Ambrose Akinmusire and Mary Halvorson, sixteen years in the making

Trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire and guitarist Mary Halvorson first played together in Halvorson’s Brooklyn apartment. That was 2009. From there it stayed occasional — no plan for a record, just the two of them whenever the chance came up.

They tried to make an album together twice before, and both attempts were shelved — it didn’t come out the way they wanted. The third time worked. In January 2025 they rehearsed new material, performed it the next day at the New York club The Stone, and recorded it the day after that at Sear Sound. Nine tracks: four Akinmusire compositions, four by Halvorson, one written together.

Five minutes before that rehearsal, Halvorson handed the trumpeter one of her old Line 6 effects pedals — she’d just upgraded to a newer model. He’d never used one before. Within five minutes, she says, he was doing incredible things with it, including vocalizing through it, which she genuinely wasn’t expecting.

Akinmusire says he’d been watching Halvorson, and Bill Frisell, work pedals for years. When he finally picked one up, he treated it like a separate musician: he’d play, listen to what the pedal did with it, then decide whether to answer that sound or not.

Halvorson describes their rapport plainly — a shared aesthetic, an ease that lets her try anything. Akinmusire says something similar: it’s rare to find an improviser where everything works and nothing has to, where you don’t need to try and can still do whatever you want. The album is called Slo-Mo Neon Luminate Hoverings, out June 12 on Nonesuch.