A new horn section, deeper experimentation and the presence of Robert Wyatt make this a significant progression from Mary Halvorson’s poetry debut.

There might not be a better vehicle for the genius of Anthony Braxton than Anthony Braxton himself, but in tackling a few choice selections of his material, Thumbscrew revealed further facets of his ingenuity just in how they use those compositions to take his vision to new places.

Here is S. Victor Aaron’s Best of 2018 list for modern and mainstream jazz releases.

The all-originals ‘Ours’ and all-covers ‘Theirs’ are both bulls eyes from Thumbscrew and a strong way to persuade the quality label Cuneiform to not give up the fight.

The term “code girl” came randomly out of the mouth of Halvorson’s primary mentor Anthony Braxton but it could have easily been directed at Halvorson herself

Richard Lloyd Giddens Jr.’s ‘Mimosas’ brings in disparate colleagues and disparate composing pens, and molds them into a united musical statement that one can sense portrays the complexion of its singular leader.

Featuring Tomas Fujiwara, Ben Goldberg and Mary Halvorson, the Out Louds aren’t always necessarily loud – but they are sure enough ‘out.’