Certified ‘Genius’ Mary Halvorson on About Ghosts, Bill Frisell, freaky guitar pedals and her practise routine

In the wake of winning more Downbeat awards than even the magazine can count*, we called Mary Halvorson at home in Brooklyn, at 8pm on a Saturday night, to discuss the new artistic heights reached on About Ghosts – her fourth fantastic Nonesuch Records release utilising the peerless Amaryllis sextet. We traced her formative experiences, from falling under the tutelage of Anthony Braxton, to her early Firehouse 12 albums recorded while she still had an office job, through to solo masterpiece Meltframe, the vocal-led Code Girl project, and pinch-me collaborations with Bill Frisell and John Zorn. 

For the six-string nerds, we enticed Halvorson to talk through how she conjures that trademark whiiinng effect only she knows how to make on guitar, and discussed learning her instrument as an ambidextrous human, and how much she really practises.

*In 2023 Downbeat reported Halvorson had won guitarist of the year for seven consecutive polls. She definitely won again in 2024 and 2025 -- yet this year's write-up only acknowledges Halvorson winning "several times since 2017". Was the 2023 writer wrong, or the 2025 writer just lazy?