MARY HALVORSON — Reverse Blue (review)

MARY HALVORSON — Reverse Blue album cover Album · 2014 · 21st Century Modern Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
snobb
Mary Halvorson is with no doubt most popular modern advanced female jazz guitarist. With her new band (all members are still part of same "new American avant-garde jazz" cohort) she makes next step refining her usual very individual music.

Band's debut album, "Reverse Blue" opens with few winks of baroque dance but right after switches to rock-jazz distorted guitar's shred. Opener (as well as some other album's songs) is well composed and perfectly works as advanced jazz piece and avant-rock song at the same time.

One can say it's a feminine take on guitar jazz what makes Mary's music so personal. Not sure but it's really better illustrated by her heavier compositions where with no relation to hot-burning drama music in whole stays surprisingly very relaxed and well controlled.

Well-balanced and inventive quartet plays ten originals (half comes solely from Halvorson), all are well calculated and executed. Probably (as on some her other albums) main problem of the music still is that tranquil equilibrium - some injections of adrenaline here and there would save compositions from some appreciable sameness.

"Ego Man", central album's point, trims well-balanced but a bit too repetitive songs' series with Chris Speed's tenor soloing and opens a way for new music sides coming after. Second album's part is more diverse even if some dose of additional adrenaline would be probably desired as well."Really OK" is a beautiful elegant waltz and the closer "Resting On Laurels" sounds as dreamy tasteful miniature

Being a Mary Halvorson's music fan, I am familiar with almost every her album - and always waiting for new to come. Almost every of already released works contains some great moments and some not so great - and this rule is as sturdy as year's seasons change. A small step to being a really great album,"Reverse Blue" is intelligent and accessible listening opening new layers after every another spin.
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