Label: Firehouse 12 Records, 2020

Personnel - Mary Halvorson: guitar; Amirtha Kidambi: vocals; Adam O’Farrill: trumpet; Maria Grand: tenor sax, vocals; Michael Formanek: bass; Tomas Fujiwara: drums + guest Robert Wyatt: vocals (#1,3,5).

The sophomore album from Code Girl, an intrepid project led by guitarist/composer Mary Halvorson that incorporates lyrics and blends elements of jazz, rock, folk, and indie pop, offers some agreeable surprises. Artlessly Falling signals the absence of trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire from the original roster of musicians, but welcomes Adam O’Farrill for his place, as well as saxophonist/vocalist Maria Grand and rock legend Robert Wyatt, who puts his voice on three pieces. The remaining members are bassist Michael Formanek and drummer Tomas Fujiwara - both colleagues of Halvorson in the Thumbscrew trio - and avant-garde vocalist Amirtha Kidambi. The material on this recording was inspired by many factors, but perhaps the most significant of them has to do with the challenging poetic forms picked by Halvorson to write the lyrics for each tune.

With words inspired by and dedicated to novelist Lawrence Osborne, “The Lemon Trees” is a pure delight. It kicks off with gentle waltzing steps conducted by arpeggiated guitar, brushed drums, and topped by Latin-flavored trumpet, quickly segueing into the sung part, where Wyatt’s beautiful voice - efficiently backed by Kidambi and Grand - takes us to the realms of King Crimson. The final section of O’Farrill’s wide-ranging solo has exclusively drums as accompaniment, and, afterwards, the drummer seizes the opportunity to deliver an enthusiastic statement himself.

Playing like an operatic lament, “Last-Minute Smear” features regular snare drum activity and sparse guitar chords with vocals atop. This pattern is dismantled and renewed with a view for unison melodies as well as improvisations by Grand and O’Farrill.

Both “Muzzling Unwashed” and “A Nearing” denote fleeting tempo shifts (duple to triple) and feature Kidambi’s easy, elastic vocals at the fore. If the former piece launches into pitch-bending guitar before gradually adding slippery bass and intimate drumming, the latter is introduced by Formanek’s ruminative discourse that anticipates the simple 4/4 groove.

Halvorson turns up the distortion levels on “Walls and Roses”, a noise-rock endeavor with alternation of tranquil and explosive passages. The guitarist, inventing herself in a swift improvisation crammed with sinister notes and intervals, and Wyatt, who sings it beautifully in the company of Grand, are outstanding. His mighty presence also juices up “Bigger Flames”, whose yearning tones conjure his own art-rock, the early days of Pink Floyd and the dream pop of The Flaming Lips.

“Mexican War Streets (Pittsburgh)” is a shapeshifter full of musical constellations that include an uncommon poignancy in the poetic vocal parts, a heavy rock passage, electronic disturbances, and some neo-psychedelia.

Halvorson, who always takes the jazz guitar to another dimension with such extraordinary talents, creates another powerful album. And, damn, how I loved to hear Wyatt here!

Favorite Tracks:
01 - The Lemon Trees ► 03 - Walls and Roses ► 06 - Mexican War Streets (Pittsburgh)

Label: Firehouse 12 Records, 2018

Personnel – Mary Halvorson: guitar; Ambrose Akinmusire: trumpet; Amirtha Kidambi: vocals; Michael Formanek: acoustic bass; Tomas Fujiwara: drums.

Guitarist Mary Halvorson is known for her ability to create wayward yet rich soundscapes. She has been spreading sonic charms in fruitful collaborations, usually in duo and trio formats. However, it was leading her octet that she definitely caught the jazz world’s attention, in a rapturous record from 2016 entitled Away With You. Now she’s back with a brand new experience permeated with genre-bending ideas, having penned lyrics and music of the 14 appealing tracks that compose Code Girl, a vocalized album envisioned for the quintet of the same name. It features Amirtha Kidambi on vocals, Ambrose Akinmusire on trumpet, Michael Formanek on bass, and Tomas Fujiwara on drums.

“My Mind I Find in Time”, the opening piece, is introduced by processed guitar replicas, giving a sensation that Halvorson is having an echoed conversation with herself. The powerful, incisive voice of Kidambi, a classical trained singer whose intonations sometimes bring Irene Aebi to mind, is placed over guitar melodies that take the form of rhythmic figures. Later on, while strumming, the guitarist designs pungent electro-acoustic chords, encouraging a striking pulse that sustains Akinmusire’s electrifying trumpet solo.

On “Possibility of Lightning”, guitarist and trumpeter utter parallel phrases with Kidambi’s voice flawlessly meddling to converge with their movements. While Formanek sticks to a pedal, distortion inflames Halvorson’s guitar, whose driving noisy bumps take us to alternative rock zones. Words and ‘ahs’ dance in counterpoint with guitar and trumpet, leading to a volatile crossing between the indie-rock bravery of Deerhoof and the innocuous modes of the new age.

Evoking King Crimson and Robert Wyatt, “Storm Cloud” unleashes melancholy through the guitar fingerpicking, a perfect vehicle for Kidambi’s forlorn and poetic declamation. Even with the bowed bass inflicting a deeper sense of gravitas, the robustness is only increased from the moment that Fujiwara takes action. The improvisations were assigned to the bandleader, who uses a slide-guitar effect for a quirky sound, and Akinmusire, who doesn’t rush his thoughts but builds them consistently.

Both “Pretty Mountain” and “Accurate Hit” are semi-obscure pop songs. The former is enlightened by Akinmusire’s fantastic improvisation and a few abrupt drum slaps, while the latter displays a simple harmonic progression painted blurred by Halvorson’s occasional dissonances.

The band interlocks pop/rock and cool swinging jazz with shape-shifting ease on “Off The Record”. After the guitarist’s idiosyncratic attacks and flashy effects, we have the gorgeous intervallic escalations emitted by the trumpeter.

The longest piece on the record and also one of the most beautiful, “The Unexpected Natural Phenomenon” is a dramatic avant-garde excursion with lugubrious arco bass work, impeccable vocal technique, expressive guitar phrases constantly falling ‘outside’ the expected, and poised drumming. Fujiwara remains in an understated position until the trumpeter starts a galvanizing statement filled with static electricity. At that time, one of those magic clamors is created.

If “Thunderhead”, a consolidated collective instrumental, marches resolutely with additive meters, “And” plays with tempo and time signature, toggling between a slow 4/4 and a faster 7/4.

With an enviable openness and a propensity to explore the unknown, the unrivaled Halvorson crafts a fantastic album that I urge you to enjoy out loud.

Favorable Tracks:
01 - My Mind I Find in Time ► 09 - The Unexpected Natural Phenomenon ► 10 - Thunderhead