CJC's Way Out West Concert Series provides composer-performers from the Bay Area and beyond with a Tuesday evening showcase for forward-looking original work in jazz and related genres. Join us weekly in Rendon Hall for Way Out West! Tuesday, April 30 Way Out West will feature Lisa Mezzacappa Tangle Trio with Sheldon Brown (saxophone and clarinets), Lisa Mezzacappa, (acoustic bass) and Kjell Nordeson (drums). Lisa MezzacappaÕs new power trio makes its debut in the Way Out West series with a set of extroverted and exploratory music by some of the Bay AreaÕs most accomplished and versatile improvisers. Swedish drummer Kjell Nordeson has toured the world in cantankerous avant jazz groups fronted by Mats Gustafsson, Ken Vandermark, and others; and has also studied intricate contemporary chamber repertoire with percussion guru Steven Schick. Kjell and Mezzacappa reunite after a hiatus that followed their collaboration nearly a decade ago in the quartet Cylinder, with Aram Shelton and Darren Johnston. Sheldon Brown, a vital part of the Bay Area creative music community for nearly 30 years, is universally in-demand for his breathless virtuosity on an assortment of woodwinds, and known for a keen musical mind that synthesizes many musical approaches, from microtonal music to big band swing, into a musically complete and distinctive whole. He has toured internationally with Omar Sosa, and plays locally with the Clubfoot Orchestra, Ian Cary Group, Electric Squeezebox Orchestra and Clarinet Thing, and leads several of his own ensembles. Mezzacappa, a fixture on the Bay Area music scene for almost two decades, writes music for groups from duo to large ensemble, and plays often as a side person with Cory Wright, Randy McKean, Nathan Clevenger, David James, Rob Ewing, and others. Her most recent music projects have arisen from deep immersion in textsÑfrom the journals of Victorian lady adventurers, to noir fiction to sci-fi comics and storiesÑand are often through-composed, meticulously arranged suites that foreground the composerÕs voice and vision. Tangle Trio is a new effort to liberate the ensemble from the tyranny of the bandleader-composerÑ!Ñand so Mezzacappa has distilled her compositional ideas for this group down to the barest fragments that the musicians can navigate and transform as part of the improvisation. Lisa Mezzacappa is a San Francisco Bay Area-based composer, bassist and bandleader. Called Òone of the most imaginative figures on the Bay Area creative jazz sceneÓ by The Mercury News and Òa Bay Area treasureÓ by KQED public radio, she has been an active part of CaliforniaÕs vibrant music community for more than 18 years. MezzacappaÕs activities as a composer and bandleader include ethereal chamber music, electro-acoustic works, avant-garde jazz, music for groups from duo to large ensemble, and collaborations with film, dance and visual art. Mezzacappa has released her music on the New World, Clean Feed, NoBusiness, Leo, Edgetone, Evander and NotTwo record labels. In addition to leading her own projects in the US and Europe, Mezzacappa has performed as a sideperson with heroes, Fred Frith, Marco Eneidi, Rhys Chatham, the Paul Dresher Ensemble, Mark Dresser's SIM Bass Ensemble, Nicole Mitchell, Ned Rothenberg, Myra Melford, Vinny Golia and many others. These days, she plays often with Rob EwingÕs quartet SIFTER, with David JamesÕ GPS, with the Nathan Clevenger Group, with Ian CareyÕs Wood/Metal/Plastic, with Cory WrightÕs Green Mitchell trio, and Randy McKeanÕs Bristle, in addition to the collaboration duo B., with drummer Jason Levis.,
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