Charged

Scott Amendola: Diversity in the first degree

Comments (0) By Greg Burk Thursday, Feb 27 2003

ALL THESE VARIEGATED FRUITS ARE ESSENtials in Amendola's musical cornucopia, naturally reflecting his own tastes. On one hand he likes Pat Metheny and Peter Gabriel; edgier imprints were etched after he left his native New Jersey for Berklee College of Music in Boston, the town where he heard outsiders like drummer Jim Black and hung with musicians whose heads had been turned by the theories of bop-era renegade pianist Lennie Tristano. Upon arrival in the Bay Area in 1992, Amendola gained visibility through association with guitar phenom Charlie Hunter (with whom he drummed from 1993 to 1997), and gained entrée to the L.A. crowd via the constantly traveling NoCal saxist Philip Greenlief. Among many other gigs, he's worked in a trio with Sickafoose and pianist Art Hirahara, and played with Jim Thirlwell (Foetus) when Thirlwell scheduled a couple of club dates last year.

None of this suggests that Amendola much cares to merge with the mainstream. But to hell with it, you know? Our personal circuits are all getting interconnected anyway; who needs corporate conglomerates?

"It would be great if the record industry just totally bottomed out. If all these companies — like, three of them own everything, right? — went bankrupt, how great would that be? Because it has to restructure itself. It probably would take a while, but it would be really interesting."

The Scott Amendola Band plays the Temple Bar on Sunday, March 2.