2019: The duo B. Experimental Band

Polly Moller Springhorn: flutes
Bruce Ackley: soprano saxophone
Randy McKean: alto sax/clarinets
Cory Wright: clarinet/tenor saxophone
Josh Marshall: tenor saxophone
Theo Padouvas: trumpet
Rob Ewing: trombone
Gabby Fluke-Mogul: violin
Murray Campbell: violin/oboe
Shanna Sordahl: cello
John Finkbeiner: guitar
Lisa Mezzacappa: bass
Kjell Nordeson: percussion
Jason Levis: drums

The duo B. Experimental Band (dBxB) is an improvising orchestra co-led by duo B. (Lisa Mezzacappa, bass and Jason Levis, drums). The new endeavor, launched in December 2018 at Temescal Art Center in Oakland, CA. The 13-member ensemble plays compositions by Levis and Mezzacappa that explore the thrilling boundaries between composed and improvised musical worlds; between avant-garde jazz and contemporary chamber music aesthetics; and between inspiring music of the past and a new musical language emerging from our current place and time.

duo B., the San Francisco Bay Area improvising and composing ensemble of drummer Jason Levis and bassist Lisa Mezzacappa, is a musical think tank of grand schemes and impossible scenarios. For more than a dozen years, the ensemble has developed and refined its singular approach to improvisation and composition, through cross disciplinary projects with film, collaborations with improvising instrumentalists at home and abroad, study of repertoire by like-minded composer-improvisers, and immersion in the improvised-composed musical worlds of masters Wadada Leo Smith, Anthony Braxton, Cecil Taylor, Henry Threadgill, and others. duo B. has released three recordings: the limited edition CD, these things seem natural to us (Evander, 2006); the LP, start this before dawn touches the skyscrapers (Edgetone, 2013); and most recently, No Ins & Outs (Queen Bee, 2017). This year, duo B. is in Ensemble-in- Residence at the Center for New Music in San Francisco, with video artist Charles Woodman.

The duo B. Experimental Band (photo by Peter B Kaars)