Ground-breaking American guitarist Mary Halvorson only performed at Big Ears 2025 one day, Sunday, March 30, although she had performed multiple times with multiple ensembles in recent years. On Sunday morning, she participated in a roundtable discussion with fellow guitarists Joel Harrison, Brandon Ross, and Nels Cline, followed by a round-robin improvisational performance that also included Wendy Eisenberg. Unfortunately, the 11:30 panel was the morning after Water Damage's midnight-to-1:00 am set on Saturday night and also conflicted with Dan Weiss' Even Odds Trio performance at The Standard at 12:15 pm. As much as I loved the performers in Sunday mornings' discussion/performance, I opted for less talking and more playing and chose to sleep in just a little bit longer and caught the later set instead.
Fortunately for me, the following set at The Standard that Sunday was a tribute to the late pedal steel guitarist Susan Alcorn, featuring (l to r in the pic above) vocal stylist Bonnie Lander, Mary Halvorson, violinist yuniya edi kwon, bassist Lester St. Louis, and drummer Ryan Sawyer (not pictured). Alcorn had been scheduled to perform at Big Ears this year but sadly passed away in January. The musicians scheduled to perform with her at her Big Ears set decided to play a set anyway to still get paid for a gig as a tribute to Alcorn.
Susan Alcorn memorials have also been performed in various other cites, including her native Houston and in Baltimore, which featured saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock (who I saw perform later that Sunday with Nels Cline's Consentrik Quartet).
Although Halvorson had a major presence in previous years, as far as I know the panel discussion/round-robin performance and the Susan Alcorn tribute were her only Big Ears appearances this year, which is odd considering she has a new album, About Ghosts, set for release in June. The new album features her Amaryllis sextet, whom I heard at Big Ears 2023 and consists of Halvorson, Patricia Brennan (vibraphone), Nick Dunston (bass), Tomas Fujiwara (drums), Jacob Garchik (trombone), and Adam O’Farrill (trumpet). About Ghosts also features Immanuel Wilkins and Brian Settles on sax and was produced and mixed by John Dieterich of the band Deerhoof.
Nonesuch has released a preview track, Carved From, off the album that also features some overdubbed Pocket Piano synthesizer by Halvorson, a new weapon in her arsenal of endearingly distorted sounds.
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