Touring musicians rarely spend more than a night or two in a single locale, but on her current West Coast swing, Mary Halvorson is getting to stay in our fair city for just over a week. It's hardly a vacation, however. Last weekend the Brooklyn-based guitarist played two very demanding shows, first with Anthony Braxton's 12+1 tet and then as one of the 60-strong cast of the maestro's eight-hour-long Sonic Genome Project. And now, starting tonight, she's abandoning Braxton's elaborate structures—but not all of her 12+1 tet collaborators—for three nights' worth of pure improvisation, as part of the 22nd annual Time Flies festival. Owing to her jam-packed schedule, the Straight reached her in New York, just before she was due to head west.

“Free improvisation isn't the primary thing that I do, but I really enjoy it,” she said. “It's a real challenge to create something with new musicians and to really interact and to try to make it interesting. It's usually a really different experience each time, and when it works it's a really great feeling.”

Those who have attended earlier incarnations of Time Flies will testify to that. The long-running series provides an opportunity for some of the world's best musicians to get together in an anything-goes situation; sometimes they haven't even met prior to convening backstage on opening night. It's a risky endeavour, and it doesn't always work—but more often than not the performers end up striking sparks.

This year, though, the program's not quite as much of an experiment: joining Halvorson will be her Braxton bandmates Taylor Ho Bynum on cornet, Jessica Pavone on viola, and Sara Schoenbeck on bassoon, along with two Vancouver players who've certainly spent a great deal of time together: percussionist Dylan van der Schyff and bassist Torsten Mí¼ller. Rounding out the ensemble will be Red Chamber bandleader Mei Han on zheng, a harplike Chinese zither, and Fred Lonberg-Holm on cello.

“I think it'll be really interesting,” said the guitarist. “There are these existing relationships within the group, but then throwing somebody else into the music is going to force people to break up their ideas. It's going to create a different dynamic for all of us, and hopefully it'll create a really nice challenge as well.”

To judge by Halvorson's performances last weekend, she'll be a strong contributor to whatever group dynamic emerges. Even when playing very abstract music she displays a powerful sense of rhythm, and although her dry, spiky attack is the polar opposite of the liquid soundscapes favoured by her early influence Jimi Hendrix, she's a similarly adventurous player. Unlike that self-taught genius, however, Halvorson has benefited from a formal education in music—even if she's occasionally ambivalent about that process.

“Studying jazz kind of took the life out of it for me, and I needed a really long break,” she admitted. (For some idea of where Halvorson went during her time off, check out her avant-pop band People.) “But I've sort of had a re-fascination with some of my earliest jazz heroes, and with exploring jazz harmony more. So you might hear more of that from me in the future.”

Given that Halvorson's heroes include Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus, Ornette Coleman, Miles Davis, and Wayne Shorter—all wildly imaginative players with a deep sense of structure—that's not a bad prospect at all.

Mary Halvorson plays the Ironworks, as part of the Time Flies festival, from Thursday to Saturday (February 4 to 6).