duo B

A 10-year musical and creative collaboration, duo B. is an ensemble of acoustic bass and percussion that plays ethereal chamber music wrapped in dense improvised soundscapes. Percussionist Jason Levis uses gongs, Tibetan singing bowls, bowed cymbals, marimba and drumset to create lush, delicate textures and abstract noise grooves. Bassist Lisa Mezzacappa draws on a palette of sinister drones, punchy vamps and acoustic bass manipulations to weave storylines through gnarly rhythms, pointillistic shapes and ecstatic melodies. In addition to performing traditionally-notated original music and arrangements, the ensemble has also worked with graphic scores, improvisation games, text, tape music, film and visual art to create a new multidisciplinary chamber music hybrid. duo B.'s influences range from free jazz to dub reggae to contemporary chamber music, from Threadgill to Zorn, the Abyssinians to the Boredoms, Messaien to Grisey and back again. The band was formed in 2005 and has performed throughout the San Francisco Bay Area (where it was born) and in Germany (where Levis is now based).