Jazz Articles about Ben Wendel

Todd Sickafoose: Tiny Resistors

by John Kelman
June 3, 2008

An active sideman, bassist Todd Sickafoose is best-known for his work with DIY singer/songwriter Ani DiFranco. But he's also been very busy on the outer edges of jazz, working with artists including John Zorn on Voices in the Wilderness (Tzadik, 2003), Tin Hat Trio on The Rodeo Eroded (Ropeadope, 2002), and Scott Amendola Band on the drummer's very fine Cry (Cryptogramophone, 2003). It may be Amendola's disc that hooked Sickafoose up with Cryptogramophone for Tiny Resistors, his third record as ...

Todd Sickafoose Group: Blood Orange

by Nathan Haselby
December 27, 2005

The young composer and bassist Todd Sickafoose waited a full five years to put out his second release, Blood Orange, following his debut, Dogs Outside (2000). Considering the advances he has made as a composer and arranger, the wait is worth it. Sickafoose still writes pensive mainstream jazz enriched by free improvisation, but his tighter new group makes possible writing which demands no less from individual players and gets much more from the whole.

To be fair, Dogs Outside was ...