Scott Amendola: Lift

DRUMMER SELF-RELEASES FIRST ALBUM IN FIVE YEARS

Scott Amendola

The painting by Mexican artist Victor Zubeldia that serves as the cover of Lift is entitled “The Angel” and has hung in Scott Amendola’s living room for years, but it could have been created with his music in mind. Depicting an androgynous figure being raised into the night sky by a host of blackbirds via long, ropelike strands of hair, the image echoes the buoyant freedom, transcendent collaboration, and rich depth that characterize the album as a whole.

Witness the title track, which floats free of gravity as the ebb and flow of Amendola’s percussion nudges Jeff Parker’s tendril-like guitar lines and John Shifflett’s terse, elastic bass in and out of the tune’s melancholy melody. A similar sense of expansion and contraction pervades “Cascade”, as an insistent bass/drum rhythm provides the bedrock under the industrial hiss of Amendola’s improvised electronics.

“They’re such great musicians that you can literally put anything in front of them and they’re going to make great music from it,” Amendola says of his bandmates. “And it’s going to be them, their interpretation, which is exciting to me as a bandleader.”

Lift marks the debut recording of the Scott Amendola Trio. The release date is October 19. Check below for all upcoming CD release performances.

October 23: Blue Whale, Los Angeles, CA — (9:00pm)
October 24: Dana St. Roasting Co., Mountain View, CA — (7:30pm)
October 25: Yoshi’s, Oakland, CA — (8:00pm)
October 26: Earshot Festival, Poncho Concert Hall — Cornish College, Seattle, WA
October 27: The Goodfoot Lounge, Portland, OR — double bill with Blue Cranes
October 28: Kuumbwa Jazz Center, Santa Cruz, CA — (7:00pm)

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