Mary Halvorson Quintet By Peter Gannushkin

Tonight 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 recently interviewed for At Length, and profiled at PopMatters.com 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.”

The same philosophy will apply, she says, when her core trio with Hébert and Smith tours Europe for two weeks in April.

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

Photo by Amani Willett

In the latest edition of his Jazz Today column at PopMatters.com, Will Layman calls Clean Feed Records and our own Mary Halvorson the two trends to watch in jazz for 2011.

“There are at least two important jazz developments from last year that I haven’t written about yet,” writes Layman on his blog this morning. “One is the emergence—with great volume and creativity—of the Lisbon-based Clean Feed Records. The other is the ubiquity and quality and fresh inventiveness of guitarist Mary Halvorson.”

“Halvorson captivates,” he continues in the piece. “For all her lack of convention—indeed, her self-described ‘weird’ness—she is extraordinarily musical. Though Halvorson leads several bands and plays regularly in (and records regularly with) a dozen others, the news in 2010 was her first recording with the Mary Halvorson Quintet, Saturn Sings. This disc is special in Halvorson’s catalog because it gives fuller expression to her fascinating compositions.”

He adds, “Halvorson’s art begins with an assumption of huge freedom, so it doesn’t become ‘free’ by violating the norms she learned in music school. This second generation liberty, in not being a reaction against anything, feels utterly sincere and balanced. It’s the closest thing in jazz guitar playing to the piano styles of Matthew Shipp, Vijay Iyer, and Jason Moran that have been the other main story of the last five years in jazz.”

Today we explore the results from the second of five sections of our recent survey of 50 prominent jazz writers and editors.

This section, called Web and print habits, asked about the jazz-related publications, blogs and Web sites these professionals are reading, how they access them, and if what they read there impacts their own work.

As shown in the chart above, we first asked respondents to indicate which of the eight major jazz magazines they read on a regular basis. The list, which featured English-language publications only, included AllAboutJazz-New York, Cadence, DownBeat, Jazz Improv, Jazziz, JazzTimes, Signal To Noise and The Wire. We also made it possible for people to write-in any other publications as well.

The clear winner was AllAboutJazz-New York with 54.5%. The runner-up was Signal to Noise with 51.5%, followed by DownBeat and JazzTimes, which each scored 48.5%. The Wire (39.4%) and Cadence (18.2%) were next, while Jazziz and Jazz Improv each scored less than 10%.

One write-in vote each was cast for Cuadernos de Jazz, Coda, Improjazz, Jazz Journal and Ritmos del Mundo.

We then asked if the coverage in these publications influenced the respondent’s own work (i.e. discovering new releases, coloring their judgement of artists/releases, etc.).

The results (above) were clear as 85.3% answered in the affirmative.

Next we asked which jazz-related Web sites respondents visit on a regular basis, again spotlighting eight popular choices and giving people the chance to write-in any others they prefer.

AllAboutJazz.com was the clear favorite with 77.4%, with AllMusic.com finishing a close second with 61.3%. Next came Bagatellen with 32.3%, followed by Jazz.com and NPR Music, which each earned 29%. Avant Music News (16.1%), Jazz Corner (12.9%) and PopMatters (6.5%) also got multiple votes.

A significant number of write-in votes were cast for blogs, which we tackle in the next question, but Point of Departure was a popular choice (an admitted oversight on our part), as were Pitchfork and Dusted.

Again, the majority (82.4%) indicated that the content of these sites influence their own work.

When tackling the subject of blogs, we asked respondents to list five of their favorites. Oddly enough, more than half skipped this question completely, and only 37.5% filled in all five slots. Some even dedicated one or more of the slots to expressing their dislike for reading and/or discussing blogs at all.

The calculations don’t apply to write-ins, but the most popular choices were Destination: Out, Do The Math, Free Jazz, Jazz Beyond Jazz, Lerterland and Secret Society.

But this time, when we asked if what they read on these blogs influenced their own work, only 44.4% said yes.

When it comes to accessing the blogs they read, the Web is by far the most popular way with 94.1% giving that answer. Using a built-in blog reader in one’s browser and using a stand-alone RSS feed reader represented the rest of the vote with 8.8% each.

Finally, we asked if any of the respondents have a Twitter account.

Unlike with the blogs, everyone who took the survey answered this question, but only 35.3% said yes.

Tomorrow we’ll look at the third section of our survey, Personal Listening Habits, which features questions about writers’ interaction with jazz radio, their preferences for format (CD, MP3 and vinyl) when purchasing music for personal use, and the amount of music they purchase in a given year.

Please stay tuned!