Allen Mezquida is an illustrator and jazz saxophonist.
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]
With Cow Bop (Bruce Forman)
With Mark Murphy
With Molly Ringwald
With Sean Smith