Mama Killa - Ava Mendoza (2025)

Way back–like, way back: post #4 on the blog from January 2022–I wrote up William Parker’s Mayan Space Station, where the great bassist’s trio included a guitarist named Ava Mendoza. I commented at the time that I knew nothing about her but that she sounded like one of my favorites, Sonny Sharrock.

Fast forward nearly five years. I’ve listened to a lot more William Parker, I’ve really gotten to love that Mayan Space Station record, and I keep seeing Mendoza’s name popping up all over the edgy side of the jazz and underground world.

This includes her band Unnatural Ways (I wrote up their record Paranoia Party, apparently not to be confused with an entirely different record under Mendoza’s own name called Unnatural Ways).

It now also includes this awesome piece of free noise with Mendoza, the overdriven and distorted violin of Gabby Fluke-Mogul, and death metal drummer Carolina Perez.

The noise level might make it shocking, initially, but the trio quickly build up conversationally, letting each take the lead from time to time, and map out some amazing sonic spaces.

If you listen to one free-metal-noise-jazz-guitar-drums-and-violin record this year, make it this one.