Saturn Sings

Saturn Sings

Mary Halvorson is the most innovative jazz guitarist to appear in decades. Jazz musicians have always drawn on popular and other styles, and Halvorson incorporates indie rock, experimental noise, and other elements into her music in distinctive ways. Odd melodic contours, intriguing harmonies, intelligently deployed distortion, just-right whammy-bar bends, and bursts of scrambled notes are some of the things that characterize her playing. Saturn Sings finds Halvorson teaming up with regular bandmates, bassist John Hebert and drummer Ches Smith, along with alto saxophonist Jon Irabagon and trumpeter Jonathan Finlayson. Halvorson, a former student of and collaborator with Anthony Braxton, writes deliciously unpredictable material. One gem, the lengthy “Moon Traps In Seven Rings,” places a tsunami of bass/drums/guitar against wistful horns and makes it work. Stretches of “Sea Seizure” could be mistaken for a tense Sonic Youth instrumental, but the skittering, clean-toned guitar lines would never come from Moore or Renaldo’s axes. Saturn Sings is the sound of now.

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