Inspired by Sol LeWitt's Incomplete Open Cubes, Bay Area duo B. — bassist Lisa Mezzacappa and drummer Jason Levis — translate the artist's serial logic into a system of modular compositions and improvisations, shaping asymmetrical grooves, bowed-bass textures and expanded drumset sonorities into a dynamic drums-and-bass dialogue that balances structural rigor with spontaneous interplay.
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Lisa Mezzacappa-acoutsic bass
Jason Levis-drumset
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UPC: 199900020796
Label: Queen Bee Records
Catalog ID: QB016
Squidco Product Code: 37190
Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2026
Country: USA
Packaging: Cardboard Gatefold
Recorded at Opus Studios, in Berkeley, California, by Adam Munoz.
"In this new release, the San Francisco Bay Area drums-and-bass ensemble duo B. presents a suite of improvised - composed music inspired by the drawings and sculptures of Sol LeWitt. In his series of Incomplete Open Cubes (1974/1982), the artist explored the 122 ways of "not making a cube, all the ways of the cube not being complete." Transfixed by the obsessive, iterative quality of the work, and by the vast array of quirky symbols that LeWitt's serial process generated, the duo embarked on a period of research, composition and iteration to create a sonic parallel to Lewitt's intriguing visual vocabulary. In the hands of Mezzacappa and Levis, the cube drawings give rise to a system of musical notation, each (im)perfect cube/creature imbued with its own personality, its own kin, its own lexicon and history.
The music, honed over several years, spans asymmetrical "tunes" that groove in unexpected ways; textural soundscapes of bowed bass and expanded/prepared drum set; lyrical melodies and combative exchanges; and affectionate nods to the profound influence of Anthony Braxton, Wadada Leo Smith, Cecil Taylor and Henry Threadgill. Modular structures are connected and layered like puzzle pieces to create new situations for improvisational exchange. Levis and Mezzacappa have been refining their musical relationship over nearly 25 years, and this recording is the latest manifestation of their commitment to exploring and expanding the expressive possibilities of the drums-and-bass duo format."-Queen Bee
Artist Biographies
• Show Bio for Lisa Mezzacappa "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." ^ Hide Bio for Lisa Mezzacappa • Show Bio for Jason Levis "Ph.D. and M.A. in Composition, UC Berkeley; B.A. in Music, Naropa University. Two-time Meet the Composer award recipient; Eisner Prize for Music winner; Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor (UC Berkeley); Interaktion Festival finalist (Berlin), drummer and composer JASON LEVIS has led and been a collaborator in numerous jazz, improvised music, and chamber ensembles in the San Francisco Bay Area and Berlin, Germany. These include Joseph's Bones; duo B.; Junior Reggae; the Lost Shapes; the Berlin Boom Orchestra; the Nathan Clevenger Group, and many more. Through these avenues he has been a part of over two-dozen record releases, bridging a multitude of musical styles. He is an active performer on the drum set in both art and popular music settings and has extensive national and international performance experience. He is currently a professor at the California Jazz Conservatory, as well as gives private lessons throughout the bay area." ^ Hide Bio for Jason Levis
2/20/2026
Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.
2/20/2026
Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.
Track Listing:
1. Prelude 02:02
2. Like A Snake Uncoiling 04:32
3. Like So Many Pieces Of The Puzzle 12:55
4. Like A Glass Sculpture Standing In The Wind 04:10
5. Like A Fortune Cookie (The Twins) 06:56
6. One Piece Of The Puzzle 02:48
7. The Elders (Ur Cells) 09:05
February 2026
Improvised Music
Free Improvisation
Jazz
NY Downtown & Metropolitan Jazz/Improv
Stringed Instruments
Percussion & Drums
Duo Recordings
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