Dragon’s Head

Dragon’s Head, released in 2008, was guitarist Mary Halvorson’s debut as a leader, with her working trio of bassist John Hébert and drummer Ches Smith. She wrote a book of compositions for these players (and those who would join the ensemble on subsequent releases), of which these are the first ten. They’re numbered, but they appear on the album out of sequence. Halvorson jumps from somewhat conventional “jazz guitar” playing to bursts of distorted noise, and her melodies have a strange spiraling quality, but the One Weird Trick that makes her instantly recognizable is her use of a Line 6 delay pedal to send her notes sliding away like tape slipping off its reel. She does it just often enough to make it a trademark, but never to create Steve Vai-like stunt effects.