Jazz Articles about Ava Mendoza

About Ava Mendoza

Album Review

Nate Wooley: Seven Storey Mountain VI

Read "Seven Storey Mountain VI" reviewed by Troy Dostert

by Troy Dostert
October 11, 2020

Long considered one of the most innovative and idiosyncratic trumpeters in the improvised music community, Nate Wooley has for many years astonished listeners with his formidable technique and broad-minded vision. Nowhere is this more evident than in his Seven Storey Mountain series, a sequence of recordings going back to 2007 that is now in its sixth iteration. With an ever-expanding cast of associates who share Wooley's iconoclasm, this is improvised music of a distinctive and ambitious character, determined to bridge ...

Album Review

Mendoza / Anderson / Gauci: Studio Sessions Vol. 4

Read "Studio Sessions Vol. 4" reviewed by John Sharpe

by John Sharpe
March 22, 2020

If you want to avoid compromise, then starting your own label appears a sound strategy. That's the road traveled by NYC-native saxophonist Stephen Gauci with his eponymous imprint. Since its inception in 2019, releases have been split between live recordings from the Bushwick Improvisers Series which Gauci runs and studio sessions, all of which so far have featured the reedman in a variety of settings, from his quartet with Sandy Ewen, Adam Lane and Kevin Shea, to his duo with ...

Album Review

Ava Mendoza: Unnatural Ways

Read "Unnatural Ways" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
July 8, 2015

The debut album led by West Coast USA guitarist, vocalist Ava Mendoza parallels some of the principles established by the renegade New York City downtown scene with correlations to avant- rock albums produced by John Zorn for his long-running Tzadik record label. I listened to the LP, and it appears that the only other option would be to purchase the digital download. But the wide dynamic range of vinyl serves this band well. The musicians' kinetic energy ...