The Squid's Ear Magazine
ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Sale — 143 albums on sale at $8.95 or $9.95!
Relative Pitch Sale — 100+ albums on sale at $8.95 - save $5 each!



Schenck, Beth Quintet (w/ Mezzacappa / Wright / Glenn / Wrobel): Dahlia (Queen Bee Records)

"Dahlia is the debut release from the San Francisco-based Beth Schenck Quintet, led by the wildly creative saxophonist and composer who over the past decade has become one of the most admired and in-demand West Coast artists of her gene...
 

Price: $14.95



Quantity:

In Stock

Quantity in Basket: None

Log In to use our Wish List
Shipping Weight: 3.00 units

Sample The Album:





product information:

Personnel:



Beth Schenck-alto saxophone, composition

Cory Wright-tenor saxophone and bass clarinet

Matt Wrobel-guitar

Lisa Mezzacappa-acoustic bass

Jordan Glenn-drums


Click an artist name above to see in-stock items for that artist.




UPC: 199800350078

Label: Queen Bee Records
Catalog ID: QB-011
Squidco Product Code: 36737

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2025
Country: USA
Packaging: Cardboard Gatefold
Recorded at Opus Studios, in Berkeley, California, on February 8th and 9th, 2025, by Adam Munoz.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"Dahlia is the debut release from the San Francisco-based Beth Schenck Quintet, led by the wildly creative saxophonist and composer who over the past decade has become one of the most admired and in-demand West Coast artists of her generation. Schenck writes bracing music that blends lush harmonies with fierce propulsiveness and surprising rhythmic twists and turns. Her quintet features some of the Bay Area's most adventurous improvisers, and this recording is the fruit of decades-long musical relationships. Fifteen years after the release of her first, New York-based quintet, Schenck returns here with a San Francisco Bay Area ensemble and new material that reflects her expansive artistic voice-blending emotional nuance, intellectual depth, improvisational virtuosity and compositional sophistication. The group's deep interplay and intuitive communication infuses every track, from ethereal soundscapes to driving through-composed tunes. The album opens with "Every Riven Thing," a meditative trio piece phrased and shaped by Christian Wiman's poem of the same name. From there, Dahlia journeys through sonic landscapes inspired by spiritual inquiry, the beauty of the natural world, and tributes to Schenck's musical heroes Carla Bley and Wayne Shorter. While the compositions range widely in style and energy, Schenck's highly original voice as both composer and improviser brings unity and authenticity to the collection, which stands as a deeply personal and cohesive artistic statement. Dahlia is the seventh release in a series of 12 recordings featuring Bay Area creative composers and musicians, released monthly from February 2025 through February 2026 by bassist Lisa Mezzacappa's micro label Queen Bee Records. Beth Schenck has been an integral part of the Bay Area's jazz, improvised and new music scenes for more than a decade. Her recent projects as a leader/composer include works for solo saxophone (Above and Below, Innova 2022); the saxophone quartet SocialStutter; the Beth Schenck Quintet; Present/Past Quartet; and House of Faern. Schenck has collaborated and played as a sideperson with with ROVA sax quartet, Jenny Scheinman, Todd Sickafoose, Tina Raymond, Judith Berkson, Jordan Glenn and Matt Small, and performed her music for audiences all over the globe, from New York to Los Angeles, Europe and Asia-but the Bay Area music scene is her chosen home, where she is able to make music with her favorite musicians, who happen to all be in the Beth Schenck Quintet. -Queen Bee


Artist Biographies

Beth Schenck is a San Francisco-based saxophonist and composer who writes bracing music that blends lush harmonies with fierce propulsiveness and rhythmic surprise. Her work has been described as "frank and beautiful" (MetalJazz.com) and "reliably enthralling" (San Francisco Chronicle). She leads a quintet performing her original music, the Social Sutter saxophone quartet, and collaborates in projects such as the Guthrie Project and House of Faern. Her solo debut, Above and Below, was recently released on Innova Records.

-Queen Bee 9/15/2025

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Reeds player Cory Wright, educated at Oberlin College and the University of Southern California, has been involved in both the jazz and creative music worlds for the past 20 years, including time spent in New York, Los Angeles and his current home in the San Francisco bay area. His recent projects reflect his interest in blurring the distinction between composed and improvised material and in combining the harmonious with the atonal, and groove with the arrhythmic.

Cory has played in ensembles lead by Anthony Braxton, Vinny Golia, Eddie Gale, Adam Rudolph and Yusef Lateef. He is currently a member of bay area groups Bristle, Wiener Kids, the Nathan Clevenger Group and the Oakland Active Orchestra, and leads his own projects Green Mitchell and the Cory Wright Outfit."

-Cory Wright Website (http://www.corywrightmusic.com/ographies.html)
9/15/2025

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Lisa Mezzacappa is a San Francisco Bay Area-based bassist, bandleader, composer, curator and producer. An active collaborator in the Bay Area music community for more than a dozen years, she leads her own groups Bait & Switch, the Interlopers, Nightshade, Eartheaters and the Lisa Mezzacappa Trio, and co-leads the ensembles BODABODA, 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 10th 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," a semi-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. In fall 2015 she premieres Glorious Ravage, a multi-media song cycle for large ensemble with commissioned films, inspired by the writings of Victorian lady adventurers.

Lisa has been artist-in-residence at Djerassi Resident Artists Program (2008, 2013), Headlands Center for the Arts (2006, 2015), 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 and Victoriaville Festival de Musique Actuelle, Canada; the Monterey Jazz Festival, CA; Moers Festival, Germany; and Novara Jazz Festival, Italy.

Lisa has been awarded grants by the MAP Fund, the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, 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 estemmed bandleaders and West Coast musical visionaries, like Phillip Greenlief, Aaron Novik, Beth Custer, Randy McKean, Marco Eneidi, Vijay Anderson, Aaron Bennett, Myles Boisen, Steve Adams, Graham Connah, Jon Raskin, 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, Myles Boisen, Sam Ospovat, John Hanes, and many many others."

-Lisa Mezzacappa Website (http://www.lisamezzacappa.com/bio.html)
9/15/2025

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Jordan Glenn is a drummer, percussionist, composer, band leader, conductor, video maker, and general craftsman who lives in Oakland, California.

Jordan Glenn spent his formative years in Oregon drawing cartoons, taking dance classes from his aunt, and putting on plays with his sisters. As he got older he began making movies with his friends and studying jazz, classical, and rock music. In 2003 Glenn received a bachelor's degree in Jazz Studies from the University of Oregon.

In 2006 he relocated to the Bay Area, received a masters degree from Mills College and since has worked closely with Fred Frith (FF Trio and Gravity Band), William Winant, Zeena Parkins (The Adorables), Roscoe Mitchell, ROVA Sax Quartet, Ben Goldberg, Todd Sickafoose, John Schott, Dominique Leone, Aaron Novik, Darren Johnston, Aram Shelton, Cory Wright, Lisa Mezzacappa, Karl Evangelista, Michael Coleman, Matthew Welch, Rhys Chatham and the bands Jack O' The Clock, Arts & Sciences, Young Nudist, 20 Minute Loop, Beep!, tUnE-yArDs, and the Oakland Active Orchestra. He also leads and conducts the project Mindless Thing, a collaboration with poet/free-jazzer/sage Jim Ryan, as well as the long standing trio Wiener Kids and the ten piece expansion, The Wiener Kids Family Band."

-Jordan Glenn Website (http://jordanglennmusic.com/)
9/15/2025

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.


Track Listing:



1. Every Riven Thing 5:03

2. Don't Look Down 6:26

3. Playground 5:12

4. Dahlia 4:08

5. Capable of Small Things 7:50

6. Jedidiah 3:15

7. Proxy / 100 Ways 5:26

8. Wayne's Gone 5:36

9. IDNTKYNTLY 7:09

10. Dinner with Carla 6:43

Related Categories of Interest:

In Stock, Not Yet Cataloged

Improvised Music
Jazz
Jazz & Improvisation Based on Compositions
West Coast/Pacific US Jazz
Quartet Recordings

Search for other titles on the label:
Queen Bee Records.


Recommended & Related Releases:
Sifter (w/ Lisa Mezzacappa)
Flake / Fracture
(Queen Bee Records)
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.
Adams / Mezzacappa / Levis
Never But Dream The Days
(Queen Bee Records)
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.
Bristle (McKean / Wright / Campbell / Mezzacappa)
Archimera
(Queen Bee Records)
Ten years after their last release, Northern CaliforniaÕs 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.
Evangelista, Karl Quintet feat. Bobby Bradford and William Roper
Solace Angles
(Asian Improv)
A heartfelt tribute to Los Angeles and its resilient creative community, guitarist Karl Evangelista leads a stellar quintet with Bobby Bradford on cornet and William Roper on tuba, blending both lyrical and eclectic improvisation, deep-rooted West Coast traditions, and a spirit of resistance into an evocative and deeply personal album that honors place, legacy, and the power of collective expression.
Evangelista's, Karl Apura + Andrew Cyrille
Bukas
(577 Records)
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.
Juice Machine
Yachats
(Love Earth Music)
Recorded across two seasons in coastal Oregon, Yachats showcases the late Heather Chessman and Roger Smith as Juice Machine, sculpting fragile, tape-based electro-acoustic collages that blend field recordings, loops, and discreet electronics into seven immersive vignettes — each a poetic meditation on place, memory, and sonic texture.
Denio, Amy
Variete
(Klanggalerie)
A sophisticated and delightful cinematic work from Seattle multi-instrumentalist Amy Denio, who composes and leads a 12-piece ensemble in a dynamic new soundtrack to the 1925 silent film Varieté, blending electric guitar, accordion, voice, and hammered dulcimer with a chamber orchestra of woodwinds, strings, and percussion in a rich, genre-defying studio recording.
Glenn's, Jordan BEAK
The Party
(Queen Bee Records)
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.
Green Mitchell Trio (Wright / Mezzacappa / Levis)
Nature Channel
(Queen Bee Records)
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.
duo B. (Lisa Mezzacappa / Jason Levis)
Luminous Axis
(Queen Bee Records)
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.
Jonas, Chris / David Forlano / Gregg Koyle
Trio
(Creative Sources)
A focused and sonically adventurous trio recording from Santa Fe, New Mexico, bringing together saxophonist Chris Jonas, live-sampling artist and electronic musician David Forlano, and percussionist Gregg Koyle in a contemporary yet organic exploration of space, form, and texture through sharp saxophone lines, intricate sampling manipulations, and dynamic metallic percussion.
Surplus 1980 Collectiv Ensembl With G.W. Sok
Forget All This
(Music a la Coque)
Surplus 1980 Collectiv Ensembl takes the current members of drummer Moe! Staiano's Surplus 1980 along with associated musicians, including Kyle Bruckmann, John Shiurba, Vicky Grossi, Paul Costuros, &c, with vocals from Dutch vocalist G.W. Sok (The Ex), in an album of avant post-punk rock, sophisticated but determined and pointed music, an unusual hybrid of impressive styles.
Mezzacappa, Lisa (Bennett / Finkbeiner / Winant / Mezzacappa / Perkis / Glenn)
avantNOIR
(Clean Feed)
Influenced by noir crime novels from the 20s set in the Bay Area, bassist Mezacappa wrote these sophisticated and lyrical compositions for selected scenes or characters, performed by the superb sextet of William Winant, Tim Perkis, Aaron Benett, John Finkbeiner, & Jordan Glenn.
Mezzacappa, Lisa Bait and Switch
What is Known
(Clean Feed)
San Francisco Bay Area bassist Lisa Mezzacappa's "garage jazz" quartet, a raw collective with an energized approach to jazz that focuses on band sound and chemistry.




The Squid's Ear Magazine

The Squid's Ear Magazine

© 2002-, Squidco LLC