SCOTT AMENDOLA

“Nobody fuses like Scott Amendola – he’s not pandering, he just loves to rock, and freak out, and write actual tunes, and improvise, and devise a space where great musicians can explode.” Greg Burk, metaljazz.com

“Amendola’s music is consistently engaging, both emotionally and intellectually, the product of a fertile and inventive musical imagination.” Los Angeles Times

“If Scott Amendola didn’t exist, the San Francisco music scene would have to invent him.”
Derk Richardson, San Francisco Bay Guardian

“Amendola has complete mastery of every piece of his drumset and the ability to create a plethora of sounds using sticks, brushes, mallets, and even his hands.” Steven Raphael, Modern Drummer 

“…drummer/signal-treater Scott Amendola is both a tyrant of heavy rhythm and an electric-haired antenna for outworldly messages (not a standard combination).” Greg Burk, LA Weekly

For Scott Amendola, the drum kit isn’t so much an instrument as a musical portal. An ambitious composer, savvy bandleader and capaciously creative foil for some of the world’s most inventive musicians, Amendola applies his rhythmic virtuosity to a vast array of settings. His closest musical associates include guitarists, Nels Cline, Jeff Parker, Charlie Hunter, Hammond B-3 organist Wil Blades, violinists Regina Carter and Jenny Scheinman, clarinetist Ben Goldberg, players who have each forged a singular path within and beyond the realm of jazz.

No project better displays Amendola’s big ears and musical ambitions than “Fade To Orange”, an orchestral piece commissioned as part of the Oakland East Bay Symphony’s Irvine Foundation-funded New Visions/New Vistas initiative. The roiling work premiered to critical acclaim at Oakland’s Paramount Theater on April 15, 2011. As a sideman, Amendola has performed and recorded with a vast, stylistically varied roster of artists, including Pat Metheny, Bill Frisell, Laurie Anderson, John Zorn, Mike Patton, Mondo Cane, John Scofield, Cibo Matto, John Dieterich from Deerhoof, Wadada Leo Smith, Bruce Cockburn, Madeleine Peyroux, Joan Osborne, Jacky Terrasson, Shweta Jhaveri, Phil Lesh, Sex Mob, Kelly Joe Phelps, Larry Klein, Carla Bozulich, Wayne Horvitz, Johnny Griffin, Julian Priester, Sonny Simmons, Pat Martino, Jim Campilongo, Bobby Black, Larry Goldings, Paul McCandless, Rebecca Pidgeon, and the Joe Goode Dance Group.

Scott’s latest project, SticklerPhonics, is Scott on drums, percussion, and electronics, plus tenor saxophone and trombone. He calls it a “modern micro brass band” which borrows from the traditions of the New Orleans brass bands, but adds his wildly creative electronic element, and compositionally goes in all kinds of directions. Check out Scott Amendola & SticklerPhonics album “Technicolor Ghost Parade” on Jealous Butcher Records.

“Technicolor Ghost Parade, is a shapeshifting sonic wonderland, moving between freeform expression and complex instrumental textures.” – Brad Rose, @foxy.digitalis

“Amendola proves an expert in punctuation particularly adept at measuring out the generous fills he feeds in as the heat intensifies. There’s plenty to listen to however skeletal the set-up. And the glitchy, mischievous electronics that Amendola has ingeniously rustled up add welcome spice.” @ Marlbank Review

“Favorite track,‘Well Blazed’, with its schizo switchbacks from free craze to lullaby and back — no lie, it’s FUNNY. And no Amendola set would be complete without a few tastes of electronic freakery; he even devotes two miniatures here, notably “A Courting,” featuring a harmonious/awkward horn conversation (will they? the plugged-in firefly knows). In New Orleans, the funeral band’s job is to make you smile as the pallbearers stroll down the street. Same here, and we need it.”   Greg Burk, www.metaljazz.com

Scott’s involved in various working bands including: The Scott Amendola Trio, Scott Amendola Band, Charlie Hunter/Scott Amendola Duo, The Nels Cline Singers, Nels Cline and Scott Amendola are Stretch Woven, Amendola vs. Blades, Invisible Bird, and Mike Patton’s Mondo Cane.