duo B

Green Mitchell Trio
Nature Channel
Queen Bee Records QB-006

Bristle II
Archimera
Queen Bee Records QB-008

Staten Island’s gift to the improvised music world bassist Lisa Mezzacappa relocated to the Bay area a few years ago and now she’s celebrating Northern California creative music, releasing 12 sessions featuring local creative players once a month until February 2026 on her Queen Bee Records. Three of the most recent discs which also feature the bassist, confirm the area’s – and musicians’ – wide-ranging skills. While equally stimulating none sounding anything alike.

Mezzacappa is also not the only crossover. Luminous Axis has her and drummer Jason Levis as duo B interpretating of Wadada Leo Smith’s graphically notated score of the same name. As the Green Mitchell Trio on Natural Channel the two join tenor saxophonist Cory Wright, who has worked with Vinny Golia and the Clubfoot Orchestra on six of his advanced mainstream compositions. With Archimera, Wright and Mezzacappa are also one half of the local chamber-jazz ensemble Bristle, united with Scottish fiddler/oboist/English hornist Murray Campbell, who also does orchestral work and Goggle saxophone quartet member Randy McKean, who adds his alto saxophone, Bb and bass clarinets to Wright’s tenor saxophone, Bb and alto clarinets and flute.

The most obtuse and dissonant creation Luminous Axis’ eight tracks strip sounds to their nucleus with restrained drum shuffles and singular cymbal clanks often sidled up against sul ponticello strokes and rubs from the bassist. Methodically linear and pressurized, the resultant rumbles, rim shots and string pumps thicken into an undulating  exposition, with only slightly interspaced with slapping string rebounds and metallic swipes. Climax occurs with “Three Vertical Structures (Energy Boot)” as the previously lento pace becomes allegro and staccato, with string stropping and measured drum beats bringing foreshortened airiness to the previously lumbering narratives. The concluding “Stem Loop Form into Tower Structure, Inverted” adds more liveliness in the form of repeated bass string plinks and full drum top splashes. But despite earlier string twangs and focused pops, the interpretations may ascend in pitch and speed, but maintain near-atonality.

Wright’s bright and straight-ahead playing upends duo B’s avant definition, with his five composition on Natural Channel’s more relaxed and casual than those on Luminous Axis. Mezzacappa often plays a horizontal walking bass line, while Levis’ unforced rhythm encompasses springy beats and scatter shot asides. Spontaneous  doesn’t mean slack however. Intensity rises, especially during Wright’s bass clarinet feature on the title track. Chalumeau reed snorts and tongue stops are paired with doubled string strums and plucks, with the stop-time theme emphasized. Pliable reed work extends to saxophone expositions as well. Although  themes can be sweetened and balladic, that doesn’t stop the saxophonist from expanding them with sliding doit and fluttering scoops. This is most apparent on the multi-sectional, multi-tempi and nuanced “Valk”. Evolved from a syncopated march tempo, Wright subverts the rhythm section’s linear introduction with squealing sax variations that take in slurry split tones and overblowing vibrations squirming into a wide open narrative reconsideration that unites reed techniques with reverberating string pops and forceful drum pops. Even as the pieces until triple cooperation from the three instruments recaps the head.

Without Levis but with McKean and Campbell Wight and Mazzacappa are transformed again from tough Mr Hydes to melodious Dr Jekylls on Archimera. Tunes mostly composed by the two reedists, seem half restrained and half resolute. Drum-less, double bass slaps centre the rhythm, with Campbell’s fiddling pushing Bristle towards folk sources, but his orchestral instruments suggesting so-called classical sounds. Luckily jolly harmonies and measured counterpoint, with sometime suggest jigs or sea shanties are saved from preciousness by the saxes aviary freak notes and the bassist’s bottom preserving thumps. No one would confuse Bristle with the Jazz Messengers but it’s as distanced from Fairport Convention as Art Blakey was from Sany Denny.  Instead the band’s identity is confirmed on tracks like “Wraparound” and the concluding “Vape Trail”. The first blends dual musical inferences as circular clarion reed projection is intercut with fiddle slices, while frenetic double bass g;issandi and stops roughen the ongoing syncopation. With a layered exposition as each instrumental textures bleeds into the next, “Vape Trail” uses melodic transformation to subtly change dynamics as the broken octave narrative evolves, climaxing with a contrapuntal face off between reed bites and string sweeps as the melody flows to the end.

Attaining both goals of exposing Northern California improvisers and Mazzacappa’s bass versatility, these session make one anticipate the other discs in this series.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Luminous: 1. Double Blade, Vertical Structures Mirror(Circle) 2. Tower Structure 3. Double Blade Mirror 4. Stem Loop Form 5. Vertical Structures, Stem Loop Forms Mirrored at a Blade (The Journey) 6. Three Vertical Structures (Energy Boot) 7. Vertical Structures, Double Blade Mirror (Circle Redux) 8. Stem Loop Form into Tower Structure, Inverted

Personnel: Luminous: Lisa Mezzacappa (bass) and Jason Levis (drum)

Track Listing: Nature: 1. Sunday Monday 2. Lumps 3. Nature Channel 4. Valk 5. Langourie

Personnel: Nature: Cory Wright (tenor saxophone, bass clarinet); Lisa Mezzacappa (bass) and Jason Levis (drum)

Track Listing: Archimera: 1. Lines of Work 2. Wraparound 3. Basset 4.Thicket 5. Flight II 6. Vape Trail

Personnel: Archimera: Randy McKean (alto saxophone, Bb, bass clarinets); Cory Wright (tenor saxophone, Bb, alto clarinets, flute); Murray Campbell (violin, oboe, English horn) and Lisa Mezzacappa (bass)