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Coming later this month on the Tzadik label:
Mary Halvorson: The Maid With The Flaxen Hair—A Tribute To Johnny Smith [#4024]
Mary Halvorson is one of the most acclaimed guitarists of her generation—a virtuoso improviser, distinctive composer, arranger and a deep student of the jazz guitar. Here she joins forces with living legend Bill Frisell to pay tribute to Johnny Smith, a guitarist who has been a huge influence on them both. Performing nine ballads associated with Smith and his classic composition Walk Don’t Run, this is an essential CD of soulful guitar duets by two of the most beloved and original guitarists in modern jazz. A beautiful CD of ballads like you have never heard them before!
(Release date: July 2018)
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07-19-2018 01:24 PM
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David, Thanks for the heads up. This should be an interesting collaboration. I like both of these unique and talented musicians. I'll be picking this one up.
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Wut. This doesn’t make any sense. Should be awesome.
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Every so often I see Halvorson's name come up and I check out what's available on youtube. So far I haven't heard anything that I like or care about listening to more than once. But curious to listen to this collaboration with Frisell and see what she can do on a ballad.
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Tracklisting from Amazon, which gives a release date of 27 July:
1. Moonlight in Vermont
2. The Maid with the Flaxen Hair
3. Scarlet Ribbons for Her Hair
4. In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning
5. Shenandoah
6. The Nearness of You
7. Black is the Color of My True Love's Hair
8. Old Folks
9. Misty
10. Walk Don't Run
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I don't enjoy guitar playing that is always outside - even when it is by my #2 guitar hero (cf. Zero Tolerance for Silence). So I AM looking forward to those ballads with Frisell.
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Yeah, this is as likely to do as much to get the detractors to shut up as Derek Bailey's standards did for his. I'm looking forward to this album. I'm looking forward to detractor comments.
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I'll buy it. She's great. He's great. Might work.
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One of the worst things an artist can aspire to is to be liked by everyone
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I remember a show where at the end of the night Bill had played. He'd played a great set of music and he was rushed by a crowd of fans who wanted to talk with him. Towards the end of the group a pair of fans introduced themselves. "Thank you Bill, we loved the show. We're Mary Halvorson's parents. " and he stopped, looked at them and gushed his love and admiration for her. It was the equal of anything the collective fans could have felt.
Love of music. Love of the classics. Utter respect for the tradition and the freedom and intelligence to express themselves fully and playfully; that's what those two artists are about. Can't wait to have my world expanded.
David
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Since Johnny Smith has always been my favorite pickstyle jazz guitarist I'm really looking forward to hearing this new release!
I like Bill Frisell's playing but I must admit that I'm not all that familiar with Mary Halvorson. I'll have to go to YouTube and look her up.
Thank you for posting the info about this new Tribute To Johnny Smith release!
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I don't know why this CD would make anybody STFU. My guess is that she won't sound anything like Johnny, approach-wise. My guess is that she'll do it her way (as opposed to "selling out"?).
And in that case she may generate more detractors, not fewer.
It will be interesting to hear.
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Needs? No.
Originally Posted by cosmic gumbo
Cares? You think she doesn't read what's written about her? She's human. I dont think it keeps her up at night, and I don't think this record is an attempt to "prove" anything to anybody, but man, people are brutal. And of course she's had to deal with the other side of it too, the critics who called her the second coming of whatever.
From what I know of Mary, she'd certainly appreciate less talk and more listening.
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I highly doubt that's what the intent is here. Originally Posted by christianm77
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I'll be interested in hearing this, or at least reviews. I dig Johnny Smith, and I like what little I've heard from Bill Frisell. Mary Halvorson is very controversial in jazz guitar circles. Can't say I've liked what I've heard on tiny desk, etc., so I would be pleasantly surprised if she could do justice to this material.
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I highly doubt that’s the intent with anything Mary does. Originally Posted by mr. beaumont
If people don’t like Mary I doubt there’ll be any change based on this record...
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It’ll be good to hear Bill move out of the bar band covers thing he’s been doing for a while now.
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I would love to see this duo live!
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Saw Bill with the Bad Plus last fall (near the end of the classic BP trio, before the new pianist). Basically they were covering Bill's older 80s fusion-ish stuff with Bill as a guest. It was a great show if vaguely surreal.
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The album is out now (released yesterday): https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/th...ith/1412954804
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I looked. Itunes says it’s not available in either the US or the UK. Originally Posted by David B
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I listened this morning. Hate to say it, as a fan of Mary's other work, but I was disappointed. I think she skirted the challenge on a lot of tunes by not interacting with the song material. Even if you are playing freely, the point of playing a song is that you're engaged with the song in some way. I've also shared this sentiment elsewhere, but sometimes she is far too reliant on her delay pedal for pitch shift effects.
Maybe it will grow on me. I gave some money to Apple for it, so I'll definitely listen more to get my money's worth.
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Melodic Dreamer: It's definitely out and available to buy on iTunes UK:
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Just to confirm, I'm in the US and also successfully downloaded it from David's link.
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I couldn’t get it from the above link, but it’s available to me by going directly into iTunes.
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