My good (and corageously fasting) friend Kaoru and I went to see Mary Halvorson tonight. She performed with a great band comprised of the great Trevor Dunn on bass, an impressive Tomas Fujiwara (subbing for Chess Smith), Jon Irbagon on sax (rumored to be a world champion at Dr. Mario) and Jonathan Finlayson (whose playing is almost as cool as his vintage Kellog’s fruit loops t-shirt). The quintet played great and it was the first time I got a chance to appreciate her compositions (although I had seen her playing before with Marc Ribot at Le Poisson Rouge). With long horn lines and harmonies punctuated by written free-jazz guitar structures leaning on the solid foundations of such a great rhythm section, the quinted effortlessly spaced from improv to form flirting with moody and delicate atmospheres and bursting flames in full on full out pieces! All the solos were killer! This young and humble composer is definitely one to follow and one whom I hope to work with sooner rather than later.