Vinyl LP, Compact Disc (CD)
Before first emerging as a bandleader more than 15 years ago, Mary Halvorson had already begun to establish herself as one of the most original jazz guitarists of our time, turning heads with her work aside her mentor, saxophonist/composer Anthony Braxton, and long-time colleague violist Jessica Pavone. In the years since, her influence and versatility have grown steadily, and her reputation and reach are indisputable. Over time she’s diligently built up an impressive repertoire of original material for a number of different bands, but a seismic shift occurred with the appearance of her current sextet: trumpeter Adam O’Farrill, trombonist Jacob Garchik, vibraphonist Patricia Brennan, drummer Tomas Fujiwara, and bassist Nick Dunston. She was commissioned to write a set of new material for the band in the early days of the pandemic for a performance that was naturally delayed. Even after the gig was canceled, she continued to compose for a band that hadn’t yet played. The first set of material finally surfaced on Amaryllis in early 2023. After the group forged bonds on the road, they entered the studio with a second book of road-tested music.
Halvorson’s second album with the sextet, Cloudward, includes plenty of indelible guitar playing, but it’s her astonishing growth as a composer and arranger that distinguishes the music. Halvorson continues to give her excellent band plenty of freedom in how the pieces come together, producing her most richly contrapuntal music yet. That achievement speaks to the elasticity, presence, and imagination of her bandmates, who built spectacular, rigorous marvels from her malleable frameworks. While Fujiwara and Dunston shape the music’s armature, it’s the harmonically and melodically dazzling frontline that brings a crystalline muscularity to her full-bodied themes. O’Farrill, Garchik, Brennan, and Halvorson shape endlessly shifting arrangements, as sublimely tuneful lines collide, melt together, and tangle into asymmetrical weaves in such a way that it’s hard to believe it’s not all meticulously plotted out.
Despite her investment in fostering strong working bands, Halvorson remains an inveterate collaborator. A few years ago, she convinced musical idol Robert Wyatt to come momentarily out of retirement to sing on the second album by her group Code Girl, and on Cloudworld, she asked labelmate and experimental music icon Laurie Anderson to contribute. On “Incarnadine” Anderson puts her fiddle through a phalanx of effects to summon a cycling array of tones and textures, whether pinging resonance or grainy glissando.
Still, it’s the rapport of the core band that serves up the fireworks. There’s a lapidary quality in the dance of ebullient intersecting lines on album opener “The Gate” that recalls Henry Threadgill’s Sextett, while “Ultramarine” almost feels like a super hooky chorale co-written by David Murray and Ray Davies. And while it is easy to fixate on the writing and arranging, there are plenty of jaw-dropping solos, whether Dunston’s furious arco transmission on “Unscrolling” or the metallic finish of the leader’s lacerating solo on “Desiderata,” exploring the divide between her hero Jimi Hendrix and Sonny Sharrock. It’s only January, but it’s hard not to see this as one of the great achievements of 2024.
