“Expertly navigating the border between free jazz and heavy, kick-down-the-door rock intensity … guaranteed to grab [your] attention.”

— All About Jazz

CapitalBop is thrilled to announce that the trailblazing Mendoza Hoff Revels will touch down in D.C. on Saturday, Dec. 21, for a special show at the Black Cat. This special concert will also feature D.C.’s own experimentalists Nik Francis + Mark Cisneros, performing as a duo. Tickets are available now at blackcatdc.com!

The blistering avant-jazz-punk quartet known as Mendoza Hoff Revels burst onto the scene in a big way last year with Echolocation, their critically acclaimed debut album. It announced the arrival of a powerful new force in creative music, and made its way onto many best-of-2023 lists. CB can’t wait to bring Revels to D.C. for their first-ever show in the nation’s capital.

On Echolocation and in the live shows they’ve been playing over the past year-plus, Mendoza Hoff Revels embody a quintessential fusion of punk-rock spirit and avant-garde exploration. With guitarist Ava Mendoza and bassist Devra Hoff at the helm, this New York-based quartet’s electrifying sound locates it at the cutting edge of progressive rock, and has made Revels the latest darlings of the improvised-music world.

 

Mendoza and Hoff both have a history of teaming up with world-class innovators across genres. The guitarist has collaborated with the likes of avant-garde icon John Zorn, genre-bending guitarist Nels Cline and free-jazz luminary William Hooker. Before starting Revels, her best-known solo project had been her experimental rock band, Unnatural Ways. The equally dynamic Hoff has performed with artists across rock, pop and experimental music such as Sharon Van Etten, experimental pop composer Julia Holter and punk legend Yoko Ono, displaying their versatility on over 100 recordings and gracing stages worldwide.

At Black Cat, D.C.’s legendary punk venue, the quartet will be rounded out by saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock and drummer Ches Smith.

CapitalBop’s first presentation at Black Cat was during the Home Rule Festival 2023, when we were proud to bring a full night of creative music to this historic venue. We can’t wait to bring the collaboration back to life in December, with two ensembles on the vanguard of creative music circa 2024.

About Mendoza Hoff Revels 

Echolocation Is the astonishing debut album from Mendoza Hoff Revels – an electric and formidable new unit led by Ava Mendoza (Unnatural Ways, Bill Orcutt, William Parker’s Mayan Space Station) on guitar and Devra Hoff (Sharon Van Etten, Julia Holter, Cibo Matto) on bass. As non-characterizable as it is sharply focused, Echolocation highlights the multi-faceted nature of both Hoff and Mendoza’s playing, where moments of full-blown jazz-rock freak-outs, intricately woven riffs, and unbelievably catchy melodies, expand and meld together exceptionally. 

While Mendoza and Hoff have floated around each other’s musical orbits as individuals for decades, the original impetus of this group was Mendoza’s, based on the love she and Hoff shared for aggressive and polyglot electric avant-garde ensembles – artists like mid-80’s Black Flag and Ornette Coleman’s Prime Time bands revolutionized the way they heard music. Mendoza and Hoff split the writing of these pieces, with the sizable stamps of James Brandon Lewis on tenor sax and the John Zorn-collaborator Ches Smith on drums. The result is remarkable – 21st Century progressive rock played by punk rockers with serious improv skills and a deep jazz feel. 

The inspirations for these eight tracks are just as wide-ranged as the musicians’ backgrounds in jazz, rock, and avant-garde. A carnival folk dance performed in Bolivia, in which a devil deity fights arc-angel Michael, inspired the lead single, “Diablada.” Then there’s “Babel-17,” a namesake of Samuel Delany’s novel which addresses the consciousness-altering powers of language. And of course, the recreation lounge found on deck 10 of a Galaxy-class starship, otherwise known as “Ten Forward.” However, it’s the album’s title, Echolocation, that truly gives us a glimpse of how this slew of diverse influences fit together: “Certain animals use sound to find their way through space and time by decoding sonic refractions,” Mendoza and Hoff state in the album’s liner notes. “This seems like a fitting metaphor for how music helps humans collectively decode our own experiences of our world and our lives, through the alchemy of transfigured sound.” 

About Nik Francis + Mark Cisneros 

Mark Cisneros (Marcos Aurelio Cisneros) is a Washington, DC based Chicano/Indigenous American artist, multi-instrumentalist, composer, and improviser whose creative output shifts between the Jazz, punk, experimental, and improvised music worlds. Born in Los Angeles but relocated to the East Coast in his 20s. Before settling in Washington DC, he lived in Brooklyn, NY and studied as a saxophonist at the New School in Greenwich Village learning from such greats as Ahmed Abdullah, David Schnitter, Joe Chambers, and Tim Price.  

Though a tenor saxophonist primarily, over the past decade he has placed a dedicated focus on the Stritch. An antique straight saxophone (sibling of the Eb alto) whose modern name was coined by its most famous player, Rahsaan Roland Kirk. 

Cisneros has shared the bandstand with such contemporary greats as Luke Stewart, Jaimie Branch, Jamal Moore, Nik Francis, Anthony Pirog, Keir Neuringer, Aaron Martin, Mary Lattimore, Warren “Trae” Crudup, Mars Williams, Jarrett Gilgore, and Ian McColm. 

Nik Francis is an improvising musician with a primary focus on the drum kit, occasionally integrating electronics and small acoustic instruments to expand his sonic palette. He has collaborated with artists such as Jamal Moore, Jim Ryan, Tyler Higgins, Luke Stewart, and Thollem, exploring a broad range of improvised and experimental music. Through topology.systems, Francis maintains a library of his solo work and collaborative projects, documenting his evolving approach to rhythm and sound.

To find out more and support CB’s work, visit capitalbop.com/donate

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Show poster designed by Jamie Sandel for CapitalBop.

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