Mary Halvorson Quintet: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert

Today, when you see a saxophonist and a trumpeter in front of a jazz group, it’s par for the course. It’s a particular combination that’s defined many landmark recordings: Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, Ornette Coleman and Don Cherry, John Coltrane andMiles Davis. Done right, it’s a classic meat-and-potatoes sound: open to reinvention, comfortable with tradition. Guitarist Mary Halvorson didn’t come to this standard practice just by playing standards. As a sidewoman, she’s often tapped to play in op