SOUNDTRACK: MARY HALVORSON QUINTET-Tiny Desk Concert #267 (February 25, 2013).
I had never heard of Mary Halvorson before. And that makes sense because she is an avant-garde free-jazz guitarist, a sound I like (sometimes) but one which I do not follow. So a little background is in order:
As a sidewoman, [Mary Halvorson] is often tapped to play in open improvising situations…. Among her sonic signatures are craggy distortions, bent strings and delay-pedaled blurts through a hollow-body guitar…. Halvorson has now recorded two albums with her quintet, one with alto saxophone (Jon Irabagon) and trumpet (Jonathan Finlayson) up top. (The rhythm section is also among New York’s finest, with John Hebert on bass and Ches Smith on drums.) From the way her songs balance order and entropy, you can hear that she’s studied how golden-era hard bop blended those voices, and how later generations morphed, rephrased and imploded those ideas.
The Quintet plays two pieces. I would have guessed they were improvised but not only do they have titles, they have sheet music!
“Love In Eight Colors” (No. 21) starts out as a slightly dissonant mellow jazz piece. Then about 45 seconds in, Mary throws in an unusual guitar lick—a slightly weird note. And then a minute later things get noisy until a simple trumpet solo takes over. When the music resumes, Mary is playing some strangely discordant chords over the solo—everyone seems to be doing their own thing. Around 4 minutes in, it turns into something new with an interesting, mesmerizing guitar solo riff. When the band resumes, the sax takes over and the trumpeter literally stands stock still like a statue staring forward–it’s almost creepy. At 8 minutes, they introduce a two-minute drum solo. It’s fun to watch all the strange things he does—elbow on the drum head, vibrato with his hands changing the sound, clicking the sides of his drum. Then the band resumes until the end. And it’s more dissonance.
She introduces “Hemorrhaging Smiles” (No. 25) without smiling. There’s a lot more melody in this song–the sax and trumpet sound groovy. Even the guitar is pretty. Then she throws in a bizarre scale which cycles throughout the song. It’s strangely addicting and I enjoyed hearing it every time it came back–even though it wasn’t exactly pretty. The guitar has a lot of vibrato on it, although about six minutes in she switches the sound of her guitar to a bit more conventional sound and she plays a wicked solo. The second listen through made me appreciate what was happening a lot more. Even if the song is pretty out there.
Mary Halvorson’ Quintet is not for everyone. It might not be for many at all, but if you like your jazz free, check her out.
[READ: June 19, 2016] Cardboard
I’ve had mixed feelings about TenNapel’s books. I loved Ghostopolis, and didn’t love Tommysaurus Rex. So I picked this up with some hesitation.
But I found that I really enjoyed this weird book a lot.
For a kids’ graphic novel it’s actually quite long. And, for a kid’s graphic novels there’s a few adult themes (like unemployment and widowhood) that a kid may not get or care about all that much (or maybe they would, what do I know).
As the book opens we see Mike, a big burly carpenter, begging for work. But he gets nothing. And as he walks away we see a very strange-looking man (TenNapel’s book are chock full of weird-looking characters) who offers to sell him a gift for his son. Mike has no money, so he can’t buy the cool gift. But the man says that for 78 cents (the exact amount in his pocket) he can have this giant cardboard box.
Mike is appalled at the idea of getting his son a box (even if it can be a creative play toy–ha!), but he’s got nothing else. So he drives home with this box muttering “worst present ever.” (more…)
I Just Read About That... 