It feels like this is the first day in weeks that I've been able to relax for a moment and write a blog entry — the past few weeks have been busy! With clarity on international shipping, we were finally able to import some of our most important labels and move our purchase queue forward. You'll see some of that in our In-Stock section today, and you'll also find key additions on our Recently Restocked page, including the incredible Evan Parker book & CD set, Japan's Amorfon Records, Discus Records, Libra, and a large restock of Clean Feed records.
Rather than rush the albums that came in early this week, we let them accumulate in our Just In Stock Section while we focused on running sales. These sales are vital to us, especially after the slowdown caused by tariff fears and temporarily suspended international shipping. Running a physical record store like ours depends on a steady flow of new releases in a highly competitive market. That interruption in shipments was concerning, and we responded with a series of sales that helped keep us afloat while the world figured out what to make of the U.S.'s petulant approach to taxation.
The two sales we're running this week have helped us reduce inventory and make room for the next set of releases, either already here or on the way. I'll detail those next week, but they include an excellent set of new albums on FMR Records, Another Timbre, and Discus Records.
Our Autumn Hat Sale also precedes the first new releases under the new ownership of ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Ltd., and we're especially excited about those albums, which are exclusive in the U.S. to Squidco. The new releases focus on modern jazz and free improvisation, boldly advancing some of the most interesting hybrids of contemporary improvisation. The albums arriving in the next few weeks include:
Upcoming ezz-thetics by Hat Hut, Ltd.
Cat Hope: Speachless (first visit)
Pierre Favre, Sergio Armaroli, Andrea Centazzo & Francesca Gemmo: The Art Of Sound(s) (first visit)
Francesca Gemmo & Magda Mayas: Tides In The Mirror (first visit)
Christoph Gallio's Stone Is A Rose Is A Stone Is A Stone: Yet Dish - Gertrude Stein (first visit)
The first day of fall is three days from when I'm publishing this. The world is in turmoil — more so than most years — but the music keeps on playing. And what amazing music we're finding for the season! Those of us on the sidelines of power politics — labels, artists, and stores like ours — will keep that music flowing, whether calming to escape or turbulent to reflect the state of the world. We'll do that with your help and your curiosity about the wonderful, creative, and innovative music that continues to emerge. Play on!
Queen Bee Records and Lisa Mezzacappa:
The West Coast and Bay Area
Since the late 1950s and early 1960s, the jazz avant-garde intersected with the countercultural currents of Beat poetry, free expression, and radical politics. Figures like Sonny Simmons and Bobby Few passed through, while local experimentalists began exploring freer forms of jazz. It's also the home of the psychedelic rock scene that included Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead, and Quicksilver Messenger Service, blurring the lines of improvisation and rock.
Until recently Mills College in Oakland has been a central hub for experimental music. With teachers such as Terry Riley, Pauline Oliveros, and Robert Ashley, the Bay Area nurtured new forms of electronic music, deep listening practices, and open structures for improvisation. Pauline Oliveros' San Francisco Tape Music Center (later part of Mills) played a vital role in integrating electronics, performance art, and improvisation.
By the 1970s, the Bay Area's improvisers freely crossed stylistic borders. Rova Saxophone Quartet, and particularly Larry Ochs, emerged as one of the era's most important ensembles, combining free jazz, post-bop, and experimental composition.Groups like Henry Kaiser’s bands bridged free improv and the experimental rock/avant-garde/fusion movement. Odd bands like the Residents, as well as labels like Ralph Records, pushed boundaries further.
By the 1980s collaborations with international figures like Derek Bailey, Evan Parker, Anthony Braxton became common in the Bay Area, and venues like New Langton Arts, Beanbenders, and Koncepts Cultural Gallery became important stages for experimental work. This led to a cross-pollinating network of jazz improvisers, noise musicians, and experimental rock performers, and labels including New World of Sound and Metalanguage Records. Collectives like Gino Robair's bands and improvisers associated with sfSound advanced electro-acoustic approaches.
By the late 1990s the collection of bands influenced by rock, experimental approaches and free improv swirling around Sleepytime Gorilla Museum coalesced, including Idiot Flesh, Faun Fables, Free Salamander Exhibit, Charming Hostess, Rabbit Rabbit Radio (bringing Carla Kihlstedt together with SGM members), Kihlstedt's 2 Foot Yard, Cosa Brava with Fred Frith, Tin Hat, Moe Staiano's Surplus 1980 and MOE!KESTRA, The Book of Knots. One can see that improvisation is threaded into the post-rock and experimental indie movements in the Bay Area, with groups blending chamber textures, electronics, and improvisational practices.
Bassist Lisa Mezzacappa
Photo by Heike Liss
This leads us today to Lisa Mezzacappa, a double bassist, composer, and bandleader, who epitomizes the contemporary Bay Area improvisation scene: a musician rooted in jazz but fluent in avant-garde composition, rock experimentalism, and collaborative community-based projects. Her work connects directly to the Bay Area's tradition of fluid boundaries - from Rova to Oliveros to Kaiser - while fostering new connections across visual art, film, and storytelling. Current venues and organizations like Center for New Music, Meridian Gallery, and sfSound's concert series sustain this incredible ecosystem.
Bands and organizations associated with Mezzacappa include Bait & Switch - A quartet blending free jazz with structured, groove-oriented improvisation, and the first album, What is Known, that Squidco carried in 2010 from the Clean Feed Label. AvantNOIR - A project fusing crime noir literature, improvisation, and experimental composition. Glorious Ravage - A large-scale song cycle inspired by Victorian-era women explorers, mixing composition, improvisation, and visual art. Collaborations with groups like sfSound and many Bay Area improvisers, often blurring lines between jazz, noise, and chamber music.
Squidco has carried her albums and collaborations ever since, on labels including Edgetone, Kadima, Leo Records, Tzadik, NoBusiness, New World Records, Not Two, Astral Spirits, and 577. These are some of our core labels, and the last mentioned, 577 Records, includes a collaboration with another important artist in our catalog, guitarist, Karl Evangelista.
Queen Bee Records
Little wonder that she started her own label, Queen Bee Records, in 2013 to further document not only her own work but also some of the important bands she’s been associated with.
The label has had an active year, releasing seven albums as I write this, including the long-running duo B. with drummer Jason Levis; the saxophone-bass-drum group Green Mitchell Trio led by multi-reedist and composer Cory Wright with Lisa Mezzacappa and drummer Jason Levis; Jordan Glenn's BEAK, a septet led by Jordan Glenn with guitarists Karl Evangelista and David James, bassist Lisa Mezzacappa, vibraphonist Mark Clifford, percussionist Robert Lopez, drummer Jon Arkin, and Val Esway; the Threadgill-esque band Bristle with saxophonists Randy McKean and Cory Wright join violinist/oboist Murray Campbell and bassist Lisa Mezzacappa; the trio of multi-reedist Steve Adams, bassist Lisa Mezzacappa, and drummer Jason Levis; and Sifter, the quartet of Rob Ewing on trombone, Beth Schenck on alto saxophone, Lisa Mezzacappa on acoustic bass, and Jordan Glenn on drums; and this week the Beth Schenck Quintet led by composer and alto saxophonist Beth Schenck, with Cory Wright on tenor saxophone & bass clarinet, Matt Wrobel on guitar, Lisa Mezzacappa on acoustic bass, and Jordan Glenn on drums.
That's a lot of amazing music, both free and lyrical with a diversity of approaches that makes them one of the most interesting labels we've added to our catalog this year.
Blending lush harmonies, rhythmic twists, and inspired interplay, alto saxophonist and composer Beth Schenck leads a Bay Area quintet of Cory Wright, Matt Wrobel, Lisa Mezzacappa, and Jordan Glenn in a set of fiercely original compositions that traverse ethereal soundscapes and propulsive forms, reflecting deep musical relationships, artistic nuance, and a richly personal voice.
A chordless Bay Area quartet with Rob Ewing on trombone, Beth Schenck on alto saxophone, Lisa Mezzacappa on acoustic bass, and Jordan Glenn on drums, performing original compositions from each member in playful, lyrical, and texturally rich improvisations that balance groove, swing, and exploratory ensemble interplay with an eclectic yet cohesive sound.
A focused and highly collaborative session from multi-reedist Steve Adams, bassist Lisa Mezzacappa, and drummer Jason Levis, whose long-standing connections through the Bay Area's creative music scene — including Mezzacappa and Levis's duo B and their co-led Experimental Band — inform these concise and sensitive 2022 improvisations with a compositional approach to form and balance.
Ten years after their last release, Northern California’s Bristle returns with a richly inventive chamber jazz album blending virtuosic improvisation and playful composition, as saxophonists Randy McKean and Cory Wright join violinist/oboist Murray Campbell and bassist Lisa Mezzacappa in a dynamic, Threadgill-esque ensemble sound full of counterpoint, wit, and imaginative sonic twists.
An electrifying fusion of diverse musical traditions, this evening-length composition showcases the dynamic interplay of guitarists Karl Evangelista and David James, bassist Lisa Mezzacappa, vibraphonist Mark Clifford, percussionist Robert Lopez, drummer Jon Arkin, and Val Esway, seamlessly blending composed structures with spontaneous improvisation to capture the ensemble's innovative spirit.
Expanding the possibilities of the saxophone-bass-drums trio, multi-reedist and composer Cory Wright leads bassist Lisa Mezzacappa and drummer Jason Levis in his Green Mitchell Trio's long-awaited follow-up, recording in the studio in Oakland, California, weaving songful melodies, high-energy free improv, intricate dissonances, and kinetic interplay for five lyrically inclined conversations.
Longtime collaborators Lisa Mezzacappa and Jason Levis deepen their exploration of Wadada Leo Smith's Ankhrasmation language, interpreting his graphic score through an intuitive acoustic bass and drum dialogue shaped by years of study, live performance, and improvisational research, forging their own path through his modular notation in a dynamic and deeply immersive exchange.
West Coast Bay Area guitarist Karl Evangelista leads his Apura ensemble — Lisa Mezzacappa (bass), Francis Wong (tenor sax), Rei Scampavia (keys, electronics), and Lewis Jordan (alto sax) — joined by drum legend Andrew Cyrille in a powerful statement of free improvisation, blending expressive intensity and forward-looking vision with deeply rooted passion and creative openness.
Squidco Publishing Roundup:
These are the updates to Squidco and The Squid's Ear over the last week. You can view our latest fully cataloged albums in the Recently Section.
You can also browse new titles as they enter our Just In Stock Section — meaning we physically have the album and can ship it, though we may still be updating additional information about the release.
To see restocks of previously listed titles, visit our Recently Restocked page.
And if you're interested in a future release, you can ask us to notify you by email via our Upcoming Releases page — no obligation necessary.
Another busy week here as, finally, import packages made it through to the US, and we worked quickly to get those albums catalogued on our site. Alongside them came a number of restocks and several domestic releases that have us genuinely excited.
The highlight of the week is the beautiful new duo from husband-and-wife improvisers Satoko Fujii and Natsuki Tamura. While they've collaborated as a duo many times before, this album feels especially elegant and refined. Fujii explaining how she adapted her playing to these conversations, eliciting a unique approach that, to my mind, makes this one of the most beautiful albums of the season.
Another gem comes from Confront: a live concert recording of Derek Bailey and John Stevens at The Duke of Wellington pub in London, 1989. Already seasoned improvisers at the time, the performance reveals decades of development, strategy, and camaraderie, captured in a fantastic document of their mature artistry.
We also have four new titles on the UK Discus label. Saxophonist and composer Paul Dunmall returns with his sixth Discus release, a large-ensemble project with intriguing orchestration. These lyrical, sophisticated compositions are performed by a mix of Northern England and London players, and the album reveals new facets with each listen.
Shifa-the long-standing trio of Rachel Musson (tenor saxophone), Pat Thomas (piano), and Mark Sanders (drums)-release a live set from Cafe Oto: a single improvisation that takes listeners on a far-reaching journey while maintaining cohesive conversation. A smaller yet equally compelling setting follows in the duo of saxophonist Larry Stabbins and drummer Mark Sanders, presenting an intimate, lyrical dialogue that also nods insightfully toward free jazz and UK improvisation. And on the more outré side, the group known as BleySchool-Pat Thomas, Dominic Lash, and Tony Orrell-rebrand themselves as Lifeline for an adventurous album of electroacoustic collective improvisation.
On vinyl LP we're thrilled to offer the wild duo recording of saxophonist Evan Parker and guitarist Bill Nace, another live performance from Cafe Oto. Their set spans from introspective explorations to moments of ecstatic energy, richly saturated throughout.
Finally, from Anthony Braxton's Tri-Centric Foundation-of which Squidco is the repository and distributor for their New Braxton House label-we've received limited vault copies of six essential Braxton albums. Five are from the Hatology label, available in very limited numbers. We also received copies of a Mixtery label trio featuring Braxton, Peter Brötzmann, and Borah Bergman-three masterful players in a remarkable collaboration.
The tenth duo recording from pianist Satoko Fujii and trumpeter Natsuki Tamura presents eight compositions of slow, lyrical beauty-seven by Tamura and one by Fujii-crafted with exquisite restraint and intimacy, as the long-time collaborators sustain a dignified atmosphere of quiet intensity and emotional depth, shaping silence and subtle detail into music of profound elegance.
Seminal figures in the evolution of free or nonidiomatic improvisation, guitarist Derek Bailey and percussionist/pocket trumpeter John Stevens are heard in a 1989 London performance vividly captured by Michael Gerzon at The Duke of Wellington, their restless and enthusiastic interplay shifting from angular invention to lyrical reflection in a compelling document of their remarkable rapport.
Delivering his sixth Discus Music release in two years, saxophonist Paul Dunmall leads a dynamic nonet drawn largely from Birmingham's thriving scene, joined by guests Martin Archer, Corey Mwamba, and John Ball, their first-take performances balancing sharply honed compositions with spontaneous invention in a powerful suite that shifts between bluesy themes, lyrical reflection, and collective fire.
The trio of Rachel Musson on tenor saxophone, Pat Thomas on piano, and Mark Sanders on drums perform as Shifa, their 46-minute improvisation moving through fiery intensity and spacious reflection in a cohesive journey shaped by deep trust, attentive listening, and fearless exploration, captured live at London's Café Oto in 2023.
Bringing together two major figures of UK improvisation, saxophonist Larry Stabbins - long associated with innovators like Mike Westbrook, Keith Tippett, and Robert Wyatt - and percussionist Mark Sanders (Paul Dunmall, John Butcher, Veryan Weston, &c) in 2024 Bristol sessions captured with stunning clarity, their 1st-take performances unfolding as thoughtful, exploratory dialogs of texture, rhythm, and timbre.
Breaking away from their acoustic trio Bleyschool, the long-standing partnership of Pat Thomas, Dominic Lash, and Tony Orrell reconfigure as Lifeline, trading piano, bass, and drums for keyboards, electroacoustic percussion, and electric guitar in a spontaneous studio performance that channels noise, dance, and rock energy into electrified free improv brimming with risk, tension, and surprise.
Meeting for the first time at Café OTO in 2024, soprano saxophonist Evan Parker and guitarist Bill Nace on electric taishogoto create an extraordinary improvised duo, Parker's circular-breathed torrents entwining with Nace's drone-soaked dynamism, from raw intensity to transcendent stillness in a performance of unbounded spirit, deep resonance, and ecstatic liberation.
continued...
The Squid's Ear presents reviews about releases sold at Squidco.com written by independent writers.
Rhodri Davies:
Luke Martin:
Emil Karlsen:
Ava Mendoza / Gabby Fluke-Mogul / Carolina Perez:
Jim Denley / Peter Farrar / Dale Gorfinkel:
Cecil Taylor / Tony Oxley:
Pellegrini Quartet:
Joel Futterman:
Joel Futterman:
Brandon Seabrook:
It feels like this is the first day in weeks that I've been able to relax for a moment and write a blog entry — the past few weeks have been busy! With clarity on international shipping, we were finally able to import some of our most important labels and move our purchase queue forward. You'll see some of that in our In-Stock section today, and you'll also find key additions on our 
Schenck, Beth Quintet (w/ Mezzacappa / Wright / Glenn / Wrobel): Dahlia (Queen Bee Records)
Sifter (w/ Lisa Mezzacappa): Flake / Fracture (Queen Bee Records)
Adams / Mezzacappa / Levis: Never But Dream The Days (Queen Bee Records)
Bristle (McKean / Wright / Campbell / Mezzacappa): Archimera (Queen Bee Records)
Glenn's, Jordan BEAK : The Party (Queen Bee Records)
Green Mitchell Trio (Wright / Mezzacappa / Levis): Nature Channel (Queen Bee Records)
duo B. (Lisa Mezzacappa / Jason Levis): Luminous Axis (Queen Bee Records)
Evangelista's, Karl Apura + Andrew Cyrille: Bukas (577 Records)
Tamura, Natsuki / Satoko Fujii: Ki (Libra)
Bailey, Derek / John Stevens: The Duke of Wellington (Confront)
Dunmall, Paul: Away With Troubles And Anxieties! (Discus)
Shifa (Musson / Thomas / Sanders): Ecliptic (Discus)
Stabbins, Larry / Mark Sanders: Cup & Ring (Discus)
Thomas / Lash / Orrell: Lifeline (Discus)
Parker, Evan / Bill Nace: Branches (Live at Cafe OTO)[VINYL] (Open Mouth)
