“It sounded like a band from the first note.”
Mary Halvorson still marvels as she recalls the initial rehearsal of the sextet that anchored her acclaimed 2022 Amaryllis, and the new Cloudward. She’d written music for an unusual new-to-her lineup—trumpet, trombone, vibraphone, guitar, bass, drums—as a post-pandemic “reset” experiment. It was a hunch, and Halvorson, a veteran of countless ad-hoc groups and short-term projects, kept her expectations earthbound. Until they started playing. Tickets ardenconcerts.com
“It was fun right away,” the guitarist and composer says. “Everyone connected. And as we’ve played more over the last couple of years, it’s definitely gotten better. It’s almost like you start to, not finish each other’s sentences, but you start to understand someone’s language a little bit more. The more touring we did, and hanging out, I think everyone feels they can take more risks because we’re comfortable with each other. It’s one of the most fun bands to tour with for me.”
During the sessions, the players went beyond the notes and dynamic markings Halvorson had provided. The band was fully immersed in bringing the sonic infrastructure she’d dreamed up to life, breathing fire into her broad, overlapping melodies, metric skirmishes, and tense harmonies like it was no big deal. The album landed on countless best-of lists and was named DownBeat magazine’s album of the year.
The Jazz Touring Network is made possible through the generous support from the National Endowment for the Arts’ Regional Engagement Program.23
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