To fully understand what it’s like to be a modern musician, particularly one that plays in that cloudy space where free jazz, experimental, American Primitive, and contemporary classical fogs up the landscape, you just need to ask guitarist Ava Mendoza what’s on the horizon for her.
In addition to the shows she is playing in Portland on Tuesday December 10 at No Fun and Wednesday December 11 at Turn Turn Turn, as part of a short residency curated by the Creative Music Guild, and the concerts she talks about below, the 36-year-old musician will have her work featured on at least 11 albums that will be released at some point in 2020.
And to fully grasp just how fluid Mendoza is as a player and improviser, just scan through the list of names attached to those records: saxophonist Jon Irabagon, cellist Erik Friedlander, drummer William Hooker, Wilco member Nels Cline, and former Can vocalist Malcolm Mooney. All equally curious artists with penchant toward the discordant and dissonant.
Mendoza moves from session to live gig with ease and good humor and once-in-a-generation proficiency with her chosen instrument. She’s built up her skills over nearly three decades of study and self-exploration that began with classical training during her childhood years living in the Bay Area but was soon taken over by her interests in early blues and roots music, jazz, and avant rock. After establishing herself as a talent to be reckoned with, Mendoza relocated to Brooklyn where she has become a fixture on the New York music scene as well as getting calls to tour with her projects, including political agit rock trio Unnatural Ways, and other bands.
Her Portland stop this week, which includes a free workshop at the Boedecker Foundation on December 11 at 4 pm, is reflective of where her career stands, bouncing in and out of town for a show or a few performances before quickly moving on. It’s not, as she said as part of our email interview, where she’d ultimately like to direct her energies. But, as ever, she welcomes the challenge and the chance to make a righteous racket with some new musical voices.
PORTLAND MERCURY: I’ve read in some other interviews of yours that, in your high school years, you dug into the work of old blues guitarists and jazz freaks like Sonny Sharrock and Albert Ayler… how did those artists come into your view? Were that through self-directed digging or did you have a mentor of some kind?
AVA MENDOZA: At that time it was mostly self-directed and through my friends. When I went into high school, I was into punk bands like Black Flag, the Stooges, and Sonic Youth, and LA bands like Red Aunts and the Geraldine Fibbers and Mike Watt’s projects. Because I liked the chaotic parts and the bluesy parts of that music, it all kind of snowballed. Watt and Nels Cline (who was in the Fibbers) were free jazz gateways for me. After every single show, Watt still yells, “John Coltrane!!!!” into the mic before leaving the stage. I would read interviews where they mentioned late Coltrane, Ornette, etc., and then go hunt those things down on the ’90s internet. I had a couple high school friends who were already really into out jazz who introduced me to Albert Ayler and Cecil Taylor. As far as blues, I got into Captain Beefheart, and I read somewhere that he sounded like Howlin’ Wolf, so I listened to Howlin’ Wolf. Then I thought I should listen to older blues, so I got into Robert Johnson and Skip James and Rev. Gary Davis. Again, this was the 20th century internet, and you could research and listen to lots of music for free for the first time. So finding things early on came from talking to music freaks my own age, reading interviews with musicians I liked, and just tracking it down.
What was behind your decision to feature your vocals on a full album for the first time, specifically The Paranoia Party, the new Unnatural Ways LP that came out this year?
When I wrote the album, that wasn’t the plan but lyrics just kept coming. Some of them are personal, but most of them have to do with the “migrant crises” going on here and in Europe. This stuff hits close to home if you’re involved in any immigrant community, and hopefully if you’re a human. My dad’s a Bolivian immigrant, and I grew up around tons of immigrant families. So the things being done at the border in the US and the constant paranoia being inflicted by our administration and ICE are appalling to me, and it’s really hard to know what to do to help. Writing these lyrics was kind of my way of trying to process that. They’re all about borders and how their enforcement affects people on the other side… borders, border crossings, the concept of who’s allowed in and out.
Are you fairly selective when it comes to folks to perform/collaborate with? Or do you not want to limit yourself like that?
For a one-off gig or two I’m pretty open to collaborations. For a tour or a record, I’m more selective. I like to work really intensely, and I want to make sure I believe in the music and like working with the people if I’m going to do that.
That said—how do you approach a situation like flying into Portland to play gigs with musicians, many of whom you’ve never collaborated with before? Is that simply an exciting prospect or does it cause any anxiety?
I guess music in general is exciting, and can cause anxiety! I wouldn’t say it makes me more anxious to play improvised music with new people than to play rehearsed songs alone or with people I know well. Maybe that sounds weird, but I think both situations have possibilities and pitfalls. There’s always improvising in any song you play— timing, tone, dynamics, adjusting to the rest of the band on all those levels, etc.— and there’s always some forethought or practice that goes into improvised music. Playing with newer folks, I might think in advance about their style and what we could do best together, but ultimately I just have to pay attention and react in the moment.
Has it been an easy thing for you to juggle the many projects/gigs that you seem to have, both in terms of your headspace/how you approach playing in each one and time management?
Nooooooo!! Non-easy. My own music is my highest priority, but I love interpreting other people’s music very much. I’ve kind of accepted that the way I like to work takes a lot of time— writing, practicing, playing as many shows as possible to break it in before recording. Playing stuff over and over again is really how music develops in my experience. A huge part of why I love touring is the repetition—getting deep into the music night after night.
But often I’m playing just single gigs with different projects when I’m in town, and that’s a different mindset. They all require different guitar techniques and so learning the music and playing it convincingly is really a full time job. In any given week I might be playing solo, with Unnatural Ways, with a rock singer, in a free jazz group, a new music ensemble, an old school R&B band, etc., etc., so it’s a lot to keep track of. In a perfect world, I’d like to only tour or do residencies where I’m focused on one project for several weeks at a time. But practical reality says everything often happens at the same time, so it’s truly a juggling act.
Has that ability to juggle projects become a bigger issue as it becomes harder and harder for folks living in big cities like New York to make ends meet? Are you in a fairly comfortable place economically-speaking?
2019 is the first year I started making my living from performing/recording. Teaching guitar was the meat and potatoes of my income for a decade, and this past year that shifted. I’m thrilled of course, but living from playing is also more unstable than living from teaching because it’s on a month-to-month basis essentially. So no, “comfortable” is not a word I’d choose! I wouldn’t assume that about any musician living in NYC. I do my best to plan ahead, live simply, and keep a really tight ship when touring or making records. Nepotism can also be a beautiful and powerful thing when money is scarce! Having good relationships with people I trust and hooking each other up with “friend deals” is important.
What does 2020 look like for you?
In April, Malcolm Mooney is doing a residency at Union Pool in Brooklyn and I’ll be on those shows. We recorded together a couple of months ago with Steve Shelley (Sonic Youth), and that should be coming out sometime that year. I have a solo record coming out—a joint release by Astral Spirits and Relative Pitch—in spring 2020. So, some US touring will happen around that. And in June and July, I’ll be in Europe touring solo, including a three-show thing at the Monheim Triennale in Germany in early July, including a date with Unnatural Ways and a duo with Tatsuya Yoshida of Ruins. And a residency at the Stone in Manhattan during the second week of July.
Ava Mendoza w/Grant Pierce and Andrew Jones, Tues Dec 10, 9:30 pm, No Fun, $10-15; guitar workshop, Wed Dec 11, 4pm, Boedecker Foundation, FREE; solo performance, Wed Dec 11, 8 pm, Turn Turn Turn, $10-15