Mary Halvorson

Early life and career

Halvorson began her musical education on violin but was enthralled with the idea of playing guitar after discovering Jimi Hendrix. She first picked up electric guitar at the age of 11 in seventh grade. Her first guitar teacher was Issi Rozen.

She initially enrolled in Wesleyan University to study biology, but dropped her prospective major after sitting in on one of saxophonist Anthony Braxton's music classes. She quickly connected with him and he heavily encouraged her to find her own expression on guitar.

Halvorson's 2008 recording Dragon's Head was as the leader of a trio containing bassist John Hébert and drummer Ches Smith. Her later album, Saturn Sings, added saxophonist Jon Irabagon and trumpeter Jonathan Finlayson. In 2012, she played with trumpeter Peter Evans and drummer Weasel Walter on the trio album Mechanical Malfunction.

In 2013, the trio of Halvorson, bassist Michael Formanek, and drummer recorded the first of several albums as the band Thumbscrew. NPR called Halvorson's 2015 solo album Meltframe "category-exploding", and its 2015 Jazz Critics Poll named the record 7th-best of the year.

Her album Away With You features pedal steel player Susan Alcorn (later described in Something Else! as "the Mary Halvorson of the pedal steel guitar"), cellist Tomeka Reid and saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock. The album Code Girl was Halvorson's first attempt at writing lyrics for her original works, which are sung by Amirtha Kidambi and inspired by the songwriting of Robert Wyatt and Elliot Smith. The album also features drummer Tomas Fujiwara, bassist Michael Formanek and trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire. The album received an 8.1 rating from a Pitchfork review, explaining, "The pleasure of this kind of text comes from the way it invites active listening as a means of interpretation." Code Girl is named after an offhand remark by Braxton, who used the phrase in conversation while on a European tour with Halvorson. Later, she settled on the phrase as an album title, because "at that point I'd written a lot of the lyrics... and they seemed a little bit coded and strange." Halvorson has also worked with John Dieterich of Deerhoof. Halvorson had previously performed some of her lyrics in collaboration with violinist Jessica Pavone, with whom she also recorded duo albums. As of 2018, Halvorson was an instructor at The New School's College of Performing Arts.

Halvorson won Best Guitar in DownBeat's International Critics Poll between 2017 and 2019. In 2019, she was awarded a MacArthur "Genius" Grant for music.

Musical style

Although Halvorson is often categorized as a jazz guitarist, her music includes elements of many other genres, such as flamenco, rock, noise, and psychedelia. In speaking with PostGenre, Halvorson noted that she's "never really felt like I had to stick with a particular style or idea... From [Anthony Braxton], I learned that it was normal to take such a broad approach. You would respect traditions but at the same time, you would push the boundaries of those traditions. You would break the traditions apart and do whatever you wanted. That approach has always come naturally to me...". In a 2018 interview with Jazz Times, Halvorson described the guitar as a "neutral vessel", saying “The cool thing about the guitar is it’s not associated as much with a particular genre... it could be classical, it could be rock and roll, it could be jazz, it could be folk.”.

In 2012, Troy Collins of All About Jazz called Halvorson "the most impressive guitarist of her generation", and wrote, "The future of jazz guitar starts here." Jon Garelick of The Phoenix identified Halvorson's search for her own sound as a key component of her success as a musician and composer.

Discography

As leader

Selected collaborations

References

References

1. (2017-10-12). "Mary Halvorson - School of Jazz and Contemporary Music".
2. Chinen, Nate. (2016-10-28). "Mary Halvorson on Guitar: Unflinching and Full of Grace". The New York Times.
3. (November 27, 2016). "Why Mary Halvorson Sounds Like No Other Guitarist".
4. Layman, Will. (February 16, 2011). "Clean Feed Records and Mary Halvorson: Promises of Good Things to Come in Jazz".
5. Lynch, Dave. "Thumbscrew / Mary Halvorson / Michael Formanek / Tomas Fujiwara: Thumbscrew".
6. "Thumbscrew: Discography".
7. (December 21, 2015). "The 2015 NPR Music Jazz Critics Poll". NPR.
8. (April 3, 2018). "Mary Halvorson Re-Engineered Jazz Guitar. Now, She's Hacking Her Own Code".
9. Aaron, S. V., [https://somethingelsereviews.com/2020/11/13/susan-alcorn-pedernal-2020/ "Susan Alcorn—''Pedernal'' (2020)"], ''Something Else!'', November 13, 2020.
10. "Mary Halvorson: Code Girl".
11. (30 October 2019). "Mary Halvorson John Dieterich: a tangle of stars".
12. Nastos, Michael G.. "Mary Halvorson".
13. "Reinventing the Avant-Garde {{!}} School of Jazz and Contemporary Music".
14. (2017-06-26). "Wadada Leo Smith, Mary Halvorson Among Winners in DownBeat Critics Poll".
15. (2018-06-25). "DownBeat Announces Winners of the 2018 Int'l Critics Poll".
16. (2019-06-24). "Salvant Tops 2019 DownBeat Critics Poll".
17. (25 September 2019). "MacArthur 'Genius' Grant Winners Attest To 'Power Of Individual Creativity'".
18. (October 25, 2021). "Melding of Worlds: A Conversation with Sylvie Courvoisier and Mary Halvorson".
19. "Mary Halvorson: Reinventing the Identity of the Jazz Guitarist".
20. Collins, Troy. "Mary Halvorson".
21. Garelick, Jon. (May 31, 2012). "Mary Halvorson's enchanted wood; Plus, Ben Powell's new CD".
22. Nastos, Michael G.. "Mary Halvorson Trio / Mary Halvorson: Dragon's Head".
23. Jurek, Thom. "Mary Halvorson: Code Girl".
24. "Belladonna, by Mary Halvorson".
25. "Amaryllis, by Mary Halvorson".
26. Jurek, Thom. "Mary Halvorson – ''Cloudward'' Album Review".
27. Jackson, Reed. (June 16, 2025). "Mary Halvorson Ain't Afraid of No Ghosts".
28. "Sylvie Courvoisier, Mary Halvorson – Bone Bells".