The secret weapon in Scott Amendola’s Fade To Orange project: Mr. Bungle bassist Trevor Dunn

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With less then two weeks left for Scott Amendola’s Fade To Orange PledgeMusic drive, time is running short to help bring this dream project to fruition but there’s no shortage of goodies available for donors. From the $15k for a private Nels Cline Singers concert/dinner on down to ten bucks for a download of the album as soon as it’s finished, there’s a precious trinket available for every budget.

In past appeals, we’ve trotted out Wilco and Nels Cline Singers guitar player Nels Cline to make the case, and as previously stated, he will be participating in FTO. But there’s someone else who will be a key player for the record, and that’s NCS, Mr. Bungle and Erik Friedlander Bonebridge bassist Trevor Dunn. Just as Cline is a guitarist’s guitarist, Dunn is a bassist’s bassist. His talents have been summoned extensively by John Zorn, as well as Ben Goldberg, Jon Hassell, The Melvins and many more.

In the snippet above, Dunn is seen wrapping up a section of the symphonic piece with a slaying electric bass solo that blends in nicely with the big orchestra. Amendola himself explains Dunn’s role in this piece:

You might be wondering, why electric bass? When I came up with the idea to have Nels and Trevor on FTO, one of my first thoughts was how it would be great to have Trevor play electric bass to contrast the acoustic basses in the orchestra. Trevor is playing the lead melody in a few places in FTO. He also likes to use effect pedals on his bass. There’s a section where I wanted him to be the last sound at the end of that section before we continue on to the last part of FTO. I say sound because I was looking for him to create something out of the various pedals he brought. With the electric bass his voice is able to cut through the orchestra, but also complement it at the same time.

Scott Amendola’s leadership and Nels Cline’s presence should make Fade To Orange a special recording, but don’t sleep on Trevor Dunn. Every time I’ve come across a record on which he’s appeared, it’s been a rather good record. That bodes well for this one.

*** Pre-order Fade to Orange ***

S. Victor Aaron