Todd Sickafoose

Bassist, bandleader, and composer Todd Sickafoose reaches some of his biggest concert crowds while supporting alternative folk singer/songwriter Ani DiFranco, appearing on her 2005 release Knuckle Down and the follow-up Reprieve from 2006. Although much of his work centers on avant-garde and creative jazz, he has earned strong praise both as a sideman in that realm and as director of the Todd Sickafoose Group. A San Francisco native like violinist Jenny Scheinman, he relocated from the West Coast to New York City and became a central figure in Brooklyn’s jazz community throughout the 2000s. After studying in Los Angeles with Charlie Haden and Mel Powell, he returned to the Bay Area, where he joined the Scott Amendola Band and Scheinman’s quartet; those associations are documented on Amendola’s self-titled 1999 debut, the 2003 album Cry, and Scheinman’s Live at Yoshi’s from 2000. In 2000 he issued his first recording as a leader, Dogs Outside, on the Evander label, and he also toured and recorded with genre-bending San Francisco singer/songwriter Noe Venable.

After settling in Brooklyn in 2005, Sickafoose frequently led his own ensemble or appeared with projects such as Jenny Scheinman’s Shalagaster when not on the road with DiFranco, playing venues including Barbès in Brooklyn and 55 Bar in Greenwich Village. The second Todd Sickafoose Group album, Blood Orange, came out in February 2006 on the Brooklyn-based Secret Hatch imprint. Besides Sickafoose, the core quintet features tenor saxophonist Ben Wendel, trombonist Alan Ferber, guitarist Justin Morell, and drummer Ches Smith, with additional contributions from guests that include avant jazz guitarist Nels Cline, whose own wide exposure in the 2000s stemmed from his membership in Wilco. Sickafoose’s most ambitious leader date to date, Tiny Resistors, appeared on Cryptogramophone in June 2008 and showcased an eight-piece ensemble in which he performed on piano, Wurlitzer, vibraphone, marimba, and additional instruments alongside acoustic and electric basses. The sweeping, multi-layered octet compositions, augmented by guest spots from DiFranco and violinist Andrew Bird, also reflect the bandleader’s social and environmental concerns on tracks such as “Pianos of the 9th Ward” and “Bye Bye Bees.” While sustaining his partnership with DiFranco, Sickafoose kept directing his own group into the 2010s and participated in several prominent creative-jazz outfits directed by others, among them violinist Scheinman’s Mischief & Mayhem quartet that also included Cline and drummer Jim Black, as well as drummer Allison Miller’s quartet with Scheinman and pianist Myra Melford.