New Green Mitchell Trio Album from Queen Bee

Green Mitchell Trio members Jason Levis, Cory Wright, and Lisa Mezzacappa (photograph by Myles Boisen, courtesy of Mezzacappa)

Almost a month ago, this site wrote about the Queen Bee Records release of Luminous Axis, an album of drums-and-bass performances by the duo B. ensemble, whose members are Lisa Mezzacappa on acoustic bass and drummer Jason Levis. This was followed this past Friday by a new Queen Bee album. The title of this one is Nature Channel, and it is a performance by Green Mitchell Trio. In spite of its name, this trio is led by Cory Wright, alternating between tenor saxophonist and bass clarinet, with rhythm provided again by Mezzacappa and Levis.

The album consists of five tracks with the title track in the middle. Most of the tracks are roughly five minutes in duration. The one exception is the fourth track, “Valk,” which runs short of roughly fourteen minutes. Given my past experiences with the woodwind family, I was mostly drawn to Wright’s bass clarinet work, which I have always felt evoked a sound world unto itself. This is the second in a series of three releases by Queen Bee Records, the first of which, Luminous Axis, featured Mezzacappa and Levis performing as a duo (which they call duo B.). Wright’s addition to that duo opens up a door of new sonorities, providing the attentive listener with an engaging journey through a diversity of sound worlds.