Artist Detail

Lisa Mezzacappa

Biography:

Lisa Mezzacappa is a double bassist, composer, collaborator and musical instigator. Her music lives in the intersection of improvisation and composition, and her projects often integrate improvisation-infused composition into public spaces and cross-disciplinary works. She studied bass with Michael Formanek and Peter Spaar, studied improvisation with Henry Threadgill, Steve Coleman and John D'earth, and has workshopped with the Sun Ra Arkestra, Bob Moses, Art Baron, Meredith Monk, Terry Riley and David Murray, among others. Lisa has performed at countless Bay Area venues including Intersection for the Arts, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, SFMOMA, and the de Young Museum, San Francisco; as well as the Earshot Jazz Festival, Seattle; and the Montreal Jazz Festival; Canada.

Lisa has been artist-in-residence at Djerassi Resident Artists Program (2008), 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). Lisa has been awarded grants from American Composers Forum, the City of Oakland and Meet the Composer. She currently performs in nearly a dozen original jazz, pop and chamber ensembles in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she lives.

Current projects include Bait and Switch, Lisa's new garage jazz quartet; duo B., a drums and bass duo with Jason Levis; Aaron Bennett's free jazz-meets-metal band Go-Go Fightmaster; CYLINDER, an improvising quartet with Darren Johnston, Aram Shelton and Kjell Nordeson; the trombone reggae band Joseph's Bones; the Beth Custer Ensemble; Scott Larson's ska-roots ensemble Franco Nero; Aaron Novik's Thorny Brocky; Phillip Greenlief's cinema noir trio Citta di Vitti; Cory Wright's creative jazz trio Green Mitchell; and assorted Graham Connah groups. Sometimes she performs with other lovelies such as Myra Melford, Ross Hammond, Mari&233; Abe, Dina Maccabbee, the John Schott/John Hanes duo, Nathan Clevenger, Kasey Knudsen, David James, Ben Goldberg and Smith Dobson Jr.

For Gold Record Studio (2007-8), she co-hosted, with Jon Brumit, a free public recording studio for six weeks at an Oakland neighborhood flea market, assuming the role of record producer, audio engineer and musical instigator. For Earworms (2006-08), a collaboration with installation artist Deborah Aschheim, she composed and recorded 18 pieces, with more than a dozen musicians, for a series of sculptural installations exploring the relationships between music, memory and language. Moths Drink the Tears is a new digital poetry/music collaboration with poet Oni Buchanan.

As curator and ringleader, Lisa programs the annual JAZZPOP music series at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; and organizes the quiet films/loud bands film and music series at 21 Grand, Oakland.

Email: info@lisamezzacappa.com

Upcoming Events:

The Lab

2948 16th St @ Capp St.
SF, CA 94103

Friday, Jun 7 2013 8:00 PM

In anticipation of a November 17, 2013 performance of Rhys Chatham's A Secret Rose for 100 electric guitars at the Craneway Pavilion (Richmond, CA), Other Minds has teamed up with the Lab for an exciting preview event!

Announcement of the official application and call for guitarists
A discussion with Rhys Chatham on the history of his 100-200 guitar ensemble pieces
Performance of his groundbreaking work Guitar Trio (1977)
A chance to meet and talk to the artists, including Rhys Chatham

Written in 1977, G3 is Rhys Chatham's signature composition, and with good reason. With a single, repeated chord, Chatham permanently altered the DNA of rock by splicing the gritty, overtone-drenched minimalism of John Cale and Tony Conrad with the elemental fury of the Ramones. Tonight's performance teams Rhys Chatham up with some of the best musicians in the Bay Area.

Rhys Chatham (guitar)
Ava Mendoza (guitar)
Bill Orcutt (guitar)
John Schott (guitar)
George Chen (guitar)
John Krausbauer (guitar)
Lisa Mezzacappa (bass)
Jordan Glenn (drums)

Duende

468 19th Street | Oakland | CA94612 |

Thursday, Jun 27 2013 9:30 PM

Marco Eneidi's SHATTERED
with Lisa Mezzacappa - double bass and Vijay Anderson - drums

Composer/alto saxophonist Marco Eneidi returns from Vienna for a 2 week residency in the Bay Area and a one night only performance at the premier Oakland performance venue and restaurant, Duende

Marco Eneidi has been living in Vienna since November 2004 where he is Artistic Director of the Neu New York/Vienna Institute of Improvised Music
His current projects include the Mexican Cosmic Brujo Mutafuka Trio; Upcoming concerts with Jamaaladeen Tacuma; Pat Thomas and Black Dot; Paul Lovens; Alberto Braida and numerous concerts in Poland and Hungary.
www.marcoeneidi.com

Community Music Center

544 Capp Street
SF

Sunday, Jul 21 2013 3:00 PM

12th Annual Outsound New Music Summit
TThe Bay Area's New Sound Festival for underground and experimental jazz, electronics, noise art, spoken word & more!

Workshop: Communications for Independent Musicians with Lisa Mezzacappa

Bay Area bassist/bandleader and arts organizer Lisa Mezzacappa leads a crash course in communications strategies for independent musicians. Learn how to communicate your work clearly and effectively to the public, to venues and bookers, to the press. We will focus on writing bios, band descriptions and project/concert blurbs. Come prepared with a laptop or pencil and notebook, this will be a hands-on session.

In a storied career as an academic, journalist and arts administrator, Lisa Mezzacappa has been communicating about the arts, in different formats, for about fifteen years. She was a critic and arts reporter for a daily newspaper in New York before pursing an academic degree in ethnomusicology at UC Berkeley. She subsequently worked as Communications Director at New Langton Arts, and Campus Programs Manager at Stanford Lively Arts. She curates the annual Jazzpop series at the Hammer Museum at UCLA, is on the curatorial committee at the Center for New Music in San Francisco, and has organized many independent music series throughout the years, including the Monday Makeout and Mission Eye & Ear. She's also been involved in strategic planning and communications strategy at Headlands Center for the Arts, and has been part of the San Francisco Friends of Chamber Music's Artist Forum.

CDs on which Lisa Mezzacappa appears:

Artist	Title	Label	Number
duo b	these things seem natural to us	Evander Music	Em 048
Kipple	Flashes of Irrational Happiness	Evander Music	EM 032