I saw Mary Halvorson perform a number of times when I lived in NYC, once in duo with Elliot Sharp, and once in an ensemble with Marc Ribot. Surprisingly, I got to see her play in Nashville as well, in duo with bassist Stephan Crump. Halvorson is one of the most distinctive new guitar voices, with her angular style, acoustic meets electric sound, and unique pitch shifting effects using an expression pedal with a Line 6 DL-4. She is constantly releasing new music in situations that range from solo to large ensembles. I had been planning an interview, but Adam Perlmutter has done such a great one for Premier Guitar, I thought I would just send you on to it. I decided to flesh his work out with some great videos of Halvorson breaking down free improvisation and talking about how she creates exercises, as well some additional performance videos. Some performances feature Halvorson with her former teacher Joe Morris and with Tyondai Braxton, the son of another teacher, Anthony Braxton.
Mary Halvorson: Live @ the Ottobar, Baltimore, 7/17/2014, (Part 2 of the video featured in the Premier Guitar article)
