Queen Bee Records, the San Francisco Bay Area micro-label run by bassist and composer Lisa Mezzacappa, announces a new year-long initiative to celebrate and disseminate the singular work of her friends and colleagues in the region’s vibrant creative jazz community. Roughly once a month from February 2025 through February 2026, the label will release a new recording, in formats ranging from CD to digital to vinyl, by a Bay Area composer/bandleader.

The bands range in size from duo to large ensemble, and the music spans finely wrought through-composed works to freewheeling improvisation, lyrical tunes, layered grooves and abstract soundscapes. Some of the music represented in the series is a product of a single magical day in the recording studio; while other records are the culmination of long-simmering multi-year projects. Most of the musical relationships documented in this series have been developed over more than a decade—and sometimes more than 20 years—of collaboration.

A label showcase concert is planned on Thursday April 3, 2025 at 8pm at legendary dive bar and indie venue Thee Stork Club, Oakland, featuring artists from the first three releases and special guests.

Line up: duoB (Lisa Mezzacappa, Jason Levis), Green Mitchell Trio (Cory Wright, Lisa Mezzacappa, Jason Levis), Jordan Glenn’s BEAK (JG, Mark Clifford, David James, Karl Evangelista, Lisa Mezzacappa, Jon Arkin, Robert Lopez, Sudhu Tewari w/ Beth Schenck, Rob Ewing and Cory Wright).

Thee Stork Club- 2330 Telegraph Avenue, Oakland CA