About Ghosts (2025)

"However edgy and angular Mary Halvorson’s music gets, powerful melodies and inviting harmonies always drift below even the stormiest surface, giving the much-lauded New York composer and guitarist an appeal way beyond the avant garde. "About Ghosts" features an expanded version of her Amaryllis ensemble, which made one of 2024’s standout jazz albums, "Cloudward". The lineup retains Adam O’Farrill (trumpet), Jacob Garchik (trombone), Patricia Brennan (vibraphone), Nick Dunston (bass) and Tomas Fujiwara (drums), augmented by Blue Note Records’ fiery, gospelly alto-sax star Immanuel Wilkins and the rugged, Wayne Shorter-like tenorist Brian Settles. The excitement of Halvorson’s music is not cinematic or illustrative, but in the kaleidoscopic fascination of its internal symmetries and conflict. Melody parts play rhythm patterns, then the melodies bend while the rhythms push on. Her harmonies sometimes echo jazz big bands, at others contemporary classical." (Guardian; 4 uit 5 sterren)