Home » Jazz Musicians » Lisa Mezzacappa

Lisa Mezzacappa

Lisa Mezzacappa is a San Francisco Bay Area-based composer, bassist, bandleader, and producer. Called “one of the most imaginative figures on the Bay Area creative jazz scene” by The Mercury News and “a Bay Area treasure” by KQED public radio, she has been an active part of California’s vibrant music community for more than 18 years. Mezzacappa’s activities as a composer and bandleader include 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.

Recent projects include avantNOIR, a suite for sextet inspired by noir fiction; Organelle, a chamber suite for improvisers grounded in scientific processes on micro and cosmic scales; Glorious Ravage, an evening-length song cycle for large ensemble and films drawn from the writings of Victorian lady adventurers; and Touch Bass, a collaboration with choreographer Risa Jaroslow for three dancers and three bassists. Current projects include a suite for sextet inspired by Italo Calvino’s Cosmicomics stories about the origins of the universe; the new duo B. Experimental Band which performs original compositions for improvisers bimonthly in Oakland, CA; and premiering in 2019, The Electronic Lover, an opera podcast created in collaboration with writer Beth Lisick.

Mezzacappa has released her music on the New World, Clean Feed, NoBusiness, Leo, and NotTwo record labels, and her work has been supported on the national level by the MAP Fund, the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, the Aaron Copland Fund, and the Andy Warhol Foundation; and by Bay Area funders the Wattis Foundation, Zellerbach Family Foundation, and Intermusic SF. She has been artist-in-residence at the Cité International des Arts in Paris, Fr; Djerassi Resident Artists Program, Headlands Center for the Arts and the Banff International Jazz Workshop. She was a participant in the Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute, a program of American Composers Orchestra and the Jazz Studies Institute at Columbia University.

In addition to leading her own projects in the US and Europe, Mezzacappa has performed as a sideperson with heroes such as Fred Frith, Marco Eneidi, Rhys Chatham, the Paul Dresher Ensemble, Mark Dresser's SIM Bass Ensemble, Nicole Mitchell, Ned Rothenberg, Myra Melford, Vinny Golia and many others. These days, she plays often with Rob Ewing’s quartet SIFTER, with David James’ GPS, with the Nathan Clevenger Group, with Ian Carey’s Wood/Metal/Plastic, with Cory Wright’s Green Mitchell trio, and Randy McKean’s Bristle, in addition to the ongoing, lifelong collaboration duo B., with drummer Jason Levis.

Read more

Tags

1
Radio & Podcasts

Fredrik Lundin, Francesco Cusa, and Gianni Lenoci

Read "Fredrik Lundin, Francesco Cusa, and Gianni Lenoci" reviewed by Maurice Hogue


It's just one of those happy coincidences that bassist Lisa Mezzacappa, whose name is likely Italian in orgin, is one of the featured artists in this episode, because there's noticeable Italian content as well. Mezzacappa's latest with her ensemble Six, is inspired by the short stories of Italo Calvino (also Italian). Music from Italian musicians comes in the form of saxophonists Fabio Delvò and Piero Bittolo Bon, the duo DST (expanded to a trio), and drummer Francesco Cusa who has ...

7
Album Review

Lisa Mezzacappa: avantNOIR

Read "avantNOIR" reviewed by Nicola Negri


avantNOIR--an homage to the tradition of hard-boiled fiction and film noir? The imaginary soundtrack for an abstract crime novel? A reimagining of Fifties' jazz combos through the language of avant-garde? This new record by bassist Lisa Mezzacappa is all of the above and much, much more. Equally inspired by the hard-boiled novels of Dashiell Hammett and the existential crime stories of Paul Auster's New York Trilogy--with more than a few hints to the classic film noir canon--avantNOIR ...

26
Album Review

Lisa Mezzacappa: avantNOIR

Read "avantNOIR" reviewed by Glenn Astarita


The underlying story for this album by West Coast bassist, composer and improviser, Lisa Mezzacappa emanates from her fascination with Paul Auster's New York Trilogy, Dashiell Hammett's crime stories and similar literary works. Hence, the program casts a visual of nighttime in an intimidating metropolis. Toss in several progressive jazz motifs that parallel an action-packed detective thriller or several instances of zany comedic inferences and you have an album that lives by a platform of diversity amid a host of ...

8
Album Review

Lisa Mezzacappa Trio: X Marks The Question

Read "X Marks The Question" reviewed by Glenn Astarita


X Marks The Question is one of two concurrent September 2013 releases on separate record labels by burgeoning San Francisco Bay Area-based, bassist composer Lisa Mezzacappa. On Comeuppance (Not Two Records, 2013) she fronts a quartet featuring saxophonist Aaron Bennett but here, spearheads a power-packed progressive jazz trio, highlighting lead soloist, guitarist Chris Welcome. And as history would dictate--given the bassist's avant-garde proclivities--this session is far from your boilerplate modern jazz guitar trio date other than “Negakfok," which leans towards ...

83
Album Review

Lisa Mezzacappa & Nightshade: Cosmic Rift

Read "Cosmic Rift" reviewed by Troy Collins


Since relocating to San Francisco ten years ago, Staten Island-born bassist Lisa Mezzacappa has established herself as a commanding presence in the vibrant West Coast scene. Mezzacappa's pliant bass lines have provided a stalwart foundation for some of the Bay Area's most dynamic projects, ranging from the visceral excursions of her riotous garage jazz band Bait & Switch to her collaborative efforts in the bold collective quartet Cylinder. Cosmic Rift, the debut of Mezzacappa's neo-classical quintet Nightshade, showcases a more ...

Read more articles
6

Recording

Bay Area Meets Chicago For A New Quartet CD Release With Aaron Bennett, Darren Johnston, Lisa Mezzacappa And Frank Rosaly - "Shipwreck 4"

Bay Area Meets Chicago For A New Quartet CD Release With Aaron Bennett, Darren Johnston, Lisa Mezzacappa And Frank Rosaly - "Shipwreck 4"

Source: NoBusiness Records

Shipwreck 4 celebrates the first quartet meeting of jny: San Francisco Bay Area improvisers Darren Johnston, Aaron Bennett and Lisa Mezzacappa with jny: Chicago drummer Frank Rosaly. Johnston, a major figure in the Bay Area music scene, has nonetheless retained close ties to Chicago’s jazz community, and made the introductions here—the group assembled to play a set at a San Francisco Monday night music series, and decided right afterwards to book a recording session that weekend. Fueled by the combination ...

Photos

Concerts

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Strange Arts

Slow And Steady Records
2024

buy

avantNOIR

Clean Feed Records
2017

buy

X Marks The Question

Queen Bee Records
2014

buy

Hell-Bent in the...

GR2 Classics
2012

buy

Cosmic Rift

Leo Records
2011

buy

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.