For friend of the proGram, Scott Amendola, the drum kit isn’t so much an instrument as a musical portal. As an ambitious composer, savvy bandleader, electronics explorer, first-call accompanist & capaciously creative foil for some of the world’s most inventive musicians, Scott applies his wide-ranging rhythmic virtuosity to a vast array of settings. His closest musical associates include guitarists Charlie Hunter, Nels Cline, & Jeff Parker, Hammond B-3 organist Wil Blades, violinist Jenny Scheinman, saxophonist Phillip Greenlief, clarinetist Ben Goldberg, bassists Trevor Dunn, & Todd Sickafoose, all players who have each forged a singular path within and beyond the realm of jazz. While rooted in the San Francisco Bay Area scene, Scott has woven a dense & far-reaching web of bandstand relationships that tie him to influential artists in jazz, blues, rock and new music. A potent creative catalyst, the Berkeley-based drummer is the nexus for a disparate community of musicians stretching from Los Angeles and Seattle to Chicago and New York. Whatever the context, Amendola possesses a gift for twisting musical genres in unexpected directions. Over a career spanning more than 3 decades, he has forged deep ties across the country, and throughout the world. As an ambitious composer, savvy bandleader, electronics explorer, first-call accompanist, and capaciously creative foil for some of the world’s most inventive musicians, Mr. Amendola applies his wide-ranging rhythmic virtuosity to a vast array of settings.
Ben Goldberg played jazz on the saxophone and classical music on the clarinet. While getting a B.A. in music from the University of California at Santa Cruz, studied clarinet with Rosario Mazzeo, the dean of 20th century clarinet teachers. Mr. Goldberg started playing and studying klezmer music, which has a virtuosic clarinet tradition. He pondered how to use the clarinet in jazz & improvised music as he was getting tired of the search for “authenticity” through note-for-note reconstructions of old recordings. In Sweden he met Ziya Aytekin, a traditional zurna player from the Caucasus and felt/heard how much his music had in common with, for example, the late work of John Coltrane. He wondered if he could use klezmer music to explore this connection between the traditional and the “avant-garde.” One day he got together with some cats with whom he’d often played traditional klezmer music with and he suggested they take a familiar tune and cut loose on it to see where it might go. The result was exhilarating and had a powerful, lasting effect on him. It was his first taste of music as a transformative, liberating force. This was the beginning of his creative musical path; in the years since then, Mr. Goldberg continued to work with and cultivate the musical forces that were present at that time – research, education, musical fundamentals, diligence, attention to detail, and a relentless pursuit of truth.
Todd Sickafoose is a Tony & Grammy award-winning composer, producer, arranger, orchestrator, bandleader & double bassist. He has performed on hundreds of recordings, toured internationally, appeared at music venues/festivals from Carnegie Hall to New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, and played on national television & radio programs including the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Late Show with Conan O’Brien, The Artists Den, & NPR’s Mountain Stage. He is known known as a musical cross-breeder who stretches across genres. In 2004, he began performing/recording in a duo format with folk poet, activist & cultural icon Ani DiFranco. Their relationship has developed for nearly 2 decades and have made 7 albums, 2 concert DVDs, and performed over 1000 shows together. In 2007, he began working on Anaïs Mitchell’s folk opera, ‘Hadestown’, as arranger/orchestrator & music producer. After years of development and regional productions, the show opened at the Walter Kerr Theater on Broadway in 2019 and won 8 Tony Awards, including Best Musical & Best Orchestrations for Mr. Sickafoose and collaborator Michael Chorney. He produced the Hadestown Original Broadway Cast Recording which won a 2019 Grammy for Best Musical Theater Recording. ‘Hadestown’ continues to run both on Broadway and a North American Tour. Straddling the worlds of folk, indie rock, jazz & chamber music, his own band Tiny Resistors has performed at the North Sea Jazz Festival, Stern Grove Festival, Angel City Jazz Festival and been featured on many “Best-Of” lists including the Village Voice & JazzTimes. Writing for Tiny Resistors, he recently composed Bear Proof, a long-form chamber jazz hybrid commissioned by the Doris Duke Foundation.
I had the chance to catch up with Scott ahead of the November 9th record release event here in Madison at the North Street Cabaret. We get into how much he enjoys coming to Madison and specifically playing a spot that has an audience that’s there for it! I have to dsay, it does me/us good to know how welcoming some of our hometown haunts are to people doing the hard work out there of traveling and sharing their art. We get into the new record of course. On ‘Here to There’, Ben Goldberg, Todd Sickafoose, & Scott Amendola play music inspired by the bridges of Thelonious Monk compositions. We dissect one of the tracks that really called me into it. We will hear things off this record for sure, other things (including anything new one of these minds may have brought to the team before the show) and improv. Scott and I also compare/contra=st this project to another recent project with the group SticklerPhonics and I think there’s more room for more projects of Scott’s to come to Madison and play with us.
Photo by Lenny Gonzales
