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Jazz in the Space Age ...
Music in Four Dimensions
Saturday, Feb. 13 | 8 p.m.
The UCCS Department of Visual and Performing Arts Music program presents a concert by The Bottesini Project with special guest percussionist Scott Amendola.
- Paul Riola, saxophones
- Scott Amendola, drums
- Glen Whitehead, trumpets
- Kent Maclagan, bass
- Dave Devine, guitar
The Bottesini Project is a collaborative ensemble based in Denver dedicated to free improvisation and exploration of spontaneous composition and arrangement. The guiding principle of this ensemble is to create a collective of Denver and International musicians dedicated to free improvisational practice. Each Bottesini performance draws upon a multitude of music genres and landscapes and is an entirely unique musical experience
Scott Amendola is a drummer, percussionist, composer, bandleader, electronic sound mover.
“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 magazine.
"If Scott Amendola didn't exist, the San Francisco music scene would have to invent him." —Derk Richardson, San Francisco Bay Guardian
For Scott Amendola, the drum kit isn’t so much an instrument as a musical portal. As an ambitious composer, savvy bandleader and capaciously creative foil for some of the world’s most inventive musicians, Amendola applies his wide-ranging rhythmic virtuosity to a vast array of settings. His closest musical associates include guitarists Jeff Parker, Nels Cline and Charlie Hunter, Hammond B-3 Organist Wil Blades, violinist Jenny Scheinman, saxophonist Larry Ochs, and clarinetist Ben Goldberg, players who have each forged a singular path within and beyond the realm of jazz.
The Oakland East Bay Symphony Orchestra recently recognized Amendola’s growing stature as a composer with a prestigious New Visions/New Vistas commission funded by the James Irvine Foundation, a piece that will be performed and recorded by the Symphony at Oakland's Paramount Theatre in April 2011.
Some of Amendola’s most innovative work takes place in a much more intimate context. His prodigious duo with Hammond B-3 organist Wil Blades, Amendola vs. Blades, centers on their thrilling investigation of Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn’s “Far East Suite,” an interpretation that has grown in grandeur over the past few years.
