MARY HALVORSON – Guitar
TOMAS FUJIWARA – Drums

Close Up presents the ‘Orchard Street Jazz Festival’ from Sep 30th – October 5th bringing together a collection of some of the brightest musical innovators of our time. The festival also celebrates the release and launch of the club’s label with 7 bands performing who’s live records were released in September 2026. This festival is made in part by our partners at D’Addario.

Mary Halvorson is a Brooklyn-based guitarist, composer and recording artist for Nonesuch Records. Her distinctive sound and innovative approach to her instrument have earned her widespread recognition over the past two decades, including numerous best-of-the-year lists, a 2019 MacArthur Foundation fellowship and Guitarist of the Year honors in the DownBeat Critics Poll for the past nine years. When not leading her own award-winning bands, she can be heard in a wide variety of creative partnerships and on more than 70 releases as a co-leader or sidewoman.

Her 2025 performance schedule has included notable duo concerts with Ambrose Akinmusire, Peter Evans, Bill Frisell and Nicole Mitchell as well as international tour dates with such longstanding ensembles as the Tomeka Reid Quartet and her duo with Sylvie Courvosier, which released its critically acclaimed third recording, Bone Bells (Pyroclastic Records), in March. She also headlined the fourth night of this summer’s Vision Festival with her newest group, Canis Major, featuring Dave Adewumi, Henry Fraser and Tomas Fujiwara.

This June she released About Ghosts, her 16th recording as a bandleader and the latest from her flagship sextet, Amaryllis, the current Group of the Year in the latest DownBeat Critics Poll. A handful of tracks include special guests Brian Settles and Immanuel Wilkins augmenting the core ensemble of Fujiwara, Adam O’Farrill, Jacob Garchik, Patrician Brennan, and Nick Dunston. Amaryllis kicked off its live support of the record at the North Sea Jazz Festival in July and will be touring the Eastern U.S. and Europe through September and October.

In addition to claiming the top spot on North American College & Community Radio’s jazz chart, About Ghosts has been heralded as “nothing short of spectacular” (Chris Ingalls, PopMatters), “an unbelievable statement from one of my favorite artists” (Nate Chinen, NPR) and “more proof that Halvorson’s Amaryllis is among the most inventive, articulate, and creatively forward-thinking ensembles playing jazz right now” (Thom Jurek, AllMusic). “Mary Halvorson is the jazz guitarist of the moment,” declares Fred Kaplan in his review for TrackingAngle.com. “It is beyond time to herald [her] as a true and brilliant original. About Ghosts is a terrific album in every way.”

Tomas Fujiwara is a Brooklyn-based drummer and composer motivated by creative curiosity, the visceral power of music, and developing dynamic relationships with artists of all genres. Best known as a member of New York’s jazz and improvised music scene, his eclectic 30-year career reflects the full range of the city’s cultural palette, including notable ventures into the worlds of theatre, dance, performance art and film.

“Whether I’m leading, collaborating or working as a sideman, I want to be a part of as much music that is meaningful to me as possible,” he explains. “Music is a way of connecting, of finding people who share this common passion and learning about them through an affinity in sound. I want to push myself, embrace the unknown, operate on the edge, learn from mistakes and make them beautiful, constantly learning and growing.”

This commitment to exploration and connection is clear in his vast body of work, which is highlighted by longstanding musical partnerships with Taylor Ho Bynum, Mary Halvorson, Tomeka Reid and Matana Roberts as well as the collective ensembles Illegal Crowns and Thumbscrew. His deep and diverse discography includes over 100 recordings as a sideman, co-leader and founder of his own working groups, 7 Poets Trio, Triple Double, and Tomas Fujiwara and The Hook Up.
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His new release, Dream Up (Out of Your Head Records), is a suite commissioned by Roulette/New York Council for the Arts that weaves together his Global influences with the lineage of percussion ensembles like Max Roach’s M’Boom. He can also be heard performing solo works for acoustic drum set, playing on the latest recordings from the Amir ElSaffar Quartet and Adam O’Farrill Octet and touring the world with Halvorson’s Amaryllis sextet, the current Group of the Year in the DownBeat Critics Poll.