(photo by Lenny Gonzalez)
In partnership with Wrangletown Presents!
Scott Amendola—drummer, composer, bandleader, and creative force on the Bay Area jazz scene (and far beyond) for the past three decades—knows all about the power of subtraction. His new stripped-down trio SticklerPhonics brings together tenor saxophonist Raffi Garabedian and trombonist Danny Lubin-Laden, New York-seasoned improvisers who’ve worked together since their formative years two decades ago in the vaunted Berkeley High Jazz Band.
The trio’s terrain is the space that opens up in the absence of a bass or a chordal instrument like piano or guitar. “The sound is ever evolving,” says Amendola. “We’re really settling in, but there’s also the feeling like there are places to go … We’re just getting started.”
Amendola, who first gained national attention in the Grammy-nominated three-guitar-and-drums band T.J.Kirk, draws from a deep well of experience in unusual instrumental settings. With all three players contributing original compositions, SticklerPhonics draws on a continuum of musical practices, from traditional jazz polyphony and ambient soundscapes to funk and free jazz.
That said, there aren’t many models to follow for SticklerPhonics—although the group Barondown with tenor saxophonist Ellery Eskelin and trombonist Steve Swell is a major source of inspiration. “It’s fun to be in this almost uncomfortable situation,” says Garabedian. “You need melody, rhythm, and harmony, and the challenge is how can you successfully get all that” with such pared-down instrumentation.
Now based in Oakland, Lubin-Laden studied at New York City’s New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music with Art Baron, Alan Ferber, Lee Konitz, and Ambrose Akinmusire. In addition to SticklerPhonics, he performs in an array of settings, including the Jackie McLean repertory band JACKNIFE, Oakland R&B legend Johnny Talbot’s DeThangs, and the Electric Squeezebox Orchestra.
Garabedian’s New School teachers included jazz heavyweights Tony Malaby, Mark Turner, Chris Cheek, Bill McHenry, and Andrew Cyrille, and his recording and sideman credits include dates led by Dayna Stephens, Ben Street, and Jorge Rossy. He too performs throughout the Bay Area, leading his own quartet and octet and playing in the Electric Squeezebox Orchestra and with his brother, New York bassist Noah Garabedian.
Garadedian and Lubin-Laden have also co-led Brass Magic, a stylistically omnivorous, horn-heavy band that melded funk, rock, R&B. “We had this chemistry right away as teenagers,” Lubin-Laden says, and over twenty-plus years they’ve explored many different quadrants of the periodic table. “It seems like Scott is in a very similar place to us musically,” he adds. “SticklerPhonics feels very exposed, but there’s this freedom in being able to accompany each other when we take solos. And Scott is the miracle glue for the whole thing. He’s such a force of nature as a drummer.”
Born in New Jersey but long based in Berkeley, Amendola has woven a dense and far-reaching web of bandstand relationships that tie him to leading artists in jazz, blues, rock, new music and beyond. He’s released some two dozen albums as a leader or co-leader and contributed to more than 100 others. A creative catalyst as a bandleader, composer, and accompanist, he has collaborated closely with guitarists Nels Cline, Jeff Parker, John Schott and Charlie Hunter; organist Wil Blades; violinists Jenny Scheinman and Regina Carter; saxophonists Larry Ochs and Phillip Greenlief; and clarinetist Ben Goldberg, players who’ve all forged singular paths within and beyond the realm of jazz. A frequent visitor to Arcata, he’s appeared in several Redwood Jazz Alliance seasons, in the trio Plays Monk (with Ben Goldberg and Devin Hoff), the quartet Go Home (with Goldberg, Charlie Hunter, and the late Ron Miles), the Nels Cline Singers, the Scott Amendola Band, and Jenny Scheinman’s Damn Skippy.
Sponsors
Our programming couldn’t happen without the steadfast support of dozens of RJA members & sponsors. We’re particularly grateful on this occasion to be partnering with a dear and generous friend (and Arcata’s newest music presenter), Pat Knittel. And special thanks to Bug Press, the most steadfast of jazz allies, for its abiding generosity.
Additional support for this show comes from Cafe Brio, Dick Taylor Craft Chocolate, John Helie & Monica Simms, and North Coast Co-Op,.