Allen Mezquida

Allen Mezquida is an illustrator and jazz saxophonist.

Biography

Mezquida was a jazz alto saxophonist in the New York area for much of the 1980s and 1990s.[1] He recorded one album as leader – A Good Thing, which was released by Koch in 1996.[2] His quartet for the album was Bill Mays or Brad Mehldau on piano, bassist Sean Smith, and drummer Leon Parker.[2] In the late 1990s, Mezquida decided to try something else: he later commented that "I was feeling underappreciated, a lot of self-pity",[3] and "I was more frustrated with jazz's tiny place in the current cultural landscape than with my jazz career".[1]

He then drew cartoons and took up digital animation.[1] After moving to Los Angeles, he got work for major film studios.[1] He later described this as "executing the ideas of morons that I didn't respect", and started a YouTube channel for his animated creation, Smigly.[3]

Mezquida played saxophone on Molly Ringwald's Except Sometimes.[4]

Discography

As leader

A Good Thing (Koch)

As sideman

With Cow Bop (Bruce Forman)

  • Too Hick for the Room (B4Man)[5]

With Mark Murphy

With Molly Ringwald

With Sean Smith

References
  1. Springer, Mike (September 24, 2011) "Jazz Toons: Allen Mezquida's Journey from Bebop to Smigly". Open Culture.
  2. Yanow, Scott "Allen Mezquida – A Good Thing". AllMusic. Retrieved December 8, 2016.
  3. Gavin, James (September 3, 2010) "YouTube's Rising Cartoon Star". The Daily Beast.
  4. Louden, Christopher (April 22, 2013) "Molly Ringwald: A Star, Reborn". JazzTimes.
  5. Hadley, Frank John (October 2011) "Cow Bop – Too Hick for the Room". Down Beat. p. 59.
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