Photo Kelly Jensen
At first glance, Mary Halvorson’s recent performance at Firehouse 12 wouldn’t seem out of place at any bar or restaurant in New Haven: music for solo electric guitar, performing standards and ballads by some of the most well-known names of the 20th century, including Oliver Nelson, Thelonius Monk, and Duke Ellington. But only at first glance.
From the first few notes of her first tune, an Ornette Coleman composition that began with wide sustained chords given a little extra twang and tension with the use of a slide on certain strings, it became apparent that Halvorson’s performance would be different — for whatever expectations a listener might have for a solo guitar performance, for Firehouse 12, and for Halvorson herself.
Most New Haveners know Firehouse 12 as a happening, upscale bar with guest DJs, some of the most renowned bartenders in the city, and packed crowds on weekend nights. But Firehouse 12 is also a record label and full-service recording studio — and on Friday nights in the spring and fall, it hosts a concert series bringing in an incredible range of performers operating under the umbrella of jazz. Some performers booked for the series have feet planted firmly in the post-bebop tradition. Many others actively dissolve the boundaries between jazz and just about every other style of music. Halvorson is such a performer.
With a nearly 12-year discography and nearly 60 appearances as a leader or sideperson, Halvorson has played in a stunning variety of contexts.
“Some people aspire to only do things as a leader — that might be a goal for some people — but for me, I actually really like playing other people’s music,” Halvorson said. “I feel like that’s part of how I grow and develop as a musician. It’s a challenge, a lot of the time, learning different people’s music and trying to figure out how to interpret it and make it work.”
Many of Brooklyn-based Halvorson’s projects, including her first release as bandleader, take on one of the most sacred formats of the jazz tradition: the guitar trio. Halvorson’s clean playing on her Guild hollow-body at times has traces of the smooth, effortless playing of Wes Montgomery and Grant Green. But Halvorson’s experience playing with some of the biggest names and rising stars of improvised music—Anthony Braxton, Ingrid Laubock, and Firehouse 12 label co-founder Taylor Ho Bynum among them — has given her plenty of opportunity to form a distinctive voice as a performer, and many of her choices as a composer and player draw from a wide range of influences beyond jazz, effortlessly balancing the effects-heavy playing of a rock or metal player with her punchy clean sound.
Her solo material, which she has been working on over the last two years, has provided some new challenges.
“I think it’s pretty different than everything else I do — partly because I didn’t write any music for it,” she said. “Some of [the songs] are jazz standards, some of them are songs friends of mine wrote, some are more obscure compositions. And it feels really different.”
But Halvorson’s signature voice as a player — her fast, knotty runs and seamless use of distortion, pitch shifting, and delay — remains intact. Her tremolo turned Ellington’s “Solitude” into an uneasy, brooding performance that recast the serene beauty of the most famous recordings of that song. Her version of Chris Lightcap’s “Platform” started and ended with a clean sound, but in transit found a grungy distortion and a tapestry of delayed and reverbed figures that would have been at home on a post-rock record.
Her distinctive harmonic choices and rhythmic push-pull came through even when she switched to a mini guitar, which she described as being “really out of tune,” to perform “Someday My Prince Will Come.”
Halvorson has recorded all of her studio releases as a leader for Firehouse 12 Records, and was in New Haven earlier in the week to record her solo material for a 2015 release on the label. She has been programmed fairly consistently at Firehouse 12 since 2009 with various projects, and there’s a fair likelihood you’ll be able to catch her in future installments of the series as well. It’s probably impossible to predict what those appearances will sound like. But that’s part of the draw of Halvorson as a performer, and of Firehouse 12 as a venue.
