Mary Halvorson Quintet: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert

Today, when you see a saxophonist and a trumpeter in front of a jazz group, it’s par for the course. It’s a particular combination that’s defined many landmark recordings: Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, Ornette Coleman and Don Cherry, John Coltrane andMiles Davis. Done right, it’s a classic meat-and-potatoes sound: open to reinvention, comfortable with tradition. Guitarist Mary Halvorson didn’t come to this standard practice just by playing standards. As a sidewoman, she’s often tapped to play in open improvising situations; her mentors include the unclassifiable composer Anthony Braxton and the free-jazz guitarist/bassist Joe Morris. Among her sonic signatures are craggy distortions, bent strings and delay-pedaled blurts through a hollow-body guitar. Yet Halvorson has now recorded two albums with her quintet, one with alto saxophone (Jon Irabagon) and trumpet (Jonathan Finlayson) up top. (The rhythm section is also among New York’s finest, with John Hebert on bass and C