by Chris Skebo
Ben Goldberg / Scott Amendola / Todd Sickafoose
Third Man Records
Detroit, Michigan
10 November 2024
On this warm November night, the performance venue at Jack White’s Third Man Records hosted the trio of clarinetist Ben Goldberg, with Scott Amendola on drums & electronics and Todd Sickafoose on bass. These talented players painted Third Man’s walls with their adventurous brand of free improvisation. This style of improvisation has always had a close connection with intimate venues – the audience and the performers are face-to-face, with little space between them. As a musician myself, it was an honor to be in the presence of these inventive artists, in one of the finest intimate settings in our city.
Detroit-based group Infinite River opened the show. Also great free improvisers, the band weaved their way through a short set of original tunes, touching on jazz rock, progressive rock, surf rock, and ambient jazz. Infinite River is comprised of players from iconic Detroit bands Slumber Party, Sponge, His Name is Alive, and Detroit Cobras. Warren Defever played keyboards, along with Steve Nistor on drums, Gretchen Gonzales and Joey Mazzola on guitars, and Johnny Evans blowing saxophone.
At 9:00 the Goldberg Trio took the stage, with Amendola setting a quirky groove, his drum sound augmented with some of his signature electronic manipulation. The music of Thelonious Monk is deeply imbedded in this group’s DNA, and as they slid into a medley of compositions – “Self-Evident,” In Walked,” and “Here to There” – the Monk influence was undeniable. I noted that Goldberg’s clarinet tone was being manipulated in real-time on “Here to There,” using ring modulators, granular synthesis and glitchy delay effects. His phrases got chopped and manipulated in an interesting and unpredictable way.
The pastoral “Lion’s Heart” altered the mood with a breath-like calm, featuring Amendola bowing metal objects under Goldberg’s clarinet melody. But “Porch Concert Music #2” usurped that mood and pulled the audience into darker territory, with more manipulated sounds and Sickafoose’s fragmented bass lines. This composition has something foreboding about it – a sense of COVID fear that lingers to this day. “The porch was the only place we could play a concert,” Goldberg told me after the show.
Monk’s “Let’s Cool One” followed, with Goldberg playing all the twists and turns associated with Monk tunes, with Amendola and Sickafoose pushing each other a little harder on each successive trade. This was a truly sublime interpretation.
The final piece of the evening was Goldberg’s “Porch Concert Music #6.” The tune features a comfortably familiar bouncing melody, but something uneasy lingers in the background. On this closing number, these three artists treated the audience to some of the most dramatic free improvisation of the evening. Beautiful and solemn, their interplay drew the evening to a close, as the crowd erupted into clamorous applause. It was a fitting end to this, the final date on their Midwest swing.
I have been fortunate to hear Ben Goldberg and Scott Amendola play many times. With the addition of Todd Sickafoose in this trio, the Third Man show was absolutely one of their most inspired performances I’ve experienced. Hear the Ben Goldberg Trio wherever you can, but plan your next visit to Detroit around an intimate evening of music in Third Man Records’ friendly confines. Experiencing music this way should be on every music lover’s bucket list.
Ben Goldberg’s website is fascinating. Check it out: bengoldberg.net
