Composer and bassist Lisa Mezzacappa, born and raised in New York, where she played in rock bands as a teenager before moving into jazz at the University of Virginia, moved to California in the year 2000, and graduated from UC Berkeley in 2003.
She formed
avantNOIR (2017), inspired by
the sound and language of hard-boiled detective fiction,
Bait & Switch, Nightshade, and the Lisa Mezzacappa Trio.
She performed with
ensembles like Cylinder, the Permanent Wave Ensemble, and the Caribbean folk band Les Gwan Jupons.
She composed the song cycle for large ensemble
Glorious Ravage (New World, 2017), premiered in 2015.
The Interlopers were an avant-folk string band.
The Eartheaters were a trio featuring vocalist Fay Victor.
Bodaboda was a quartet featuring reed player Piero Bittolo Bon.
The released the album Psychic Architecture (2013).
In 2018 she composed the suite Cosmicomics,
inspired by Italo Calvino’s "Cosmicomiche", scored for jazz sextet.
Touch Bass (2014) was a collaboration with choreographer Risa Jaroslow, scored for three dancers and three bassists.
B Experimental Band was a duo with drummer Jason Levis.
Organelle (2019) is a chamber work for improvisers.
The serial audio opera The Electronic Lover debuted in 2020 with six solo singers, a small choir, synth-man Steve Blum, percussionist Jordan Glenn and Mezzacappa on bass, and concluded in 2023.
In 2022 she launched a project to release 12 albums in 12 months, starting with
Luminous Axis, a duo with Jason Levis interpreting Wadada Leo Smith’s graphically-notated scores.
