Here's a Bay Area trio for people who just like music, because the three stack their sound like a po'boy sandwich, all the flavors balanced. You might remember drummer Scott Amendola from his work with Nels Cline or Charlie Hunter or Wil Blades, or his own bands. Tenor saxist Raffi Garabedian has played with Ben Goldberg; he and trombonist Danny Lubin-Laden both teach and tour.
And those last two must jam together a lot, because they can read each other's minds. Not since Ornette Coleman and Don Cherry have twin horn players shown such ability to switch parts, pick up thoughts and join in harmony/counterpoint/unison/fugue on a nanosecond's notice, seemingly with no more effort than breathing.
Add Amendola, the most fun-loving of skinsmen, and the joyful chemistry is obvious from the opening track, whose title hints at a main inspiration for this group: the famous funeral parades and second-line drumming of New Orleans (home of Ornette drummer Ed Blackwell). The songs mostly feature composed melodies, which the guys squeeze, turn around and retempo in various ways. And the rhythms can turn to Afro-desert ("Oumou"), bop ("Skip to a Stop") or a hodgepodge of shoogabooga complexity ("Thursday Night Dinner").
Favorite track: "Well Blazed," with its schizo switchbacks from free craze to lullaby and back -- no lie, it's FUNNY. And no Amendola set would be complete without a few tastes of electronic freakery; he even devotes two miniatures here, notably "A Courting," featuring a harmonious/awkward horn conversation (will they? the plugged-in firefly knows).
In New Orleans, the funeral band's job is to make you smile as the pallbearers stroll down the street. Same here, and we need it.
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Postponed: Sticklerphonics' show at McCabe's in Santa Monica on Saturday, May 18. We'll let you know when they circle back.