Prolific jazz drummer Scott Amendola launches ambitious orchestral project with Nels Cline, Trevor Dunn

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Scott Amendola is the drummer who always seems to be in the thick of it when something good is coming from Nels Cline, Charlie Hunter, Ben Goldberg or even his own, first-rate solo stuff.

Not many jazz drummers have written full orchestral pieces much less any jazz musician but Amendola has. Fade To Orange was a piece he wrote over 2009-2011 for the Oakland East Bay Symphony, with Amendola, Nels Cline (guitar) and Trevor Dunn (electric bass) also contributing. Now, Amendola seeks to record this piece and commit this to vinyl — and CD — this time with the Magik*Magik Orchestra while also bringing back Cline and Dunn to recreate their contributions.

Think of it this way: the Nels Cline Singers with Strings, Music by Scott Amendola. It shouldn’t even matter if you aren’t into chamber music, these guys never do things the same ol’ way. Remixes of the piece are also in the works, brewed by such remix masters as Yuka Honda of Cibo Matto, Mocean Worker (Adam Dorn) and Beautiful Bells.

Since this is obviously a labor instensive endeavor, it won’t be cheap to pull off. That’s why Amendola has launched a funding campaign through PledgeMusic to raise the money needed to finance it, and he’d dearly love to get music lovers to help out on that end (see video above for his humorous sales pitch).

To find out more about this project and how you can help make it happen, go here.

S. Victor Aaron