Mary Halvorson Quintet By Peter Gannushkin

On Friday, March 18th at 8:00 p.m., guitarist/composer Mary Halvorson will lead her quintet in its first gig of the year at Barbès in Brooklyn.

This will also be the working ensemble’s first performance since its widely acclaimed debut, Saturn Sings (Firehouse 12 Records), earned Top 10 of 2010 recognition from the Boston Phoenix, the Denver Post, the LA Times, the Montreal Mirror, the New York Times, NPR’s A Blog Supreme, the Philadelphia City Paper, the Village Voice Jazz Critics’ Poll and the Washington City Paper among many others.

Reviewers called the record “startlingly original and thoughtful” (Bill Milkowski, JazzTimes), “a new sound from a new star” (Chris May, AllAboutJazz.com), “a bold step forward in a career seemingly destined for greatness” (Troy Collins, Point of Departure), “an ideal balance of formal experiment and compelling listen” (Michael J. West, Washington City Paper), and “just about the most unequivocally perfect record from a young improviser-bandleader to come down the pike in a while” (Clifford Allen, Ni Kantu).

The line-up for this concert will feature Kirk Knuffke (cornet), Jon Irabagon (alto saxophone), John Hébert (bass) and Ches Smith (drums).

Ms. Halvorson, who was profiled at PopMatters.com yesterday as one of two jazz trends to watch in 2011, will be presenting an all-original program of post-Saturn Sings material, including the premiere of at least one brand new piece, in anticipation of heading back into the studio this summer to record the band’s next release.

“We’ll be breaking in the new material and really experimenting, seeing where the pieces might go,” she explains. “To me, this is the part of the process where the tunes really start to take shape. Sometimes they end up pretty different from how I originally envisioned them.”

Learn more about Mary Halvorson at http://www.maryhalvorson.com