| Mary Halvorson•Michael Formanek•Tomas Fujiwara — Thumbscrew |
Mary Halvorson•Michael Formanek•Tomas Fujiwara — Thumbscrew
Ξ “[a] singular talent... Brooklyn-based guitarist Mary Halvorson has come into her own as a composer and improviser ... light years ahead of her peers, she is the most impressive guitarist of her generation. The future of jazz guitar starts here.” — Troy Collins (AllAboutJazz.com)
Location: Boston ~ Brooklyn, New York
Album release: 21 January 2014
Record Label: Cuneiform Records
Duration: 55:35
Tracks:
01 Cheap Knock Off 5:59
02 iThumbscrew 7:13
03 Fluid Hills in Pink 8:12
04 Nothing Doing 1:22
05 Goddess Sparkle 6:22
06 Buzzard's Breath 6:00
07 Still...Doesn't Swing 7:24
08 Falling Too Far 5:26
09 Line to Create Madness 7:36
"Cheap Knock Off" composed by Tomas Fujiwara.
Personnel:
♦ Michael Formanek (double bass)
♦ Tomas Fujiwara (drums)
♦ Mary Halvorson (guitar)
≥ "...the bonds are already strong." — DownBeat
≥ Thumbscrew, a band consisting of three well-established leaders on the new jazz/new music scene, make inviting music full of wonder and discovery. With their eponymous debut album, they document the group's commitment to new music created specifically for this ensemble.
≥ While Michael Formanek (double bass), Tomas Fujiwara (drums) and Mary Halvorson (guitar) are all known for their prodigious capabilities as improvisers, Thumbscrew is more of a composer’s vehicle. While many cooperative bands draw on material recycled from other projects, "One of the things we said at the beginning is let’s just write music for Thumbscrew and it will only be Thumbscrew music," says Formanek. "It really is a three-composer trio, and all of our tunes have our basic aesthetics attached. But we want everybody to have input. Nobody’s afraid to make a decision. It’s one of the first co-ops I’ve been in where everyone’s really willing to take control at any given moment."
≥ With each musician contributing three tunes, the album encompasses an array of textures and strategies, while maintaining a consistently open and transparent sound. Generating tremendous intensity without necessarily increasingly volume or density, Thumbscrew buzzes and crackles, burns and croons. The group is both open and composerly. Part of what makes the band’s music so engaging is that they draw widely and deeply from any number of sonic sources.
≥ Part of the trio’s strength flows from the deep interconnecting bonds they’ve forged. Halvorson and Fujiwara first started playing together in cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum’s Sextet. They also work together in the collective quartet Reverse Blue with Chris Speed and Eivind Opsvik, and Mike Reed’s fascinating Sun Ra-inspired ensemble Living By Lanterns.
≥ They first worked with Formanek when he subbed in Bynum’s band in 2011, and the chemistry between the three was so readily apparent they immediately started looking into performance opportunities as a trio. This fine, distinctive effort is the result of 2 years of planning, rehearsing and gigging.
MARY HALVORSON
≥ One of improvised music’s most in-demand guitarists, Mary Halvorson has been active in New York since 2002, following jazz studies at Wesleyan University and the New School. Critics have called her “a singular talent” (Lloyd Sachs, JazzTimes), ”NYC’s least-predictable improviser” (Howard Mandel, City Arts), “one of the most exciting and original guitarists in jazz — or otherwise” (Steve Dollar, Wall Street Journal), and “one of today’s most formidable bandleaders” (Francis Davis, Village Voice). The Philadelphia City Paper‘s Shaun Brady adds, “Halvorson has been steadily reshaping the sound of jazz guitar in recent years with her elastic, sometimes-fluid, sometimes-shredding, wholly unique style.”
≥ After three years of study with visionary composer and saxophonist Anthony Braxton, Ms. Halvorson became an active member of several of his bands, including his trio, septet and 12+1tet. To date, she appears on six of Mr. Braxton’s recordings. Ms. Halvorson has also performed alongside iconic guitarist Marc Ribot, in his band Sun Ship (a quartet performing the music of John Coltrane), and with the bassist Trevor Dunn in his Trio-Convulsant. Over the past decade she has worked with such diverse bandleaders as Tim Berne, Taylor Ho Bynum, Tomas Fujiwara, Curtis Hasselbring, Myra Melford, Jason Moran, Joe Morris, Tom Rainey and Mike Reed.
≥ As a bandleader and composer, one of Ms. Halvorson’s primary outlets is her longstanding trio, featuring bassist John Hébert and drummer Ches Smith. Since their 2008 debut album, Dragon’s Head, the band has been recognized as a rising star jazz band by Downbeat Magazine for five consecutive years. Ms. Halvorson’s quintet, which adds trumpeter Jonathan Finlayson and alto saxophonist Jon Irabagon to the trio, has released two critically acclaimed albums on the Firehouse 12 label: Saturn Sings and Bending Bridges. Most recently she has added two additional band members — tenor saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock and trombonist Jacob Garchik — to form a septet, featured on her 2013 release Illusionary Sea. Ms. Halvorson also co-leads a longstanding chamber-jazz duo with violist Jessica Pavone, the avant-rock band People and the collective ensembles Thumbscrew and Secret Keeper.
Media Contact for Mary Halvorson:
Other Side Artists Cooperative:
European Booking
Jakob Flarer @ Saudades:
US/ Canadian Booking
Andreas Scherrer @ Company of Heaven:
Other Inquiries
Label: http://www.cuneiformrecords.com/
Website: http://www.maryhalvorson.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mary-Halvorson/57517398303
© January 10, 2010 (0:47), Winter Jazz Fest 2010 brought a diverse lineup of contemporary jazz to six Greenwich Village
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| Mary Halvorson•Michael Formanek•Tomas Fujiwara — Thumbscrew |
Ξ “[a] singular talent... Brooklyn-based guitarist Mary Halvorson has come into her own as a composer and improviser ... light years ahead of her peers, she is the most impressive guitarist of her generation. The future of jazz guitar starts here.” — Troy Collins (AllAboutJazz.com)
Location: Boston ~ Brooklyn, New York
Album release: 21 January 2014
Record Label: Cuneiform Records
Duration: 55:35
Tracks:
01 Cheap Knock Off 5:59
02 iThumbscrew 7:13
03 Fluid Hills in Pink 8:12
04 Nothing Doing 1:22
05 Goddess Sparkle 6:22
06 Buzzard's Breath 6:00
07 Still...Doesn't Swing 7:24
08 Falling Too Far 5:26
09 Line to Create Madness 7:36
"Cheap Knock Off" composed by Tomas Fujiwara.
Personnel:
♦ Michael Formanek (double bass)
♦ Tomas Fujiwara (drums)
♦ Mary Halvorson (guitar)
≥ "...the bonds are already strong." — DownBeat
≥ Thumbscrew, a band consisting of three well-established leaders on the new jazz/new music scene, make inviting music full of wonder and discovery. With their eponymous debut album, they document the group's commitment to new music created specifically for this ensemble.
≥ While Michael Formanek (double bass), Tomas Fujiwara (drums) and Mary Halvorson (guitar) are all known for their prodigious capabilities as improvisers, Thumbscrew is more of a composer’s vehicle. While many cooperative bands draw on material recycled from other projects, "One of the things we said at the beginning is let’s just write music for Thumbscrew and it will only be Thumbscrew music," says Formanek. "It really is a three-composer trio, and all of our tunes have our basic aesthetics attached. But we want everybody to have input. Nobody’s afraid to make a decision. It’s one of the first co-ops I’ve been in where everyone’s really willing to take control at any given moment."
≥ With each musician contributing three tunes, the album encompasses an array of textures and strategies, while maintaining a consistently open and transparent sound. Generating tremendous intensity without necessarily increasingly volume or density, Thumbscrew buzzes and crackles, burns and croons. The group is both open and composerly. Part of what makes the band’s music so engaging is that they draw widely and deeply from any number of sonic sources.
≥ Part of the trio’s strength flows from the deep interconnecting bonds they’ve forged. Halvorson and Fujiwara first started playing together in cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum’s Sextet. They also work together in the collective quartet Reverse Blue with Chris Speed and Eivind Opsvik, and Mike Reed’s fascinating Sun Ra-inspired ensemble Living By Lanterns.
≥ They first worked with Formanek when he subbed in Bynum’s band in 2011, and the chemistry between the three was so readily apparent they immediately started looking into performance opportunities as a trio. This fine, distinctive effort is the result of 2 years of planning, rehearsing and gigging.
MARY HALVORSON
≥ One of improvised music’s most in-demand guitarists, Mary Halvorson has been active in New York since 2002, following jazz studies at Wesleyan University and the New School. Critics have called her “a singular talent” (Lloyd Sachs, JazzTimes), ”NYC’s least-predictable improviser” (Howard Mandel, City Arts), “one of the most exciting and original guitarists in jazz — or otherwise” (Steve Dollar, Wall Street Journal), and “one of today’s most formidable bandleaders” (Francis Davis, Village Voice). The Philadelphia City Paper‘s Shaun Brady adds, “Halvorson has been steadily reshaping the sound of jazz guitar in recent years with her elastic, sometimes-fluid, sometimes-shredding, wholly unique style.”
≥ After three years of study with visionary composer and saxophonist Anthony Braxton, Ms. Halvorson became an active member of several of his bands, including his trio, septet and 12+1tet. To date, she appears on six of Mr. Braxton’s recordings. Ms. Halvorson has also performed alongside iconic guitarist Marc Ribot, in his band Sun Ship (a quartet performing the music of John Coltrane), and with the bassist Trevor Dunn in his Trio-Convulsant. Over the past decade she has worked with such diverse bandleaders as Tim Berne, Taylor Ho Bynum, Tomas Fujiwara, Curtis Hasselbring, Myra Melford, Jason Moran, Joe Morris, Tom Rainey and Mike Reed.
≥ As a bandleader and composer, one of Ms. Halvorson’s primary outlets is her longstanding trio, featuring bassist John Hébert and drummer Ches Smith. Since their 2008 debut album, Dragon’s Head, the band has been recognized as a rising star jazz band by Downbeat Magazine for five consecutive years. Ms. Halvorson’s quintet, which adds trumpeter Jonathan Finlayson and alto saxophonist Jon Irabagon to the trio, has released two critically acclaimed albums on the Firehouse 12 label: Saturn Sings and Bending Bridges. Most recently she has added two additional band members — tenor saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock and trombonist Jacob Garchik — to form a septet, featured on her 2013 release Illusionary Sea. Ms. Halvorson also co-leads a longstanding chamber-jazz duo with violist Jessica Pavone, the avant-rock band People and the collective ensembles Thumbscrew and Secret Keeper.
Media Contact for Mary Halvorson:
Other Side Artists Cooperative:
European Booking
Jakob Flarer @ Saudades:
US/ Canadian Booking
Andreas Scherrer @ Company of Heaven:
Other Inquiries
Label: http://www.cuneiformrecords.com/
Website: http://www.maryhalvorson.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mary-Halvorson/57517398303
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