Lisa Mezzacappa Six : CosmiComics

My latest suite of music for jazz sextet is inspired by Italo Calvino's nerdy, hilarious, lewd, poignant collection of short stories, the Cosmicomics. I've written nine or so pieces inspired by Calvino's stories that humanize and personify far-out and beautiful phenomena that defy human perception—the expansion of the universe, the origins of the planet, the mysterious relationsihp of the earth to its moon, the evolution of humans and creatures. We developed this music over the course of 2018, in a series of work-in-progress salons at the spectacular Glen Park mainstay, Bird & Beckett Books & Records, and recorded it in 2019. The recording is released on Queen Bee Records on February 3, 2020, and is available through Bandcamp on CD and as a digital download. The CD features stunning original artwork by Oakland's own, Dan Nelson!

Aaron Bennett, tenor sax
John Finkbeiner, guitar
Mark Clifford, vibes
Tim Perkis, electronics
Lisa Mezzacappa, bass
Jordan Glenn, drums