Lisa Mezzacappa's music lives in the intersection of improvisation and
composition. As a doublebassist, composer, curator and collaborator, her
projects explore new contexts for developing interactive musical
languages, always with the goal of bringing these
sounds to wider audiences. Recent projects have married improvised
and experimental music with film, pop music, games, video
installation, and interactive, site-specific public events. She was
artist-in-residence at the Headlands Center for the Arts (2006) and
the Banff International Jazz Workshop (2000), and holds an MA in
ethnomusicology from UC Berkeley (2003).
Current and recent projects and collaborations include duo B. , a drums and bass duo with Jason Levis; the trombone reggae band Joseph's Bones ; Phillip Greenlief's '60s cinema-noir trio Citta di Vitti ; Aaron Novik's minimalism-meets-psychedelia groove project Kipple and his chamber pop band Floating World ; Cory Wright's trio Green Mitchell; Admiral Ted Brinkley's Jazz Argosy ; Ross Hammond's Teakayo Mission ; Aaron Bennett's Go-Go Fightmaster , the Giuffre-esque Clevenger 3 led by Nathan Clevenger, and Scott Larson's roots ska band Franco Nero.
Recent curatorial projects include the JAZZPOP concert series at UCLAs Hammer Museum (2006, 2007); the ongoing film and music series quiet films/loud bands at 21 Grand, Oakland; and Gold Record Studio , a portable public recording studio in Oakland, CA, in collaboration with artist/madman Jon Brumit.
Phonological is an ongoing collaboration with installation artist Deborah Aschheim that explores the relationships between memory and language through music and song, video, sculpture and installation.
