In November 2025, trombonist and composer Kalia Vandever released the celebrated quartet offering Another View on Northern Spy. The five-track set was performed by the artist’s quartet that included Mary Halvorson, Kanoa Mendenhall, and Kayvon Gordon. Vandever’s music won attention not only for its quality, but for its difficulty to categorize. While their compositions often utilize modern jazz and vanguard classical music as frameworks for new exploration, Vandever has also worked in pop, classical, and theatrical settings. Mana, her International Anthem debut, relationally returns to the solo framework the artist adopted for 2023’s We Fell in Turn for trombone, voice, and electronics. The seven works here loosely follow that direction, but they expand…
Tag Archive: Kalia Vandever
Another View is trombonist Kalia Vandever‘s fourth album as a bandleader and her first for Northern Spy. It differs radically from her solo records, and even from 2022’s Regrowth, which showcased her writing and playing in different duos and trios, and 2023’s We Fell in Turn, a completely solo outing that reflected her skill in creating ambient jazz. This album was composed for a quartet that includes guitarist Mary Halvorson, bassist Kanoa Mendenhall, and drummer Kayvon Gordon. It builds on the lyrical dreamlike qualities of her previous work and dialogue.
On opener “Staring at the Cracked Window,” Halvorson provides a knotty, natural-sounding improvised intro that leads toward the quartet’s entrance on a bass and drum vamp that…