Meltframe;

Mary Halvorson s Meltframe is the product of three years of gestation and refinement. Initially conceived as a solo guitar album made up of jazz standards, the final document is comprised of modern compositions long admired by Mary, the oldest being Duke Ellington s Solitude. The remainder of the pieces date from the early 1960s, through to Tomas Fujiwara s contemporary When. In a twist befitting a player with such an original voice, the compositions Mary chose to interpret are not exclusively from composers who have informed her playing and music from the beginning (such as Roscoe Mitchell, Ornette Coleman, and Oliver Nelson), but also by contemporaries: Chris Lightcap, Noël Akchoté, and Fujiwara. Viewed as the personal and often revealing statement that solo documents often are, Meltframe traces Mary s path from the beginning to the present.