Biography
Based in Brooklyn, New York, Ava Mendoza functions as guitarist, singer/songwriter, composer, and bandleader. She fronts the globe-trotting avant-rock trio Unnatural Ways, collaborates in a duo with former Can vocalist Malcolm Mooney, and appears on recordings and in performances across numerous settings. As a first-call session musician she has contributed to projects led by William Hooker, Nels Cline, Nate Wooley, and William Parker. Her knotty, dynamic yet intricately melodic approach fuses rock, jazz, metal, and funk with extended classical and improvisational study. Primary influences she cites include rhythmic fingerstyle players Rev. Gary Davis and Joseph Spence, the vanguard improvisations of electric guitarists Sonny Sharrock and Eddie Hazel, and saxophonists Albert Ayler and Peter Brötzmann. While residing in the Bay Area she issued her solo recording debut, Shadow Stories, in 2010. In 2015 Unnatural Ways cut its self-titled debut as a trio featuring drummer Nick Tamburro and multi-instrumentalist Dominique Leone. Following her move to New York, Mendoza sustained the group with bassist Tim Dahl and drummer Sam Ospovat on the 2016 album We Aliens and the 2019 release The Paranoia Party. In 2021 she joined William Parker’s trio alongside drummer Gerald Cleaver for the widely acclaimed Mayan Space Station.
Born in Miami, Florida, Mendoza spent her youth in Southern California. She took up classical guitar informally at age seven, pursued classical guitar technique through elementary school and junior high, and studied traditional music theory at Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan, where she also played in hard rock and punk bands outside school hours. After graduation she attended California Institute of the Arts in Valencia for one year before transferring to Mills College in Oakland to study modern classical and electronic theory plus improvisation; she has cited the chance to study with Fred Frith as a main reason for choosing Mills and earned a bachelor’s degree in Intermedia Arts there.
Remaining in the Bay Area, she began performing with local bands, free-improvisation ensembles, and in solo formats. In 2008 she released Jus on Balance Point Acoustics with an improvising quartet co-billed to drummer Weasel Walter, bassist Damon Smith, and clarinetist Jacob Lindsay. Two years later she issued the completely solo Shadow Stories on Resipiscent Records, presenting folk, country, and blues standards radically reinterpreted through improvisation together with original compositions. In 2012 she live-scored Buster Keaton: Four Short Films in collaboration with tUnE-yArDs, a commission for the San Francisco International Film Festival. She also recorded Quit Your Unnatural Ways as a duo with drummer Nick Tamburro for Weird Forest Records. In 2013 Mendoza live-scored the 1959 horror film The Bat for the San Francisco Film Society. Shortly before relocating to New York she and Tamburro enlisted multi-instrumentalist Dominique Leone to record the first self-titled Unnatural Ways album, though it appeared only in 2015 on New Atlantic. That same year marked the first of five occasions on which she was voted a rising star guitarist in the DownBeat Critics Poll.
In January 2016 she released the split album Ivory Tower with guitarist Sir Richard Bishop on Germany’s Unrock imprint. Seeking local players to continue Unnatural Ways as a trio, she recruited bassist Tim Dahl and drummer Sam Ospovat. The group issued We Aliens on John Zorn’s Tzadik label in 2016; that year Mendoza also released the eponymously titled EP Ava Mendoza/Maxime Petit/Will Guthrie and the digital-only D’M’N with Dahl and drummer Nándor Névai. In 2017 she participated in the avant-rock quartet Chaser on its self-titled debut. In 2018 she joined bassist Damon Smith in drummer William Hooker’s trio for Remembering on Astral Spirits.
Unnatural Ways issued The Paranoia Party in 2019; Mendoza described the themed album as “about aliens and being alien: political paranoia, inclusion, exclusion, migration, immigration, border crossings, alter egos, and alternate realities.” She also performed with Negativland on True False and recorded with drummer Moppa Elliott’s large group for Acceleration Due to Gravity. The year 2019 initiated her ongoing association with former Can vocalist Malcolm Mooney in a duo and as a member of his Eleventh Planet performing and touring ensemble.
The year 2020 proved especially active. In addition to appearing with saxophonist Stephen Gauci and drummer Vijay Anderson on Studio Sessions, Vol. 4, she joined saxophonist Jon Irabagon’s avant-jazz quartet I Don’t Hear Nothin’ but the Blues (with drummer Mike Pride and metal guitarist Mick Barr) for Anatomical Snuffbox and again worked with Negativland on Seeland. She also took part in the recording sessions for Nate Wooley’s Seven Storey Mountain, Vol. VI. In November she released the digital EP With Other Media: Music for Film and Broadcast, containing her score for Alice Guy-Blaché’s 1911 film Tramp Strategy; Kino Lorber commissioned the work for the anthology Pioneers: First Women Filmmakers, pairing early films by women with contemporary scores by women composers. During summer 2021 Mendoza served as guitarist for bassist William Parker’s power trio Mayan Space Station alongside drummer Gerald Cleaver, issued by AUM Fidelity.
Born in Miami, Florida, Mendoza spent her youth in Southern California. She took up classical guitar informally at age seven, pursued classical guitar technique through elementary school and junior high, and studied traditional music theory at Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan, where she also played in hard rock and punk bands outside school hours. After graduation she attended California Institute of the Arts in Valencia for one year before transferring to Mills College in Oakland to study modern classical and electronic theory plus improvisation; she has cited the chance to study with Fred Frith as a main reason for choosing Mills and earned a bachelor’s degree in Intermedia Arts there.
Remaining in the Bay Area, she began performing with local bands, free-improvisation ensembles, and in solo formats. In 2008 she released Jus on Balance Point Acoustics with an improvising quartet co-billed to drummer Weasel Walter, bassist Damon Smith, and clarinetist Jacob Lindsay. Two years later she issued the completely solo Shadow Stories on Resipiscent Records, presenting folk, country, and blues standards radically reinterpreted through improvisation together with original compositions. In 2012 she live-scored Buster Keaton: Four Short Films in collaboration with tUnE-yArDs, a commission for the San Francisco International Film Festival. She also recorded Quit Your Unnatural Ways as a duo with drummer Nick Tamburro for Weird Forest Records. In 2013 Mendoza live-scored the 1959 horror film The Bat for the San Francisco Film Society. Shortly before relocating to New York she and Tamburro enlisted multi-instrumentalist Dominique Leone to record the first self-titled Unnatural Ways album, though it appeared only in 2015 on New Atlantic. That same year marked the first of five occasions on which she was voted a rising star guitarist in the DownBeat Critics Poll.
In January 2016 she released the split album Ivory Tower with guitarist Sir Richard Bishop on Germany’s Unrock imprint. Seeking local players to continue Unnatural Ways as a trio, she recruited bassist Tim Dahl and drummer Sam Ospovat. The group issued We Aliens on John Zorn’s Tzadik label in 2016; that year Mendoza also released the eponymously titled EP Ava Mendoza/Maxime Petit/Will Guthrie and the digital-only D’M’N with Dahl and drummer Nándor Névai. In 2017 she participated in the avant-rock quartet Chaser on its self-titled debut. In 2018 she joined bassist Damon Smith in drummer William Hooker’s trio for Remembering on Astral Spirits.
Unnatural Ways issued The Paranoia Party in 2019; Mendoza described the themed album as “about aliens and being alien: political paranoia, inclusion, exclusion, migration, immigration, border crossings, alter egos, and alternate realities.” She also performed with Negativland on True False and recorded with drummer Moppa Elliott’s large group for Acceleration Due to Gravity. The year 2019 initiated her ongoing association with former Can vocalist Malcolm Mooney in a duo and as a member of his Eleventh Planet performing and touring ensemble.
The year 2020 proved especially active. In addition to appearing with saxophonist Stephen Gauci and drummer Vijay Anderson on Studio Sessions, Vol. 4, she joined saxophonist Jon Irabagon’s avant-jazz quartet I Don’t Hear Nothin’ but the Blues (with drummer Mike Pride and metal guitarist Mick Barr) for Anatomical Snuffbox and again worked with Negativland on Seeland. She also took part in the recording sessions for Nate Wooley’s Seven Storey Mountain, Vol. VI. In November she released the digital EP With Other Media: Music for Film and Broadcast, containing her score for Alice Guy-Blaché’s 1911 film Tramp Strategy; Kino Lorber commissioned the work for the anthology Pioneers: First Women Filmmakers, pairing early films by women with contemporary scores by women composers. During summer 2021 Mendoza served as guitarist for bassist William Parker’s power trio Mayan Space Station alongside drummer Gerald Cleaver, issued by AUM Fidelity.
Albums
Singles
