Amendola Scott


Story by Ilya Stemkovsky Photos by Lenny Gonzalez


It’s not that the veteran San Francisco–based drummer Scott Amendola has a full calendar, it’s the kind of busy he is. Some drummers do the hired-gun thing admirably,


but Amendola is fortunate to be in several projects as a respected creative voice, an equal collaborator whose formidable jazz, funk, and rock drumming is a key component. Add to that his developed composi- tional skills, and you get Fade to Orange, his new commissioned orchestral work. “I wrote a lot of music for it, about forty pages,” the


New Jersey–born drummer tells MD from his home in the Bay Area. “But there are things I’ve never done, like the minimalist aspect. It’s not at all drum focused, except for one middle part. My fi rst rule writing for the orchestra was: Don’t throw the kitchen sink at it. I wanted to write something musically true to who I was.” But what does musically true mean when the bands


you’re in are so vastly diff erent? Two decades ago, Amendola achieved notoriety in groups with seven- string guitar magician Charlie Hunter. One of those, the sadly defunct T.J. Kirk, did killer jazz-funk covers of Thelonious Monk, James Brown, and Rahsaan Roland Kirk tunes and featured enough slick


64 Modern Drummer January 2016 64 Modern Drummer January 2016


Amendola grooves and tasty licks for drummers and other artists to take notice. Since then, Scott has appeared in projects ranging


from avant-garde trios with clarinetist Ben Goldberg and guitarist John Dieterich to playing with an orchestra in front of thousands in South America in vocalist Mike Patton’s Mondo Cane. Then there’s the duo work with Hunter, or organist Wil Blades, or guitarist Henry Kaiser, where Amendola uses all that space and freedom beautifully, bringing everything from a mannered pocket to cymbal grazing you can barely hear. Oh, yeah, he also leads his own jazz-in- fl ected bands. Amendola’s highest-profi le gig, however, is his


longtime partnership with Wilco’s lead guitarist, in the Nels Cline Singers. It’s a playfully deceiving name, since it’s less a choir of voices than a green-light amalgam of textural rock, instrumental epics, and Amendola’s other identity—electronics wizard. Most would need a nap at this point, but


Amendola’s commitment and energy aren’t to be denied.


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