Since the late 1950s and early 1960s, the jazz avant-garde intersected with the countercultural currents of Beat poetry, free expression, and radical politics. Figures like Sonny Simmons and Bobby Few passed through, while local experimentalists began exploring freer forms of jazz. It's also the home of the psychedelic rock scene that included Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead, and Quicksilver Messenger Service, blurring the lines of improvisation and rock.
Until recently Mills College in Oakland has been a central hub for experimental music. With teachers such as Terry Riley, Pauline Oliveros, and Robert Ashley, the Bay Area nurtured new forms of electronic music, deep listening practices, and open structures for improvisation. Pauline Oliveros' San Francisco Tape Music Center (later part of Mills) played a vital role in integrating electronics, performance art, and improvisation.
By the 1970s, the Bay Area's improvisers freely crossed stylistic borders. Rova Saxophone Quartet, and particularly Larry Ochs, emerged as one of the era's most important ensembles, combining free jazz, post-bop, and experimental composition.Groups like Henry Kaiser's bands bridged free improv and the experimental rock/avant-garde/fusion movement. Odd bands like the Residents, as well as labels like Ralph Records, pushed boundaries further.
By the 1980s collaborations with international figures like Derek Bailey, Evan Parker, Anthony Braxton became common in the Bay Area, and venues like New Langton Arts, Beanbenders, and Koncepts Cultural Gallery became important stages for experimental work. This led to a cross-pollinating network of jazz improvisers, noise musicians, and experimental rock performers, and labels including New World of Sound and Metalanguage Records. Collectives like Gino Robair's bands and improvisers associated with sfSound advanced electro-acoustic approaches.
By the late 1990s the collection of bands influenced by rock, experimental approaches and free improv swirling around Sleepytime Gorilla Museum coalesced, including Idiot Flesh, Faun Fables, Free Salamander Exhibit, Charming Hostess, Rabbit Rabbit Radio (bringing Carla Kihlstedt together with SGM members), Kihlstedt's 2 Foot Yard, Cosa Brava with Fred Frith, Tin Hat, Moe Staiano's Surplus 1980 and MOE!KESTRA, The Book of Knots. One can see that improvisation is threaded into the post-rock and experimental indie movements in the Bay Area, with groups blending chamber textures, electronics, and improvisational practices.
Bassist Lisa Mezzacappa
Photo by Heike Liss
This leads us today to Lisa Mezzacappa, a double bassist, composer, and bandleader, who epitomizes the contemporary Bay Area improvisation scene: a musician rooted in jazz but fluent in avant-garde composition, rock experimentalism, and collaborative community-based projects. Her work connects directly to the Bay Area's tradition of fluid boundaries - from Rova to Oliveros to Kaiser - while fostering new connections across visual art, film, and storytelling. Current venues and organizations like Center for New Music, Meridian Gallery, and sfSound's concert series sustain this incredible ecosystem.
Bands and organizations associated with Mezzacappa include Bait & Switch - A quartet blending free jazz with structured, groove-oriented improvisation, and the first album, What is Known, that Squidco carried in 2010 from the Clean Feed Label. AvantNOIR - A project fusing crime noir literature, improvisation, and experimental composition. Glorious Ravage - A large-scale song cycle inspired by Victorian-era women explorers, mixing composition, improvisation, and visual art. Collaborations with groups like sfSound and many Bay Area improvisers, often blurring lines between jazz, noise, and chamber music.
Squidco has carried her albums and collaborations ever since, on labels including Edgetone, Kadima, Leo Records, Tzadik, NoBusiness, New World Records, Not Two, Astral Spirits, and 577. These are some of our core labels, and the last mentioned, 577 Records, includes a collaboration with another important artist in our catalog, guitarist, Karl Evangelista.
Queen Bee Records
Little wonder that she started her own label, Queen Bee Records, in 2013 to further document not only her own work but also some of the important bands she's been associated with.
The label has had an active year, releasing eight albums as I write this, including the long-running duo B. with drummer Jason Levis; the saxophone-bass-drum group Green Mitchell Trio led by multi-reedist and composer Cory Wright with Lisa Mezzacappa and drummer Jason Levis; Jordan Glenn's BEAK, a septet led by Jordan Glenn with guitarists Karl Evangelista and David James, bassist Lisa Mezzacappa, vibraphonist Mark Clifford, percussionist Robert Lopez, drummer Jon Arkin, and Val Esway; the Threadgill-esque band Bristle with saxophonists Randy McKean and Cory Wright join violinist/oboist Murray Campbell and bassist Lisa Mezzacappa; the trio of multi-reedist Steve Adams, bassist Lisa Mezzacappa, and drummer Jason Levis; and Sifter, the quartet of Rob Ewing on trombone, Beth Schenck on alto saxophone, Lisa Mezzacappa on acoustic bass, and Jordan Glenn on drums; and this week the Beth Schenck Quintet led by composer and alto saxophonist Beth Schenck, with Cory Wright on tenor saxophone & bass clarinet, Matt Wrobel on guitar, Lisa Mezzacappa on acoustic bass, and Jordan Glenn on drums; and the Nathan Clevenger Group with a large suite that uses expanded orchestration and a broad palette of lyrical and spacious sound.
That's a lot of amazing music, both free and lyrical with a diversity of approaches that makes them one of the most interesting labels we've added to our catalog this year!
Reinventing his compositional voice, Clevenger charts a reflective and lyrical suite for a deep Bay Area ensemble, the writing balancing chamber-like colour and improvisational space as reeds, low flutes, brass, cello, vibes, marimba, drums and bass articulate an expansive journey of personal discovery and renewed purpose.
Blending lush harmonies, rhythmic twists, and inspired interplay, alto saxophonist and composer Beth Schenck leads a Bay Area quintet of Cory Wright, Matt Wrobel, Lisa Mezzacappa, and Jordan Glenn in a set of fiercely original compositions that traverse ethereal soundscapes and propulsive forms, reflecting deep musical relationships, artistic nuance, and a richly personal voice.
A chordless Bay Area quartet with Rob Ewing on trombone, Beth Schenck on alto saxophone, Lisa Mezzacappa on acoustic bass, and Jordan Glenn on drums, performing original compositions from each member in playful, lyrical, and texturally rich improvisations that balance groove, swing, and exploratory ensemble interplay with an eclectic yet cohesive sound.
A focused and highly collaborative session from multi-reedist Steve Adams, bassist Lisa Mezzacappa, and drummer Jason Levis, whose long-standing connections through the Bay Area's creative music scene — including Mezzacappa and Levis's duo B and their co-led Experimental Band — inform these concise and sensitive 2022 improvisations with a compositional approach to form and balance.
Ten years after their last release, Northern California's Bristle returns with a richly inventive chamber jazz album blending virtuosic improvisation and playful composition, as saxophonists Randy McKean and Cory Wright join violinist/oboist Murray Campbell and bassist Lisa Mezzacappa in a dynamic, Threadgill-esque ensemble sound full of counterpoint, wit, and imaginative sonic twists.
An electrifying fusion of diverse musical traditions, this evening-length composition showcases the dynamic interplay of guitarists Karl Evangelista and David James, bassist Lisa Mezzacappa, vibraphonist Mark Clifford, percussionist Robert Lopez, drummer Jon Arkin, and Val Esway, seamlessly blending composed structures with spontaneous improvisation to capture the ensemble's innovative spirit.
Expanding the possibilities of the saxophone-bass-drums trio, multi-reedist and composer Cory Wright leads bassist Lisa Mezzacappa and drummer Jason Levis in his Green Mitchell Trio's long-awaited follow-up, recording in the studio in Oakland, California, weaving songful melodies, high-energy free improv, intricate dissonances, and kinetic interplay for five lyrically inclined conversations.
Longtime collaborators Lisa Mezzacappa and Jason Levis deepen their exploration of Wadada Leo Smith's Ankhrasmation language, interpreting his graphic score through an intuitive acoustic bass and drum dialogue shaped by years of study, live performance, and improvisational research, forging their own path through his modular notation in a dynamic and deeply immersive exchange.
West Coast Bay Area guitarist Karl Evangelista leads his Apura ensemble — Lisa Mezzacappa (bass), Francis Wong (tenor sax), Rei Scampavia (keys, electronics), and Lewis Jordan (alto sax) — joined by drum legend Andrew Cyrille in a powerful statement of free improvisation, blending expressive intensity and forward-looking vision with deeply rooted passion and creative openness.
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Queen Bee, Mezzacappa and The Bay Area:
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Fred Frith / Shelley Burgon:
CHANGES TO blind:
Michel Doneda / Le Quan Ninh / Nuria Andorra:
Rutger Zuydervelt a.k.a. Machinefabriek:
The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters:
Jaap Blonk:
Sylvie Courvoisier and Mary Halvorson:
Joe Henderson:
Clevenger, Nathan Group: Astrolabe (Queen Bee Records)
Schenck, Beth Quintet (w/ Mezzacappa / Wright / Glenn / Wrobel): Dahlia (Queen Bee Records)
Sifter (w/ Lisa Mezzacappa): Flake / Fracture (Queen Bee Records)
Adams / Mezzacappa / Levis: Never But Dream The Days (Queen Bee Records)
Bristle (McKean / Wright / Campbell / Mezzacappa): Archimera (Queen Bee Records)
Glenn's, Jordan BEAK : The Party (Queen Bee Records)
Green Mitchell Trio (Wright / Mezzacappa / Levis): Nature Channel (Queen Bee Records)
duo B. (Lisa Mezzacappa / Jason Levis): Luminous Axis (Queen Bee Records)
Evangelista's, Karl Apura + Andrew Cyrille: Bukas (577 Records)
