Mary Halvorson: Clone Decay

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Mary Halvorson (guitar), Kalia Vandever (trombone) & Weston Olencki (trombone & electronics)

This project marks the first time meeting between these three musicians, featuring new compositions for two trombones and guitar, augmented by electronics and processing, to create a sound that begins as an acoustic trio and morphs into something else entirely. This performance features a Next Jazz Legacy Awardee, made possible by New Music USA and the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice with support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Guitarist, composer and MacArthur Fellow Mary Halvorson has been called “NYC’s least-predictable improviser” (Howard Mandel, City Arts), “the most forward-thinking guitarist working right now” (Lars Gotrich, NPR.org) and “one of today’s most formidable bandleaders” (Francis Davis, Village Voice). Halvorson’s most recent releases, Amaryllis and Belladonna, showcase her string quartet writing deftly interpreted by The Mivos Quartet, alongside a new sextet featuring Adam O’Farrill (trumpet), Jacob Garchik (trombone), Patricia Brennan (vibraphone), Nick Dunston (bass) and Tomas Fujiwara (drums). The twin debuts for Nonesuch Records, released in May 2022, were called “...new landmarks in Halvorson’s already inimitable discography” in a five star review by The Guardian. Collaborative projects include the longstanding collective ensemble Thumbscrew (also with Formanek and Fujiwara), and a chamber-jazz duo with violist Jessica Pavone. Over the past two decades Ms. Halvorson has also performed in bands led by Anthony Braxton, Tim Berne, Taylor Ho Bynum, Trevor Dunn, Tomas Fujiwara, Ingrid Laubrock, Myra Melford, Jason Moran, Joe Morris, Tom Rainey, Tomeka Reid, Marc Ribot, Ches Smith and John Zorn, among others.

Kalia Vandever is a trombonist, composer, and educator living in Brooklyn, NY. She released her debut album, “In Bloom” in 2019 which has been described as "the rise of an exciting voice for the music." (Seton Hawkins, Hot House Jazz Magazine) Kalia's sophomore album, Regrowth released in May, 2022 on New Amsterdam Records and "confirms her strengths as a composer and bandleader with a distinctly contemporary point of view." (Nate Chinen, WBGO Jazz) She has toured and performed internationally with her quartet, as well as a side-woman, performing with artists including Moses Sumney, Joel Ross, Immanuel Wilkins, Maria Grand, Fay Victor and others. Kalia is an awardee of the 2022 Next Jazz Legacy, a program founded by New Music USA and Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice. She has performed in such venues as Carnegie Hall, Sydney Opera House, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Preservation Hall, the Hollywood Bowl, The Jazz Gallery, The Blue Whale, Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola, SMOKE Jazz Club, the Blue Note, and the Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center. While performing regularly as a bandleader and side-woman, Kalia is also an active composer and arranger. She has been commissioned to write works for groups and individuals including Tesla Quartet, The Westerlies, Katherine Kyu Hyeon Lim, Hats & Heels Duo and more.

Weston Olencki is a musician, composer, and sound artist. Their current work is centered around questions of instrumental music and its contexts/constructs, various mediated practices of listening and improvisation, and the technological, material, and cultural histories of rural space/time. Various recording projects have been released by HatHut, Not Two, Sound American, Carrier, New Amsterdam, Clean Feed, Lobby Art, Dinzu Artefacts, SUPERPANG, Notice Recordings, Tripticks Tapes, Creative Sources, Out of Your Head, and their first solo brass release SOLO WORKS, which featured on Bandcamp Daily’s Best Experimental Music of 2020. They are an active member of RAGE THORMBONES, Ensemble Pamplemousse, the Wet Ink Large Ensemble, and perform regularly as a soloist and ensemble member on low brass instruments, handbuilt contraptions, and various electronic media.