Nonesuch Records releases Slo-Mo Neon Luminate Hoverings by trumpeter/composer Ambrose Akinmusire and guitarist/composer Mary Halvorson on June 12, 2026. The album features four new compositions by each musician as well as one collaboration. The duo, long admirers of each otherâ€™s musicianship, met at Halvorsonâ€™s Brooklyn apartment and began playing together periodically as far back as 2015. They rehearsed the music on Slo-Mo Neon Luminate Hoverings in January 2025, just before performing it at the New York City club The Stone; they recorded this album the next day at Sear Sound.

Halvorson says of the duoâ€™s rapport, â€œI think itâ€™s partly a shared aesthetic and an ease of communication. I feel comfortable to try whatever.â€ Akinmusire concurs, â€œItâ€™s rare to feel like you donâ€™t have to do anything and you can do anything. And thatâ€™s what love about playing with Mary.â€

During his career, Ambroseâ€¯Akinmusireâ€¯has paradoxically situated himself in both the center and the periphery of jazz, most recentlyâ€¯emergingâ€¯in classical and hip-hop circles. He is on a perpetual quest for new paradigms, masterfully weaving inspiration from other genres, arts, and life in general into compositions that are as poetic and graceful as they are bold and unflinching. His unorthodox approach to sound and composition makes him a regular on criticsâ€™ polls andâ€¯hasâ€¯earned him grants and commissions from the Doris Duke Foundation, the MAP Fund, the Kennedy Center, and the Berlin and Monterey Jazz Festivals. Whileâ€¯Akinmusireâ€¯continues to garner accolades, including the DownBeat Critics Poll Trumpeter of the Year for 2025, his reach is always beyondâ€”himself, his instrument, genre, form, preconceived notions, and anything else imposing limitations.â€¯

Mary Halvorsonâ€™s first three Nonesuch records were named Jazz Album of the Year in DownBeatâ€™s annual Critics Poll, where she was also named Guitarist of the Year for the last three years in a row. PopMatters noted in its review of her most recent record, 2025â€™s About Ghosts, â€œThe latest from guitarist Mary Halvorson is another master class in jazz performance and composition. If she is the future of jazz, we are in tremendously gifted hands ... sheâ€™s currently in the midst of what may be her most acclaimed and creatively fruitful period.â€ And Spin said, â€œYou hear Mary Halvorson play a guitar onceâ€”it sticks with you. Her tone, both liquid and spiky, burrows into your nervous system on contact. Using a delay pedal and digital effects, she flattens, smears, and discombobulates single notes, which creates an eerie, addictive effect. Her darting, slippery approach makes her songs simultaneously vaporous, brittle, and kinetic ... Instead of dominating with virtuosity, however, Halvorson prefers to insinuate, often submerging her balletic verve beneath contrasting textures and busy, interlocking rhythms.â€

Tracklist:

Prelude in the Ash (06:04)
This Vivid (04:47)
Nice to meet you again for the first time (05:50)
Soundcheck (03:32)
Watersmoke (03:19)
Tangled Pretty (04:25)
Ofo (04:13)
Blood & Sand (06:18)
Slo-Mo Neon Luminate Hoverings (07:48)

UPC: 075597892819
Label: Nonesuch
Release Date: 6.12.26
Format: CD

Ambrose Akinmusire & Mary Halvorson - Slo Mo Neon Luminate Hoverings (CD)