Mary Halvorson - Away With You

Pitchfork 80

Mary Halvorson has been hailed for her technique ever since the debut of her trio. Recorded with bassist John Hébert and Xiu Xiu drummer Ches Smith, the guitarist’s first album as a bandleader referenced the power of noise-rock and the manic leaps of melody prized by her onetime teacher Anthony Braxton. Nearly a decade after that big splash, Halvorson still shreds with distinction, and that’s just one widely admired aspect of her art.

With each subsequent recording on the Firehouse 12 label, she has kept a recognizable language intact while refusing to repeat herself. First, she turned her core trio into a quintet, adding alto sax and trumpet. Then she built the band into a septet, incorporating trombone and tenor sax. As her lineups have increased in size, Halvorson’s sophistication as a composer has come into focus. After a solo-guitar covers project in 2015, she’s back to enlarging her compositional palette—this time with an octet that adds pedal steel guitarist Susan Alcorn to the roster.

This isn’t one of the instruments you’d typically expect to hear in a jazz group of any size, but its expressive range makes it a perfect fit for Halvorson’s quick-change compositional style. Alcorn’s pedal steel can suggest the warmth of country-western aesthetics, and also the droning sustain of ambient moods, often within the same tune. Opening track “Spirit Splitter (no. 54)” opens with a swaying line for the pedal steel on the surface. But underneath, the song teems with melodic activity. Ingrid Laubrock’s tenor saxophone navigates a tricky, ascending phrase, while other brass and reed players hit strutting, staccato passages. Amid the manic quality of the writing, there is still a relaxed vibe thanks to the players’ collective subtlety. The well-blended sound of this group can also be heard during the song’s spotlight features, as when trombonist Jacob Garchick improvises behind alto saxophonist Jon Irabagon’s incendiary solo.

On Away With You, performances veer from tightly scripted to more free-sounding sections, before heading back toward established themes. But these transitions rarely feel jagged. The title track begins with arpeggios from Halvorson’s guitar that gradually fade into the background once harmony lines for the other instruments take over. After a development section, Alcorn’s guitar emerges, referencing Halvorson’s original part. Then the two guitarists break the theme down again, collaborating on some intense, minimalist riffing.

Though Halvorson’s flintier attack is usually distinguished from Alcorn’s more rounded tone, here that’s not always the case. On “The Absolute Almost (no. 52),” Halvorson picks up a slide, occasionally emulating the sound of her pedal steel counterpart. Elsewhere, Alcorn uses an extended solo on “Fog Bank (no. 56)” to evoke experimental strumming effects that will sound familiar to Halvorson’s fans. The composer-bandleader doesn’t take as many solos this time around—she prefers to linger inside the sound of her octet. But when Halvorson does cut loose, as on “Safety Orange (no. 59),” she’s as inventive as ever.

Trumpeter Jonathon Finlayson sneaks up on the listener, moving from a mellow to a regal sound in the course of a few bars. And Ches Smith’s drumming is similarly adaptable—offering straight-ahead swing rhythms as well avant-garde marches and clattering explosions. There aren’t many fast tempos to be found on Away With You, though the album still has a live-wire feel, thanks to the density of the writing and the crispness of all those performances. The result is one of Halvorson’s most entrancing sets yet—and the first one in which ensemble interplay seems even more important than the various soloists’ individual fireworks.