We’re thrilled to host JAZZ REFRACATIONS 2026 on Saturday 10/11 featuring: Lisa Mezzacappa 5(ish) + Fay Victor’s Herbie Nichols SUNG
Schedule:
8:00pm – Fay Victor’s Herbie Nichols SUNG
9:15pm – Lisa Mezzacappa 5(ish)
Tickets:
$25.00 - General Admission
$15.00 - Students/Seniors
Limited parking onsite on first come, first serve basis. Additional parking spaces available on Casitas Ave and Minneapolis St. Safe and walkable neighborhood!
Fay Victor’s Herbie Nichols SUNG
Acclaimed vocalist-lyricist-arranger FAY VICTOR & her Herbie Nichols SUNG Quartet celebrate the rich legacy of jazz composer Herbie Nichols anew and bring it singing and swinging boldly into this century.
Victor’s Life is Funny That Way (released in April 2024) is a Herbie Nichols project like no other, including all original lyrics that Victor wrote alongside exciting approaches to presenting Nichols’ compositions never heard on record before.
Herbie Nichols SUNG seeks to combine improvisation inside and outside of the compositions, playing up the pure joy inherent in Herbie Nichols music. The release of Life is Funny That Way is a historic and landmark project to boot, featuring lyrics written to Nichols compositions for a full project for the first time, similar to Carmen McRae Sings Monk (1990).
On a deeply personal note, Nichols and Victor share Caribbean roots from Trinidad where Nichols’ father and Victor’s mother were born. This spirit is in the expression of the music on the album and in performance.
Herbie Nichols SUNG is a strong, important and unique reflection of Herbie Nichols’ compositions alongside Victor’s sound and vision for play.
Lisa Mezzacappa 5(ish)
Berkeley bassist and composer Lisa Mezzacappa brings the latest incarnation of her working band to Angel City in the Los Angeles premiere of a raucous and rollicking new suite of music. Her 5(ish) ensemble plays selections from its 2026 release “othrwrldly,” which explores the concept of worldbuilding—inspired by Mezzacappa’s fascination with the speculative fiction of Ursula Le Guin, Haruki Murakami, Samuel R.
Delany and David Mitchell— as a way to envision new kinds of musical interaction, storytelling, structure and play. othrwrldly showcases her band’s spectacular chemistry and keen improvisational prowess, woven into expansive compositions that foreground energy, sound, interaction and surprise. The band includes longtime collaborators tenor saxophonist Aaron Bennett (Adam Lane’s Full Throttle Orchestra), vibraphonist Mark Clifford (Meerna, Rent Romus), and drummer Jordan Glenn (Fred Frith Trio, Zeena Parkins), plus recent addition pianist Brett Carson (Art Ensemble of Chicago, Roscoe Mitchell).
For more than two decades, Mezzacappa has been a driving force in West Coast improvised music, leading projects that span ethereal chamber works, electro-acoustic compositions, avant-garde jazz, and interdisciplinary collaborations with film, dance, and visual art. Her music is deeply informed by a spirit of curiosity, often drawing inspiration from literature, science, and history—such as her acclaimed projects avantNoir, which was inspired by the crime novels of Paul Auster and Dashiell Hammett, and Cosmicomics, devoted to author Italo Calvino’s late 60s short fiction.