Grand melodies, shifting textures, and thick rhythms radiate from Todd Sickafoose's music. On Tiny Resistors, the bassist/composer matches his 8-piece New York band with a pair of guests, Andrew Bird and Ani DiFranco, to create a jazz record with the muscle and scope of an indie-rock orchestra. Throughout its 68 minutes of music, the record evokes images: the mysterious flora of a future epoch, the revelation of a secret message scribbled in invisible ink, an exodus of buzzing bees, and the silent sadness of an underwater piano, drowned in the waters of Lake Pontchartrain. It is these visions, and others, that inspire the 11 original compositions on Tiny Resistors, Sickafoose's third and most lushly-produced release to date.
This is music from a thinker whom the San Francisco Chronicle calls "A captivating improviser, imaginative composer, and master of collaboration."
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Reviews
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), Ti
John Kelman, All About Jazz, June 3, 2008
In "Tiny Resistors," Sickafoose has created a musical document that weds the indie-rock aesthetic to jazz practices with seamless pleasure. Pop advantages such as genial melody and rich texture abound. But at the same time the long-form composit
Will Layman, Chattanooga Free Press, August 2008
The inventive bassist/composer Todd Sickafoose has been plying his trade as a sideman while occasionally venturing forth as a bandleader in the progressive jazz world. With Tiny Resistors, he's hitting for a high average in presenting original music wit
Michael Nastos, All Music Guide, June, 2008
The bassist Todd Sickafoose builds grooves from the ground up, but that's no impediment to the flow or buoyancy of his music. "Tiny Resistors," his third and strongest album as a leader, features a number of tunes in which multiple horn parts
Nate Chinen, New York Times, June 23, 2008
My friend Joel has said more than once that jazz ought to be more popular with young folks enamored of indie-rock—“If they want to hear some creative, independent music that’s out on the edge and grooving, why aren’t they in the jazz clubs of lower Ma
Will Layman, Pop Matters, July 2008
A former Bay Area MVP bassist who shifts easily between jazz, pop, and contemporary bluegrass, Brooklyn-based Todd Sickafoose folds the musical wisdom gleaned from his myriad experiences into his third album as leader, creating a deeply satisfying c
DR, The Absolute Sound, September 2008
When I first saw Todd Sickafoose's Blood Orange group a couple years ago, I was puzzled about where all the sound was coming from. The five-piece outfit swaggered like a little big band, sending a scad of intersecting lines into the air to make a series o
Jim Macnie, Downbeat, September 2008
This jazzboho's mutating melds of cool jazz with a smidge of avant sprawl, plus surprise turns from folks like Andrew Bird, make this a modern jazz/indie fusion that won't make you ralph over the very notion. A sideman to a number of modern masters like S
ED, CMJ New Music Report, June 2, 2008
Here is jazz for 2008: thoroughly original, endlessly creative, unabashedly modern without being too iconoclastic. Todd Sickafoose, who is primarily a bassist but also plays all manner of keyboards and mallet-stricken instruments, has produced in Tiny Res
Steve Greenlee, Jazz Times, September 2008
The jazz bassist is an ally of alt-folk faves Ani DiFranco and Andrew Bird, both of whom appear on Tiny Resistors, Sickafoose's first for the West Coast label (and Nels Cline home base) Cryptogramophone. Following up his remarkable Blood Orange of 2006, S
David R. Adler, Philadelphia Weekly, Sept 2008
Solid, like the Liberty Bell. Call him a jazz bassist, but Todd Sickafoose also plays piano, vibes and more on this post-genre outing. The sprawl also includes two guitarists, two drummers, four horns, a violinist who whistles and Ani DiFranco making weir
David R. Adler, Philadelphia Weekly, June 2008
Another Bay Area native transplanted to Brooklyn, bassist Todd Sickafoose - like his mentor Charlie Haden - packs more musical punch into a single note than 90 percent of the field. From such microscopic beginnings, creates magnificent suites of variegate
San Francisco Chronicle, 9/7/08
Bassist Todd Sickafoose has developed a career as a sideman for a wide range of artists that includes Don Byron and, most notably, alt-folk singer Ani DiFranco. That he's brought this eclecticism to his own work as a leader should come as no surprise. Tha
John Frederick Moore, Jazziz, September 2008
"Tiny Resistors" is the latest album release from bassist-composer Todd Sickafoose... The album features young jazz innovators, including Adam Levy and Mike Gamble, and guests, singer-songwriter Ani DiFranco and violinist Andrew Bird. Sickafoose
Jerry Duckett, The Express-Times, 9/4/08
