John Stoehr on Mary Halvorson

"Dragon's Head is guitarist Mary Halvorson's latest from Firehouse 12 Records. It was written with her bandmates in mind, bassist John Hebert and drummer Ches Smith. It's all about trust, and it shows. Dragon's Head is a daring menu of 10 tracks that doesn't see the need to choose between influences, whether Zorn or Zappa, Jaco Pastorius or Sonic Youth. It stitches them together with seams that are only slightly visible. I don't want to make too much of this, but I get a sense of where jazz is going with Dragon's Head. Halvorson … studied with Anthony Braxton. She's written chamber music. Like many composers of her generation, music is music. Genres be damned. Hence, intimations of Charles Ives. At least the father of American contemporary music would approve. Halvorson seems keen on breaking down jazz in the way Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon deconstructed rock. … Make no mistake: This isn't a jazzed-up version of anything. It still feels like jazz. While jazz has always been a pluralistic art form, it has a tendency to be diffuse, shapeless and without a clear identity. … The center of Dragon's Head, however, still holds" ("Jazz Bag," New Haven Advocate, 12/3/09, p. 40).