Mary Halvorson Quintet

There were plenty of exclamation points in the air last year when the sly guitarist figured out how to add horns to her somewhat insular trio. The result was the remarkable Saturn Sings, which found Halvorson’s music a bit more appealing without kowtowing to convention. When this group (with Jon Irabagon on sax and Kirk Knuffke on cornet) reaches boiling point, the five-way exchange is a hubbub of cagey design both eccentric and engaging. With Smokey’s Roundup.

Fri., March 18, 8 p.m., 2011