The new band of guitarist Mary Halvorson, Reverse Blue, featuring Chris Speed on tenor saxophone and clarinet, Eivind Opsvik on bass, and Tomas Fuijwara on drums, is to debut in the autumn with a self-titled release to be issued by New York label Relative Pitch Records. Initially formed for a one-off gig at a Spontaneous Constructions gig in New York's Blue Note jazz club, Halvorson worked with Speed and Opsvik on that occasion for the first time. Each write music for the band, which owes its name to Halvorson’s father’s habit of filling notebooks with song titles, titles that quite often contain the words ‘Reverse’ or ‘Blue’. Halvorson has even gone so far as to recruit her dad to provide the song titles for her compositions on the band’s first record with the stipulation that he use at least one of his much-favoured words on each tune. Reverse Blue, above.
Photo: Peter Gannushkin