Et une troisième pour Mary Halvorson, en duo “intimiste” avec le contrebassiste Stephan Crump. Les compositions de l’un ou de l’autre, très contemporaines, se remarquent par leurs qualités mélodiques. Grâce à son utilisation très fine et mesurée de l’amplification, la guitare, sous les doigts de Mary Halvorson, est parmi ce qui se fait de mieux sur l’instrument à l’heure actuelle (avec Joe Morris) : « Secret Keeper »

http://www.culturejazz.fr/spip.php?article2855

Secret Keeper, the duo of acoustic bassist Stephan Crump and electric guitarist Mary Halvorson, started working together about four years ago and released Super 8 (Intakt) in 2012. While that disc empha- sized their spontaneous inclinations in an atypical duo format, Emerge highlights how this musical pairing has evolved together and apart during the past three years.

The big advances on Emerge are the compositions themselves, all but one of which is a Crump or Halvorson piece. On Super 8, mostly brief statements were combined into three thematically linked sections. Here, each tune is more developed, and these structures are ideal for their quietly far-reaching improvisations. But, surprisingly, Emerge begins with the duo's interpretation of Irving Berlin's "What'll I Do." On this opener, Halvorson's bent notes echo lap steel guitar, but her staccato charge is all her own, as is Crump's warm tremolo response. Her remarkable sense of dynamics shape "In Time You Yell" and "Bridge Loss Sequence." She and Crump also emphasize tension, as much as close harmony, and gradually ease into her quietly frenzied solos. While those flights are immediately noticeable when she's in the upper range, what becomes more striking on repeated listens is how consistently clean her lines are-distortion is not a necessary part of her arsenal. Likewise, even her disjointed strumming on "Turns To White Gold" never loses its adherence to the melody. With Secret Keeper making such a leap between these two discs in such a short time, Crump and Halvorson always sound like they're planning a few steps ahead.

Fresh sounds from an atmospheric post- rock influenced New York duo of Vijay lyer bassist Stephan Crump and quirkily experimental guitarist Mary Halvorson.

The concert for Secret Keeper's latest recording Emerge was at the Cornelia Street Cafe - and down in the cozy basement club space, it felt a bit like being in on a well kept secret itself. It was an intimate show as the duo of guitarist Mary Halvorson and bassist Stephen Crump captivated the attentive crowd for the evening.

Emerge is the pair's second recording under the name Secret Keeper and it is a another great example of their sympathetic and telepathic playing. The duo delivers composed and intricate melodies, with nice balanced counter motions, but they also surprise by suddenly throwing caution to the wind and diving into some aggressive passages.

The opener "What'll I Do" begins tentatively, Crump provides a loose foundation and Halvorson slowly drops musical pieces into place. They are building up to something: the squiggles of guitar and the bass runs become stronger and the music denser as the track continues. 'Emerge' starts big with vibrant chords and melody from the guitar and deep sells from the bass and 'In Time You Yell', things become agitated and the playing heavier. Halvorson leans on her inner rocker and uses power chords and purposeful slashing strumming before quickly pivoting to pointy arpeggiated lines and unusual chord voicings. Meanwhile Crump is a often a grounding element, providing a base that sometimes just cracks wide open.

This is a keeper of an album, literally dripping with atmosphere.

https://www.freejazzblog.org/2015/06/secret-keeper-emerge-intakt-2015.html

Secret Keeper has served as a collective sobriquet for bassist Stephen Crump and guitarist Mary Halvorson’s musical activities together for the last several years. Independently, the two remain among the busiest New York-based improvisors in the business. Crump holds a standing post in pianist Vijay Iyer’s trio and was a founding member of the Rosetta Trio with guitarists Liberty Ellman and Jamie Fox. Halvorson’s credits continue to accumulate at a near-exponential rate under her leadership and in the company of regular associates like Tom Rainey, Ingrid Laubrock and Marc Ribot. Both musicians are experienced in the art of spontaneous dialogue, a shared affinity that found a wider audience in the spring of 2013 via Super 8, their first record together and a thoroughly improvised affair.

Emerge continues the conversation where the pair left off, but this time in a decidedly more tuneful and composed direction developed in part through a series of concert performances undertaken in the interim. They begin with a rendering of Irving Berlin’s “What’ll I Do” with Halvorson torquing the pitch of her strings like sorghum taffy to keep things from sounding too circumspect. That extreme malleability can sometimes be disorienting as during her dizzying lead on “A Muddle of Hope”, but Halvorson dials down the effect in service of the melody when needed. Crump’s sound is more consistently conventional by comparison, a ripe, woody, resonant boom when plucking and a precise, glissando-rich texturing when brandishing bow. The pieces here may conform closer to the parameters of discrete compositions, but carefully parceled space and silence are just as important to the proceedings.

Documented in Crump’s home studio, the music radiates both immediacy and intimacy. On the Berlin-penned ballad the gentle percussion of rainfall is clearly audible in the background as environmental accompaniment. Four pieces from each of the musicians follow in an interspersed sequence. Sudden stops and slight miscues are discernable on occasion in the interplay, but rather than being redacted by Crump in the post-recording mix they remain indelible parts of the performance. Each player gives over to preserving a personalized sound throughout, Halvorson pulling a variety of warble-etched progressions from her Guild hollow body and Crump releasing thick, rhythm-infused ribbons around her. A loping elastic groove that materializes on the tail-end of the title piece signals a thematic about-face and they even find the occasion to rock out as on the vapor-trail tangled freakout that erupts in the final minutes of “Turns to White Gold”. Different still, the tinkling timbral icicles that coalesce at end of “Erie” touch on the sublime.

„Emerge" ist bereits die zweite Einspielung der amerikanischen Jazzgitarristin Mary Halvorson mit dem Bassisten Stephan Crump. Crump machte sich u.a. einen Namen als Bassist des Vijay Iyer Trios. Halvorson ist eine der meist beschäftigten und kreativ umtriebigsten jungen Musikerinnen der Ostküste. Sie spielte mit Anthony Braxton, Ingrid Laubrock und Marc Ribot, um nur einige zu nennen. Seit Jahren interessiert sie sich für die Kompositionen von Barney Kessel g oder Jim Hall. Selten hat man eine originellere Gitarre und einen ruppigeren Bass aneinander geraten gehört. Reibung scheint die Energie zu sein, aus der die beiden Repräsentanten einer jungen US-amerikanischen Jazzszene einen Funkenflug generieren, der als Erfüllung des Versprechens gelten kann: „Verschwende deine Jugend, aber verschwende sie nicht an eine Musik, die vorhersehbar ist!" Radikal die Offenheit mit der sich Bei- de aufeinander einlassen. Die Unerschrockenheit, sich ins Nichts fallen zu lassen. Was daraus entsteht „unerhörte Musik".

There's no other electric guitarist working in creative music anywhere in the world right now who is as instantly recognisable as Mary Halvorson. In these spare and economical duets with bassist Stephan Crump, her technique is laid bare and open to scrutiny: by applying elastic swoops and smears, neatly plucked notes are blurred and bent into microtonal shapes implying untapped universes of possibility. Sometimes it's even possible to hear two simultaneous soundings: the note struck cleanly with plectrum and its deformed twin, modified and slippery. Crump comes across as the straight guy but he's a master of extended arco techniques, rolling out rich, vibrating drones that ascend into high, teetering harmonics - while his deft pizzicato navigates territory bordering both sensitive chamber improv and more robust folk forms. The duo seem most concerned with subverting expectations instrumental, compositional and performative. It's nowhere more apparent than on their version of Irving Berlin's "What'll I Do" - twisted and warped like the Great American Songbook left out in the rain.

Von CD zu CD mehr festigt Mary Halvorson mehr ihren Ausnahme- status als aktuell wichtigste Erneuerin der Jazzgitarre. Dies zu tun, braucht es bei ihr nicht das aufgedreht Exaltierte, vielmehr genügt ihre Präsenz in diversen Konstellationen, denen sie mit ihrem viele Elemente von Wes Mongomery bis Derek Bailey zu etwas Neuem zusammenfügendem Spiel manchmal auch nur aus dem Hintergrund die Richtung gibt. Will man das Besondere ihrer Magie auf akustischen und E-Gitarren studieren, sind die in regelmäßiger Zusammenarbeit mit Kontrabassist Stephan Crump entstehenden Duoaufnahmen ideal. Eine intime Kammermusik hört man, die vornehmlich Eigenkompositionen sensibel um und um wendet in immer neuen Klangnuancen und Verfremdungen.

Secret Keeper nennt sich das Duo des Kontrabassisten Stephan Crump und der Gitarristin Mary Halvorson; „Emerge“ ist das zweite Album der beiden. Das erste war das Ergebnis spontanen Miteinander-Improvisierens, ein naheliegendes Prozedere bei der jeweiligen Entwicklung der beiden an die Speerspitze der neuen Frei-Spieler-Avantgarde der Brooklyn-Szene. Der 43-jährige Bassvirtuose lernte sein Handwerk zuerst bei einigen der großen Bebop-Legenden, dann bei zeitgenösischen Meistern und stürzte sich alsbald in das Abenteuer der vitalen neutönerischen New Yorker Szene. Halvorson, die zierliche, examinierte Jazzgitarristin mit der riesigen Full-Body-Gitarre, kommt aus der Free-Music-Schule und pflegt durchaus auch Progrock, Noise und andere Grenzüberschreitungen.

Das neue Secret-Keeper-Album ist jedoch alles andere als eine schrille Noise-Affäre. Halvorson und Crump wollten bewusst ein Album einspielen, das aus speziell für das Duo geschriebenen Kompositionen besteht, die im strukturierten Rahmen Raum für intime Dialoge lassen. In jeweils vier Eigenkompositionen ist ihnen das faszinierend gelungen; der zu Beginn vorgetragene Irving Berlin-Standard ist quasi als Hörerorientierung ganz in diesem Sinne eingerichtet. Die Klangästhetik steht bei diesem Unternehmen dezidiert im Vordergrund. Der Bass erklingt, ob gezupft oder gestrichen, ganz unverfälscht mit großem tiefreichendem Ton und verschränkt sich in einer Art freier Kontrapunktik mit den Gitarrenlinien. Die sind von einer fast lakonischen Langsamkeit und abgründig abstrakt schöner Akkordik. Diese wiederum korreliert mit Halvorsons speziellem Sound, der durch die Überlagerung des nah mikrofonierten Naturtons und den diskret Tonhöhen manipulierenden Delay-Effekten des Verstärkers entsteht. Eine bedächtige und entschlossene Freiheit atmet diese Gitarren-Musik, die erfrischend frei von Jazzklischees ist und eine neue Art des Gitarrenspiels definiert.

O duo de cordas Secret Keeper é um dos projetos mais interessantes em atividade que conta com a participação da guitarrista Mary Halvorson. A seu lado está Stephan Crump (baixo), com quem cria uma música de difícil definição, com seu ar camerístico marcado por muita improvisação e composições de harmonias intrigantes. Neste segundo registro da dupla, há momentos realmente desafiadores aos ouvidos, como “In Time You Yell”, “Nakata” e a incrível “A Muddle of Hope”.

http://www.freeformfreejazz.org/2015/06/play-it-again-novas-variadas.html