Women’s Jazz Festival: Mary Halvorson Amaryllis Project & Alexis Lombre

About the Artist

This show will take place in the Metropolis Performing Arts Centre (111 W. Campbell Road, Arlington Heights, IL)!

About Mary Halvorson’s Amaryllis Project

Guitarist and composer Mary Halvorson has been described as “a singular talent” (Lloyd Sachs, JazzTimes), ”NYC’s least-predictable improviser” (Howard Mandel, City Arts), “one of the most exciting and original guitarists in jazz—or otherwise” (Steve Dollar, Wall Street Journal), and “one of today’s most formidable bandleaders” (Francis Davis, Village Voice). In recent Downbeat Critics Polls Halvorson has been celebrated as guitarist, rising star jazz artist, and rising star composer of the year, and in 2019 she was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship.

Halvorson’s most recent releases, Amaryllis and Belladonna, showcase her string quartet writing deftly interpreted by The Mivos Quartet, alongside a brand 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.

Halvorson has also released a series of critically acclaimed albums on the Firehouse 12 label, from Dragon’s Head (2008), her trio debut featuring bassist John Hébert and drummer Ches Smith, expanding to a quintet with trumpeter Jonathan Finlayson and alto saxophonist Jon Irabagon on Saturn Sings (2010) and Bending Bridges (2012), a septet with tenor saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock and trombonist Jacob Garchik on Illusionary Sea (2014), and an octet with pedal steel guitarist Susan Alcorn on Away With You (2016). Also for Firehouse 12, she released the solo guitar album Meltframe (2015), plus two albums with her band Code Girl (2018, 2020), featuring Halvorson’s own lyrics.

One of New York City’s most in-demand guitarists, over the past decade Halvorson has worked with such diverse musicians as Tim Berne, Anthony Braxton, Taylor Ho Bynum, John Dieterich, Trevor Dunn, Bill Frisell, Ingrid Laubrock, Jason Moran, Joe Morris, Tom Rainey, Jessica Pavone, Tomeka Reid, Marc Ribot and John Zorn. She is also part of several collaborative projects, most notably the longstanding trio Thumbscrew with Michael Formanek on bass and Tomas Fujiwara on drums.

About Alexis Lombre

Alexis Lombre is a pianist, vocalist, composer and producer from Chicago. She discovered early that the true essence of music is not just about what you hear but how music makes you feel. Her musical mission is to keep the ‘Soul’ in music alive. Lombre recently released her single “Come Find Me” which she describes as “lyrically, a gospel song; harmonically, a jazz song and rhythmically, a hip-hop/R&B song. I didn’t create the song with any borders”. As JazzTimes puts it “Lombre realized early on that by refusing to be constrained by convention— whether so-called “jazz” or otherwise—she’d be honoring, rather than defiling, the rich heritage she’d come to embrace.”

She has toured nationally all over the United States, and internationally in Canada, Cuba, Brazil, France and South Africa with artists such as Jon Batiste, Georgia Anne Muldrow, Marcus Miller, Endea Owens & The Cookout, J Hoard, Dan Wilson, Nicole Mitchell, Jamila Woods,Tia Fuller, DJ D Nice and the Miles Davis Electric Band. Alexis Lombre was granted the Inaugural 2022 New Music Next Jazz Legacy Award and the 2023 Luminarts Award.

Women’s Jazz Festival is Generously Sponsored by:

Platinum Sponsors:

Premier Sponsors: