

New Mix: Syd Barrett And A Bee Invasion

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Studio Sessions

Mary Halvorson: Unorthodox, Jagged Jazz Guitar

WNYC Radio

She says she never encountered any other female jazz guitarists growing up. But then again, Mary Halvorson is no run-of-the-mill jazz guitarist. She demonstrates her unique, hard-edged attack with her trio on WNYC's Soundcheck.

Mary Halvorson Trio in Studio on WNYC Soundcheck - 12/22/2009

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