No drummer on jazz’s expansive landscape has collaborated more fruitfully with era-defining guitarists than Berkeley’s Scott Amendola. His new album, Scott Amendola Trio PDXMMXVIII with Jeff Parker and Paul Bryan, adds an enthralling new chapter to his journey, reuniting him with Jeff Parker, the polymorphously creative guitar seeker, and bassist Paul Bryan (best known as the Grammy Award-winning producer of several albums by Aimee Mann).

Slated for release on CD and vinyl by Jealous Butcher Records on Nov. 6th, 2026, it’s a poised and sinewy set gleaned from Amendola’s PDX Jazz Festival performance in 2018 with his Los Angeles-based comrades. The three musicians first met and played together at Berklee in the late 1980s and seized the opportunity to reconvene in Portland.

A single from the album, the briskly zig-zagging “Momentum & Backlash,” drops in September, 2026. With Parker sashaying over the double-time rhythm section tandem, it’s an Amendola piece commissioned by Intersection for the Arts and first released on the 2018 Invisible Bird project Flutter to Fuzz (with Brian Blade Fellowship guitarist Dave Devine).

The bulk of the tunes are drawn from Lift, the acclaimed 2010 Scott Amendola Trio album with Parker and the late bassist John Shifflett, though Parker’s extended intro on the title track, a numinous solo statement, infuses “Lift” with quiet grandeur. The album opens with “Swagger of the Tail Wagger,” a jaunty, episodic piece also gleaned from Flutter to Fuzz. On the supple, surging “Cascade” and the beatific closer “Tudo De Bom” the group plays with textural acuity and distilled lyricism.

A New York native who moved to San Francisco in 1992, Amendola has been a creative force for more than three decades. He first gained international attention as the only non-guitarist with T.J. Kirk, the Grammy-nominated quartet with Will Bernard, John Schott, and Charlie Hunter. He’s toured and recorded intermittently with Hunter ever since, while also working extensively with Wilco’s Nels Cline and Jim Campilongo.

As a bandleader, Amendola has created a large and varied body of work, from an orchestral commission to volatile duos. As the Los Angeles Times notes, “Amendola’s music is consistently engaging, both emotionally and intellectually, the product of a fertile and inventive musical imagination.”

Tickets are $35 general admission. Children under 12 are free. Advance tickets are available here, or if the show is not sold out, you may purchase your tickets at the door before the show.

Doors open 30 minutes before show time. We accept cash or Venmo only at the door.

The Back Room is an all-ages, BYOB (for those 21+) space, dedicated to (mostly) acoustic music of all kinds. You are welcome to bring your own food and beverages. The venue is ADA accessible. If you need more information or have any questions, please call us: #510-381-1997.

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Contact the host of Scott Amendola Trio with Jeff Parker & Paul Bryan Celebrating the release of their new album PDXMMXVII