Ava Mendoza + Emad Armoush

SECOND SET - LATE SHOW

 

AVA MENDOZA is a guitarist, songwriter and composer. Best known for her solo guitar/voice performances, and as the leader of the experimental rock band Unnatural Ways, she has received critical acclaim for her guitar work's compelling combination of technique and visceral impact. Performing/recording credits include work with William Parker, the Bill Orcutt Quartet, Marc Ribot, Hamid Drake, Carla Bozulich, Fred Frith, Malcolm Mooney, Mike Watt, Nels Cline, John Zorn, Negativland, the Violent Femmes, and more. She has received composition commissions from film distributor Kino Lorber, Jazz Coalition, New Music Creator Development Fund, and John Zorn’s Stone Commissioning Series at National Sawdust, as well as an FCA Grant to Artists award.

“The guitar has a turbulent, crashing energy, erupting in violence, then settling back into a back slouching blues riff… thick and visceral enough to feel like a bodily presence, but it’s animated by an eerie, untethered spirit, corpus and shadow joined at the foot. It’s classic blues touched with the chaos of rock and the exploratory courage of free-jazz.” -Aquarium Drunkard