West Oakland Sound Series
2201 Poplar Street Dresher Ensemble Studio Oakland
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BRISTLE
LENNY GONZALEZ + ERIK ELLESTAD

BRISTLE, the Northern California based sax-and-strings-fueled chamber jazz quartet of Randy McKean, Cory Wright, MURRAY CAMPBELL, and Lisa Mezzacappa, channels the individual virtuosity of its members into intricate group interactions that blur the line between composition and cooperative game strategies. Formed in 2009, Bristle has performed at the Stone NYC and toured throughout California and the Pacific Northwest, from Seattle to Bakersfield, bringing their Art Ensemble meets Kronos Quartet sound to the SF Bay Area’s Garden of Memory and West Oakland Sound Series, Sacramento’s In the Flow Festival and the California Gold Country’s Col. MaCaw’s Magical Cure-All. Their music, called “fun and thought-provoking” (Memory Select), and full of “shrewd harmonic twists” (Downtown Music Gallery), is featured on their CDs Bulletproof (Edgetone, 2012), Future(s) Now(s) (Queen Bee, 2014) (named one of the Top California Jazz Releases of 2014 by KQED) and their Fluxx-like choose-your-own-adventure offering Archimera (Queen Bee, 2025). For this appearance at the West Oakland Sound Series, Bristle will feature the latest compositions from McKean and Wright, expanding its palette of winds to include the EEB contralto clarinet, bass flute, and cor anglais. They are currently working on a new recording, due for a 2027 release.


LENNY GONZALEZ (guitar, electronics) and ERIK ELLESTAD (sax, electronics) draw on the deep vocabulary of improvised music - free jazz, noise, extended technique, musique concrète, etc… - they play with the intention of being present and making a space to sonically describe who they are and what they are feeling in the moment. They released their first album, with a K, with a Z, in 2025. Available on Bandcamp

Cost: $20 (FREE students/underemployed)

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