Scott Amendola is a local treasure — a composer and bandleader who’s seemingly played with everyone. John Zorn and Nels Cline have collaborated with him, as well as regular local talent like Charlie Hunter and Wil Blades. Whenever you see Amendola’s name attached to a project, you can bet it’s going to be interesting.
So it’s no surprise Amendola’s gathering an intriguing group together for a couple of shows at the Ivy Room, including keyboardist Blades and sax players Skerik and Steve Berlin. Promoted as a sort of musical Mexican wrestling match, there’s no telling what combinations the four will take. Duos? Trios? Everyone wailing with each other? We’re gonna predict: all of the above.
For such a tiny bar in Albany, the Ivy Room has had something of a renaissance lately: the members of Green Day have been playing cover sets there, Jawbreaker played their first show in 21 years there, and their booking has been consistently compelling. That’s no more clear than with these two shows with the Amendola crew, 8pm and 10pm, on Saturday, March 31. Details here. (For San Francisco folks, the same lineup falls into the Boom Boom Room on March 30; details here.)
