Ava Mendoza is simply one of the best guitarists around today. She has played with a murderer’s row of improvisers and experimentalists over the last 20 years, across styles incorporating rock, blues, jazz, bluegrass, metal, and the avant-garde.
…Alive Alone, Alive Together collects Mendoza’s recent live recordings from four different events. Half are duets with drummer Hamid Drake from the Summer Bummer Festival in Antwerp, while the rest are solo performances from the US and Italy. Despite what might be thought of as a limited sound palette, there is little repetition throughout the album.
‘Sun Gun’ is one of the duets, with Mendoza picking distorted lines in a heavy blues style accompanied by Drake’s nonstop barrages.
Tag Archive: Ava Mendoza
Even on paper, this is such an interesting trio. Ava Mendoza is a brilliant and versatile guitarist who feels comfortable playing heavy rock, blues, jazz, improv, and experimental music. One could say the same about violinist gabby fluke-mogul, though she is centered more in the improv / experimental space. Carolina Pérez, on the other hand is a death metal drummer. Sounds good, right?
Mama Killa is the type of album that you might expect someone like John Zorn to put together. Get a bunch of accomplished musicians together in a room, and unleash them. Indeed, you cannot help but think of Zorn’s Simulacrum (Matt Hollenberg, John Medeski, and Kenny Grohowski) or unrecorded trio Bladerunner (Zorn, BIll Laswell, and Dave Lombardo) when considering…