Mary Halvorson & Jessica Pavone: Walking on Thin Air

One sings … and so does the other. Except when they aren’t. Which means that at any time when they are onstage together, performing as an entity called MaryandJess, or JessandMary if you like the ring of it better and prefer Christian name alphabetical, they’ll be doing just about anything at a moment’s notice, or with even less warning.

It’s not as if they don’t already have enough to do. Mary Halvorson, 27, has graduated from new-kid-on-the-block status to become one of the leading guitarists on the New York jazz/improv/out-rock/whatever scene. Jessica Pavone, 31, plays a lot of viola and composes music for everything from string quartets to her soul revival band The Pavones. Both women are steady members of musical mentor/space wizard/cardigan-rocking visionary Anthony Braxton’s current ensemble, a flexible outfit that numbers between nine and 12 musicians and is given over to the composer’s evolving and ever-mystic Ghost Trance music. They also play in fellow Braxtonian Taylor Ho Bynum’s 13th Assembly, lead several individual groups apiece, and collaborate freely with all sorts of characters.