Mary Halvorson
Meltframe
Brooklyn based guitarist Mary Halvorson
is one of the most exciting jazz
instrumentalists working today, and
unquestionably the most original, exciting
guitarist of her generation. She’s appeared
on a dizzying number of recordings in the
last decade or so, both as a collaborator
(with Marc Ribot, Weasel Walter, Trevor
Dunn’s Trio-Convulsant, and many others)
and as a very formidable band leader,
but her 2015 debut solo guitar album,
entitled Meltframe, proved to be a major
milestone. Three years in the making,
Meltframe defined Halvorson’s strikingly
unique voice on the instrument, as well as
her inventive and wholly original approach
to melody, timbre, and arrangement.
It consists entirely of cover tunes,
including compositions by some of her
contemporaries on the new jazz scene,
as well as a number of classics composed
by everyone from Duke Ellington and
Ornette Coleman, to Oliver Nelson, McCoy
Tyner, and Carla Bley. Halvorson maintains
the integrity and emotion of these
compositions, while brilliantly rearranging
and translating them for solo electric guitar.
This guitar is oftentimes highly effected
with molten fuzz, tremolo, delay, and wild,
warped pitch-bending effects that both
play with and push against the original
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TONE TALK //
intent of the compositions. There is clearly
deep reverence for the source material
and its place in jazz history, combined
with an equal dose of fearlessness and
vibrant musical imagination. Meltframe
is further enhanced by the unique sonic
qualities imbued in the recording itself. The
microphone on the speaker of Halvorson’s
Fender Princeton Reverb is combined
with one capturing the warm acoustic
tone of her Guild hollowbody, as well as
an additional ambient room mic. It’s a
beguiling sound, blending vintage acoustic
jazz ambience and vicious, in-your-face,
modern guitar attack, especially when
Mary stomps on the Rat pedal and runs
the voodoo down. Meltframe is required
listening. Get it.
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