#lisa mezzacappa

[dustedmagazine]

Kyle Bruckmann / Tim Daisy / Philip Greenlief / Lisa Mezzacappa — Semaphore (Relay Recordings)

Tim Daisy photo by Ken Vandermark/ Kyle Bruckmann photo by Peter Gannushkin 

SEMAPHORE :: Kyle Bruckmann / Tim Daisy /Phillip Greenlief / Lisa Mezzacappa (relay 033) by Timothy Daisy // Relay Recordings

Semaphore is the latest manifestation of the enduring musical connection between Kyle Bruckmann and Tim Daisy. They live a half-continent apart in San Francisco and the Chicago area, and they might not get together for years. But when they do, they not only pick up where they left off, but keep the conversation growing.

The two men’s association originated when Bruckmann, who plays oboe and English horn, started the band Wrack in 2002. This was right around the time that he left Chicago, where he had been the city’s first-call double reeds improviser for half a dozen years, for San Francisco, where he still resides. That might seem like a weird time to start a band, but Bruckmann wasn’t leaving because of problems with Chicago’s music scene. Quite the contrary, he had some unfinished business, including a determination to write and perform music that combined classical forms with new jazz, and he knew a circle of Chicago-based musicians whose skills and aptitudes made them perfect for the project. One of them was Daisy, who at the time was best known as the drummer in a variety of projects led by Ken Vandermark and Dave Rempis, but who was also striking out on his own as a leader. He brought propulsion, swing, formidable improvisational chops, and a cornucopia of ornamental sounds to the combo’s distinctive chamber music-meets-muscular jazz sound. 

Wrack finished strong in 2014 with the record …Awaits Silent Tristero’s Empire, but Bruckmann and Daisy kept renewing their connection every few years.  Semaphore flips the Wrack script by having Daisy head out to Bruckmann’s turf to play with some Bay Area improvisers, bassist Lisa Mezzacappa and tenor saxophonist Philip Greenlief, and adds chapters to it by having the two men split the writing. Both leaders like to fit a lot of action into a composition. Bruckmann’s “No Mean Feat,” which opens the album, features Daisy sizzling on cymbals while Mezzacappa manages the momentum by alternating ascending phrases with sudden rests. The composer and Greenlief strike a balance of muscularity and astringence that brings to mind Prince Lasha and Sonny Simmons without sounding much like them. After building tension, the group expends it with a surging groove and sequential horn solos. Then comes another rest, followed by an intricate pas de deux between oboe and bass, and then the piece resolves with a sauntering ensemble passage reminiscent of the Vandermark 5 c. Acoustic Machine. 

Next up is Daisy’s “Big Horse Lounge,” which opens with a splendidly grouchy-sounding synth line played by Bruckmann, and then eases into a sequence of time-free, muted exchanges by continuously shifting subgroups of the quartet. That dissolves into a charge led by Greenlief’s rippling, high-register attack and fueled by the combustible Mezzacappa-Daisy team. Players drop in and out, and velocity subsides, before the whole ensemble reconstitutes for a voltage-illuminated finale that imagines Brown Rice-era Don Cherry dabbling in gamelan sounds. 

Each of the five pieces that follows explores, with varying degrees of expansiveness and pith, a variety of musical territories. This music is packed with event and transformation, as though its makers knew that they had to get a lot said before parting ways again. But the music never feels gratuitously crammed; in fact, its fluid transitions between sections is part if its appeal. With Semaphore, Daisy and Bruckmann have forged a distinct new group identity by exploring new instrumental and personnel combinations while reaffirming the interest in intricate composition that they have shared since the first Wrack CD.

Bill Meyer

[earcandle]

ECP0839 The Illuminated Corridor: The Great Wall of Oakland Cam 3, Tape 1 3/2/07

Ear Candle Productions captured an evening multi-media event by the Illuminated Corridor, curated by Suki O'Kane on March 2, 2007. This is Camera 3, Tape 1, in a series of six.

"The Great Wall of Oakland [West Grand between Broadway and Valley]. The Illuminated Corridor takes on the Great Wall of Oakland, the seven-story north facade of the former Breuner's Furniture Store with a three-part performance projection featuring the films of 2006 Phelan Awardee Alphonso Alvarez and intermedia work by myrmyr (Marielle Jakobsons and Agnes Szelag), Shudder (Phillip Greenlief, Kyle Bruckman, Lance Grabmiller), and a new work commissioned for this site by composer Dan Plonsey and performed by Myles Boisen, Merlin Coleman, George Cremaschi, Jeff Hobbs, Lisa Mezzacappa, Jonathan Segel, John Shiurba, and Bill Walter."  --  The Transbay Creative Music Calendar.

Ear Candle Productions is a small music label, video production, and eLearning website designed to be a place for the arts to stay and to be a venue for the creative products of the owners, John Bassham (AKA J Neo Marvin) and Debra Nicholson Bassham (AKA Davis Jones). We live in San Francisco. Come visit our website, check out our YT, Bandcamp, Ear Candle Radio, and other pages at https://earcandleproductions.com

[rich4a1]

Ian Carey & Wood Metal Plastic Strange Arts

Ian Carey & Wood Metal Plastic Strange Arts  Slow and Steady Trumpeter and composer Ian Carey pays homage to his recently passed visual artist father, to whom the cover and jacket art of the album owes. Leveraging a grant from Intermusic SF, Carey added a string trio to his working quartet, Wood Metal Plastic, comprised of alto saxophonist Kasey Knudsen, bassist Lisa Mezzacappa, and drummer Jon…

[burlveneer-music]

Lisa Mezzacappa Six - Cosmicomics - second album I’ve come across this week inspired by Italo Calvino (the other one being Memotone’s Invisible Cities)

Aaron Bennett, tenor saxophone John Finkbeiner, guitar Mark Clifford, vibraphone Tim Perkis, electronics Lisa Mezzacappa, acoustic bass Jordan Glenn, drums This set of music is what happened when I let Italo Calvino and his Cosmicomics stories fully inhabit my mind for a year. I found his fictional universe an ideal place to hang out in as a composer—it’s a space of boundless imagination, infinite generative possibility, fierce intellectual curiosity, and just the right amount of irreverence and weirdness to rescue it from being cute. He reminds me over and over again of the wonder and playfulness of the creative act, and I tried to transfer some of the intoxicating energy of his prose to my music, and to how the musicians in the band interact. Calvino’s stories about the cosmos, the origins of the universe, and the evolution of humans and creatures geek out about Big Ideas, but they also freak out when those Smaller Human Impulses—our neuroses, desires, silliness, pettiness—get the better of us. His words are delicious and his imagery sets all your neurons firing at once. The more I read and re-read, and composed and re-composed this music, I realized the Cosmicomics were feeding me new ideas about musical form, proposing new relationships between instruments and musical personalities, suggesting novel structures we could all navigate together as an ensemble.

[diyeipetea]

HDO 369. Large Unit, Lisa Mezzacappa, Satoko Fujii Orchestra New York, Spinifex [Podcast]

HDO 369. Large Unit, Lisa Mezzacappa, Satoko Fujii Orchestra New York, Spinifex [Podcast]

  Cuatro grabaciones suenan en HDO 369: Amphibian Ardour (Spinifex), Fukushima (Satoko Fujii Orchestra New York), Glorious Ravage (Lisa Mezzacappa), y Fluku (Large Unit).

Tomajazz: © Pachi Tapiz, 2018

HDO es un podcast editado, presentado y producido por Pachi Tapiz.

[catsynth-express]

Outsound New Music Summit: Karen Borca and Positive Knowledge

The final night of the Outsound New Music Summit featured a performance by Karen Borca, returning to the Bay Area for the first time in two decades. For those not familiar with Borca, she is one of the few bassoonists in avant-garde jazz and free jazz; and she had a long and illustrious career playing with many of the greats in the field, including Cecil Taylor and Jimmy Lyons. On this night, she was joined by two figures in the local jazz and experimental-music scene, Lisa Mezzacappa on bass and Donald Robinson on drums.

[ Karen Borca Trio (Karen Borca, Lisa Mezzacappa, Donald Robinson). Photo: peterbkaars.com]

Bassoon is a hard instrument to play in any genre, let alone jazz. But Borca made it sound effortless. There were sections that featured the instrument’s well-known lower registers, but also higher melodic lines and runs more often associated with saxophones. Interestingly, Borca discussed how she started on saxophone in school and was shredding the instrument until she was advised to try the bassoon, as it was both more challenging and more likely to make her stand out for scholarships and such. And this turned out to be the right decision. Musically, things unfolded with sparse lines and harmonies and the three performers bounced off one another. The best moments were when the notes from bassoon, bass and drum all seemed to form a single line.

[ Karen Borca. Photo: peterbkaars.com]

It was a shorter set, but very well received with audience clamoring for more afterwards. But I can understand that the music took a lot of energy. But it was a great experience, and Karen Borca has now taken her place alongside Wendy Carlos, Pauline Oliveros, and all the other women in music that I want to be when I finally grow up.

The Karen Borca trio was preceded by Positive Knowledge, a project of Oluyemi Thomas (bass clarinet and other instruments) and Ijeoma Thomas (voice). They were joined by Hamir Atwal on drums.

[Positive Knowledge. Clockwise from left: Oluyemi Thomas, Hamir Atwal, Ijeoma Thomas.]

I have heard Positive Knowledge before, and know how their music unfolds. There are sparse, scratchy lines from Oluyemi’s bass clarinet and other wind instruments, including a shawm (or similar instrument), interspersed with Ijeoma’s vocals, which include passages of spoken word as well as more extended sounds. The music is at times quite percussive, but also melodic and energetic. There was an exuberance and joy in the sound, even in the moments that seemed to be melancholy. And Atwal’s drums added a foundational underpinning the sustained the set.

So this concludes our coverage of the 2017 Outsound Music Summit. It was the longest we have covered, with five concerts plus Touch the Gear. It can be a bit of overload, so much music and fellowship in a week, but worth the effort. We look forward to next year, and the inspiration for all the musical adventures between now and then.

Outsound New Music Summit: Karen Borca and Positive Knowledge was originally published on CatSynth

[kutmusic]

The One man's Jazz playlist features two tracks from Francesco Cusa’s latest opus, released by Kutmusic and Improvvisatore Involontario.

[danmathernelson]

Design for the gatefold LP-style CD sleeve of “Cosmicomics” by Lisa Mezzacappa Six (front cover)

[aaronnovik]

Michael Bisio and Thomas Helton bass duo at Downtown Music Gallery yesterday.  I played afterward with Lisa Mezzacappa, Jason Levis, and Josh Sinton, but it is a little hard to draw while playing the bass clarinet, haha.

[brackishbrooklyn]

LISA MEZZACPPA: SOLOS, DUOS, QUARTET Live @ Brackish #31 Thu 7/18 8PM 304 Bond St., Gowanus Chris Welcome, guitar John Finkbeiner, guitar (SF Bay Area) Shayna Dulberger, acoustic bass Lisa Mezzacappa, acoustic bass (SF Bay Area) A new musical assemblage, 20 strings strong. Visiting from the San Francisco Bay Area, bassist Lisa Mezzacappa and guitarist John Finkbeiner join forces with Brooklynites, bassist Shayna Dulberger and guitarist Chris Welcome for a set of spontaneously composed solos, duos and quartet music. New musical relationships emerge in the moment as decades-long chemistry provides the glue, in sonic explorations that span free jazz energy, experimental textures, and chamber music sonorities. Lisa Mezzacappa is a San Francisco Bay Area-based composer, acoustic bassist and bandleader, an active member of California’s vibrant music community for nearly 20 years. Mezzacappa’s music encompasses ethereal chamber music, electro-acoustic works, avant-garde jazz, music for groups from duo to large ensemble, and collaborations with film, dance and visual art. In addition to leading her own projects in the US and abroad, she has performed with Fred Frith, Rhys Chatham, the Paul Dresher Ensemble, Mark Dresser's SIM Bass Ensemble, Nicole Mitchell, Ned Rothenberg, ‪Vinny Golia‬ and many others.  www.lisamezzacappa.com Guitarist John Finkbeiner has performed and recorded with the best and brightest in the Bay Area music scene — as a member of Darren Johnston’s United Brassworkers Front, the Smith Dobson V Quartet, Lisa Mezzacappa’s Bait & Switch, Aaron Bennett’s Go-Go Fightmaster, Sheldon Brown’s Distant Intervals, Scott Larson’s Franco Nero and the Vijay Anderson Quartet. He co-leads the Caribbean folk band Les Gwan Jupons, and is co-founder of New, Improved Recording, a creative music recording studio in Oakland, CA. Chris Welcome is a guitarist, composer and electronic musician living in Brooklyn, NY. He has performed throughout North America and Europe with groups such as: HOT DATE, Chaser, Sand, W-2, Mothguts, Mike Pride's Drummer's Corpse, The Flying Luttenbachers, and his own quartet. He has released his own music and been featured as a sideman/co- (at Brackish - music & art series) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bz0dGfSgs3n/?igshid=rtl0vfg5eea

[dustedmagazine]

Karl Evangelista’s Apura — Ngayon (Astral Spirits)

Photo by David DeHart

Ngayon by Karl Evangelista's Apura

Guitarist Karl Evangelista is back with Ngayon (which, the liner notes explain, means “now” in Tagalog), the second installment in his Apura project. The all-new band features Francis Wong on sax, Rei Scampavia on piano, legendary drummer Andre Cyrille, and the addition of a bassist, Lisa Mezzacappa. While the name of the group and titles of the album and songs reference Evangelista’s Filipino heritage, as with the earlier record (Apura! 2020, also on Astral Spirits), the influence is not overt; this sounds like a modern free jazz record, and a fine one at that.

Evangelista is a technically skilled and thoughtful guitarist with a fairly clean tone who keeps the shredding tasteful (e.g., on “Sige Na, Bukas” and “Sinabi Mo Pa”). He mainly solos, rather than providing a chordal framework, and is especially compelling when engaging in dialogs with Wong. Given the latter’s long commitment to blending jazz and Asian music, he is the perfect choice for this project, and he is inspired here; a good example is his solo around six minutes into the title track that snakes unpredictably through Cyrille’s cymbal work. The venerable drummer, for his part, remains at the top of his game (check out the opening to “Sinabi Mo Pa”); no one else could have stepped so nimbly into the shoes of the equally legendary South African drummer Louis Moholo-Moholo, whom circumstances prevented from participating in this recording.

The most significant change in the lineup in terms of the overall sound is the addition of a bassist, and Mezzacappa really shines here, whether holding down the fort or soloing, for instance, following up the solo by Wong mentioned earlier. Her arco work is also impressive on “Isang Bagsak.” Scampavia’s piano is less heard than the other instruments apart from on the brooding almost-ballad “Santo,” which features some taut interplay with Evangelista and Cyrille.

The five tracks are longish, with only one coming in under eight minutes, thus leaving ample room for improvisation and shifts in tempo and dynamics. The sprawling title track, which opens the record, is consistently surprising, ending, for instance, not in a crescendo or fade-out but with a slow and deliberate restatement of the main theme. The liner notes describe numerous difficulties encountered during the recording of Ngayon, but they are not apparent in the end result. This joyful and at times challenging jazz builds on the strengths of the earlier recording while tightening the focus.

Jim Marks

[earcandle]

ECP0838 The Illuminated Corridor: The Great Wall of Oakland Cam 1, Tape ...

Ear Candle Productions captured an evening multi-media event by the Illuminated Corridor, curated by Suki O'Kane on March 2, 2007. This is Camera 1, Tape 3, in a series of six.

"The Great Wall of Oakland [West Grand between Broadway and Valley]. The Illuminated Corridor takes on the Great Wall of Oakland, the seven-story north facade of the former Breuner's Furniture Store with a three-part performance projection featuring the films of 2006 Phelan Awardee Alphonso Alvarez and intermedia work by myrmyr (Marielle Jakobsons and Agnes Szelag), Shudder (Phillip Greenlief, Kyle Bruckman, Lance Grabmiller), and a new work commissioned for this site by composer Dan Plonsey and performed by Myles Boisen, Merlin Coleman, George Cremaschi, Jeff Hobbs, Lisa Mezzacappa, Jonathan Segel, John Shiurba, and Bill Walter."  --  The Transbay Creative Music Calendar.

Ear Candle Productions is a small music label, video production, and eLearning website designed to be a place for the arts to stay and to be a venue for the creative products of the owners, John Bassham (AKA J Neo Marvin) and Debra Nicholson Bassham (AKA Davis Jones). We live in San Francisco. Come visit our website, check out our YT, Bandcamp, Ear Candle Radio, and other pages at https://earcandleproductions.com

[lazyvaprod]

Zik Jazz : "Lisa Mezzacappa : le pouvoir des images " https://t.co/9Ifj1Ivvht via #zyvaradio : https://t.co/9Ifj1Ivvht

[fantasticradiouk]

Lisa Mezzacappa is a San Francisco Bay Area-based bassist, bandleader, composer, curator and producer. An active collaborator in the Bay Area music community for more than a dozen years, she leads her own groups Bait & Switch, the Interlopers, Nightshade, Eartheaters and the Lisa Mezzacappa Trio, and co-leads the ensembles BODABODA, duo B., Cylinder, the Mezzacappa-Phillips Duo, and the Caribbean folk band Les Gwan Jupons. Lisa has released her music on the Clean Feed, NoBusiness, Leo, NotTwo, Evander, Odd Shaped Case and Edgetone record labels, and has recorded as a sideperson for the Tzadik, Kadima and Porto Franco labels. She collaborates frequently on cross-disciplinary projects in sound installation, film/video, sculpture and public music/art. As curator, she programs the annual JazzPOP concert seres at the UCLA Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, now in its 10th year; and a live cinema series, Mission Eye and Ear, at Artists' Television Access. She founded the Monday Makeout creative music series in the Mission District of San Francisco, and programs the Best Coast Jazz Composers series as a member of the artistic committee San Francisco's Center for New Music. In 2012 she started the "Festival-of-Us," a semi-annual festival celebrating Bay Area creative jazz and improvised music. Recent projects include an avant-folk string band, the Interlopers; Eartheaters, a trio with Brooklyn vocalist Fay Victor; and BODABODA, a cross-planetary collaboration with Venice reed player/composer Piero Bittolo Bon. In fall 2015 she premieres Glorious Ravage, a multi-media song cycle for large ensemble with commissioned films, inspired by the writings of Victorian lady adventurers. Lisa has been artist-in-residence at Djerassi Resident Artists Program (2008, 2013), Headlands Center for the Arts (2006, 2015), the Banff International Jazz Workshop (2000), and the Painted Bride Arts Center (2000). She holds an MA in ethnomusicology from UC Berkeley (2003), and a BA in music from the University of Virginia (1997). #lisamezzacappa #doublebass #jazz

[jazzworldquest-blog]

USA: Lisa Mezzacappa Six : CosmiComics(2020)

Lisa Mezzacappa Six : CosmiComics

My latest suite of music for jazz sextet is inspired by Italo Calvino's nerdy, hilarious, lewd, poignant collection of short stories, the Cosmicomics. I've written nine or so pieces inspired by Calvino's stories that humanize and personify far-out and beautiful phenomena that defy human perception—the expansion of the universe, the origins of the planet, the mysterious relationsihp of the earth to its moon, the evolution of humans and creatures. We developed this music over the course of 2018, in a series of work-in-progress salons at the spectacular Glen Park mainstay, Bird & Beckett Books & Records, and recorded it in 2019. The recording is released on Queen Bee Records on February 3, 2020, and is available through Bandcamp on CD and as a digital download. The CD features stunning original artwork by Oakland's own, Dan Nelson!

Aaron Bennett, tenor sax John Finkbeiner, guitar Mark Clifford, vibes Tim Perkis, electronics Lisa Mezzacappa, bass Jordan Glenn, drums

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