When you call a guitarist avant-garde, be it one as noisy and experimental as Elliott Sharp or as generally amiable as the great Bill Frisell, one question hovers: is it as “out there” as the unsettling improvisations of Derek Bailey? The answer is generally “no,” and then you get on with trying to describe what it is, not what it isn’t. the Boston-born New York-residing guitarist Mary Halverson’s name has been oft-spoke in the avant-garde discussion for pretty much all of the new millennium. What it is isn’t so easy to say, for the nimble and harmonically rich axe-person has covered a lot of ground in a lot releases, from alien art song in her duo with violist Jessica Pavone to Opulence, her explosively unpredictable and dynamic duet with drummer Weasel Walter.
Halvorson’s trio on her acclaimed 2008 release Dragon’s Head included the highly active and versatile New York drummer Ches Smith, with whom Halvorson will be dueting at Quinn’s in Beacon — where Avant-garde jazz is like what blues rock is everywhere else—on Tuesday, Sept 8 at 9:00 PM. Quinn’s is located at 330 Main Street in Beacon. For more information, call (845) 202-7447 or find Quinn’s on Facebook.
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