Berkeley-based bassist, composer, improviser, bandleader, and producer Lisa Mezzacappa works across creative jazz, chamber music, electro-acoustic music, and interdisciplinary collaboration.
Home base: Berkeley, California
Styles: Creative Jazz, Improvised Music, Avant-Garde Jazz, Chamber Music, Electro-Acoustic Music
Instruments: Bass, Composition, Improvisation, Production
Band: Mezzacappa leads and co-leads projects including Bait & Switch, Nightshade, the Lisa Mezzacappa Trio, Tangle Trio, duo B., Cylinder, the Mezzacappa-Phillips Duo, and Les Gwan Jupons.
Lisa Mezzacappa is a San Francisco Bay Area bassist, composer, bandleader, and producer whose work moves between improvisation, adventurous jazz, chamber writing, electro-acoustic music, and collaborations with film, dance, and visual art. Active in California’s music community for nearly two decades, she has led groups ranging from duo to large ensemble and has released music through labels including Clean Feed, NoBusiness, Leo, NotTwo, Evander, Odd Shaped Case, and Edgetone. Mezzacappa has also recorded as a sideperson and works as a curator and collaborator across the Bay Area creative-music scene. Her current and recent work includes Lisa Mezzacappa 5(ish), whose 2026 release *othrwrldly* continues her interest in original composition and improvising ensembles.
Lisa Mezzacappa Quintet at Mr. Tipples presents adventurous original music by the Bay Area bassist, composer, bandleader, and producer, alongside fresh arrangements of rarely heard works by Herbie Nichols, Geri Allen, Arthur Blythe, Ornette Coleman, Carla Bley, and Charles Mingus. With Aaron Bennett on tenor saxophone, Mark Clifford on vibraphone, Brett Carson on piano, and...
Lisa Mezzacappa Quartet at The Deluxe spotlights a San Francisco Bay Area bassist, composer, bandleader, and curator known for adventurous original music at the intersection of written composition and improvisation....