Serving the San Francisco Bay Area New Music Community

                    
Lisa Mezzacappa
double bassist, improviser, composer
Lisa Mezzacappa is a San Francisco Bay Area-based bassist, composer, and musical instigator. An active collaborator and curator in the Bay Area music community, she leads her own groups Bait & Switch, Nightshade, the Lisa Mezzacappa Trio and the Tangle Trio, and co-leads the ensembles 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 9th 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," an 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.

Lisa has been artist-in-residence at Djerassi Resident Artists Program (2008, 2013), Headlands Center for the Arts (2006), 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). She has performed at countless Bay Area venues including Intersection for the Arts, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, SFMOMA, Yoshi’s, the Jazzschool, and the de Young Museum, San Francisco; as well as the Earshot Jazz Festival, Seattle; the Montreal Jazz Festival, Canada; the Monterey Jazz Festival, CA and the Novara Jazz Festival, Italy.

Lisa has been awarded grants by the San Francisco Friends of Chamber Music, the Zellerbach Family Foundation, American Composers Forum, the City of Oakland, Meet the Composer and Southern Exposure/the Andy Warhol Foundation. She performs as a sideperson in original jazz, improv and chamber ensembles led by bandleaders such as Phillip Greenlief, Aaron Novik, Beth Custer, Randy McKean, Marco Eneidi, Vijay Anderson, Aaron Bennett, Steve Adams, Graham Connah, Cory Wright and Ross Hammond, and collaborates often with Darren Johnston, Vinny Golia, Katy Stephan, Aram Shelton, Kjell Nordeson, Murray Campbell, Jason Levis, Dina Maccabee, Noah Phillips, Rob Ewing, Kasey Knudsen, Michael Coleman, Myles Boisen, Sam Ospovat, John Hanes, and many many others.
Contact information:
Email: info (AT) lisamezzacappa (DOT) com
Upcoming Events:

Thursday, July 10 2025 7:30 PM
Ivy Room [860 San Pablo Ave Albany]
Queen Bee Records MicroFest #2

A night of freewheeling improvised music and creative jazz from some of the scene's most adventurous and exciting bands. Celebrating the second batch of recordings out this year on Berkeley's Queen Bee Records.  More...
Saturday, July 12 2025 7:00 PM
Spruce Street Concerts [send email to harry@fullplatemedia.com]
Bassist, composer, & improvisor Lisa Mezzacappa and percussionist Jason Levis perform in a house concert in Berkeley. Their collaboration, "duo B.", will present their work "Incomplete, Open", a flexible suite of compositions inspired by the drawings of Sol LeWitt. Self-described as "a musical think-tank of grand schemes and impossible scenarios," the ensemble has spent nearly 20 years developing and refining its singular approach to improvisation and composition. Their work involves cross-disciplinary collaborations with film; partnerships with improvising instrumentalists both locally and internationally; and deep dives into the improvised-composed musical worlds of masters Wadada Leo Smith, Anthony Braxton, Cecil Taylor, Muhal Richard Abrams, Henry Threadgill, and others.  More...
Sunday, July 13 2025 7:15 PM
West Oakland Sound Series [2201 Poplar Street Dresher Ensemble Studio Oakland]
Grand Prize winner of the 2025 Vandoren Emerging Artist competition, GEORGE ROGERS (sax) with Lorin Benedict (voice)

Lisa Mezzacappa 5(ISH) - Aaron Bennett, tenor saxophone; Kyle Bruckmann, oboes/modular synth; MARK PASCUCCI-CLIFFORD, vibraphone; Brett Carson, keyboard; Lisa Mezzacappa, acoustic bass; Jordan Glenn, drums  More...
Friday, July 18 2025 8:30 PM
Bird & Beckett Books and Records [653 Chenery St. SF]
Lisa Mezzacappa Five plays Cosmicomics  More...
Sunday, July 20 2025 3:00 PM
Joaquin Miller Park [3220 Joaquin Miller Rd, Oakland]
Emergent Sound Practices:
Karen Stackpole
Jacob Felix Heule
Lisa Mezzacappa + Crystal Pascucci-Clifford  More...
Videos
Lisa Mezzacappa's Bait & Switch - Live
Lisa Mezzacappa's Eartheaters - Live at YBCA
Lisa Mezzacappa & Nightshade - Live
Lisa Mezzacappa's Interlopers My Companion by the Shaggs, arranged by Lisa Mezzacappa Live at the Red Poppy Art House, San Francisco CA Murray Campbell, violin John Finkbeiner, guitar Crystal Pascucci, cello Lisa Mezzacappa, bass Jordan Glenn, percussion
Lisa Mezzacappa's Interlopers The Aquarist by Lisa Mezzacappa Live at the Red Poppy Art House, San Francisco CA Murray Campbell, violin John Finkbeiner, guitar Crystal Pascucci, cello Lisa Mezzacappa, bass Jordan Glenn, percussion
avantNOIR, a suite of compositions for jazz quartet plus guests, is a musical companion to the crime novels of Dashiell Hammett and Paul Auster. All music by Lisa Mezzacappa.
avantNOIR, a suite of compositions for jazz quartet plus guests, is a musical companion to the crime novels of Dashiell Hammett and Paul Auster. All music by Lisa Mezzacappa.
avantNOIR, a suite of compositions for jazz quartet plus guests, is a musical companion to the crime novels of Dashiell Hammett and Paul Auster. All music by Lisa Mezzacappa.
CDs on which Lisa Mezzacappa appears:
ArtistTitleLabelNumber
Steve Adams, Lisa Mezzacappa, Jason Levis never but dream the days
Artist: Steve Adams, Lisa Mezzacappa, Jason Levis
Title: never but dream the days
Label: Queen Bee Records
Label page on this site: Queen Bee Records
Queen Bee Records
Bristle Archimera
Artist: Bristle
Title: Archimera
Label: Queen Bee Records
Label page on this site: Queen Bee Records
Queen Bee Records
Ian Carey & Wood Metal Plastic Strange Arts
Artist: Ian Carey & Wood Metal Plastic
Title: Strange Arts
Label: Slow & Steady Records SS39
Label page on this site: Slow & Steady Records
Slow & Steady Records SS39
Karl Evangelista's Apura Ngayon
Artist: Karl Evangelista's Apura
Title: Ngayon
Label: Astral Spirits AS208
Label page on this site: Astral Spirits
Astral Spirits AS208
Nathan Clevenger i had a dream about amnesia
Artist: Nathan Clevenger
Title: i had a dream about amnesia
Label: Apoplectics 006
Label page on this site: Apoplectics
Apoplectics 006
Tim Walters Shatter in Place
Artist: Tim Walters
Title: Shatter in Place
Label: Bandcamp
Label page on this site: Bandcamp
Bandcamp
Lisa Mezzacappa Six Cosmicomics
Artist: Lisa Mezzacappa Six
Title: Cosmicomics
Label: Queen Bee Records QB-004
Label page on this site: Queen Bee Records
Queen Bee Records QB-004
Nathan Clevenger Group Stateless
Artist: Nathan Clevenger Group
Title: Stateless
Label: Slow & Steady Records 010
Label page on this site: Slow & Steady Records
Slow & Steady Records 010
duo b these things seem natural to us
Artist: duo b
Title: these things seem natural to us
Label: Evander Music Em 048
Label page on this site: Evander Music
Evander Music Em 048
Bristle Future(s) Now(s)
Artist: Bristle
Title: Future(s) Now(s)
Label: Queen Bee Records QB-002
Label page on this site: Queen Bee Records
Queen Bee Records QB-002
Bristle Bulletproof
Artist: Bristle
Title: Bulletproof
Label: Edgetone Records EDT4124
Label page on this site: Edgetone Records
Edgetone Records EDT4124
Kipple Flashes of Irrational Happiness
Artist: Kipple
Title: Flashes of Irrational Happiness
Label: Evander Music EM 032
Label page on this site: Evander Music
Evander Music EM 032
Interviews/Articles:
Andrew Gilbert (08/13/2020)
An Electronic Lover in Eden - Lisa Mezzacappa and Beth Lisick
Andrew Gilbert (07/18/2011)
Article about Lisa Mezzacappa in Chronicle SFGate
Audio Samples: