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Todd Sickafoose
Todd Sickafoose is a Tony and Grammy award-winning composer, producer, arranger, orchestrator, bandleader and double bassist. He has performed on hundreds of recordings, toured internationally, appeared at music venues and festivals from Carnegie Hall to New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, and played on national television and radio programs including the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Late Show with Conan O’Brien, The Artists Den, and NPR’s Mountain Stage. Known as a musical cross-breeder who stretches across genres, Sickafoose has been described by the San Francisco Chronicle as “a captivating improviser, imaginative composer, and master of collaboration”.
In 2004, Sickafoose began performing and recording in a duo format with folk poet, activist and cultural icon Ani DiFranco. Their relationship has developed for nearly two decades – together they have made 7 albums, two concert DVDs, and performed over 1000 shows.
In 2007, Sickafoose began working on Anaïs Mitchell's folk opera, Hadestown, wearing many hats including arranger/orchestrator and music producer. After years of development and regional productions, the show opened at the Walter Kerr Theater on Broadway in 2019 and won 8 Tony Awards, including Best Musical and Best Orchestrations for Sickafoose and collaborator Michael Chorney. Sickafoose produced the Hadestown Original Broadway Cast Recording which won a 2019 Grammy for Best Musical Theater Recording. Hadestown continues to run both on Broadway and a North American Tour, and opened on London’s West End in early 2024.
Straddling the worlds of folk, indie rock, jazz and chamber music, Sickafoose’s own band Tiny Resistors has performed at the North Sea Jazz Festival, Stern Grove Festival, Angel City Jazz Festival and been featured on many “Best-Of” lists including the Village Voice and JazzTimes. Writing for Tiny Resistors, he recently composed Bear Proof, a long-form chamber jazz hybrid commissioned by the Doris Duke Foundation.
Awards
Tony Award 2019, Grammy Award 2019
Tags
Ben Goldberg / Todd Sickafoose / Scott Amendola: Here to There
by Mark Corroto
There was a very good reason that James Brown would shout “take me to the bridge." In an interview, he explained: “I heard someone use that expression maybe 45 years ago, referring to the middle part of a song, and I changed it to mean a release." Clarinetist Ben Goldberg, bassist Todd Sickafoose and drummer Scott Amendola utilize that same release with an exploration of the bridges from Thelonious Monk's compositions. Goldberg and Amendola have explored Monk's music ...
Continue ReadingTodd Sickafoose: Bear Proof
by Vic Albani
Era dai fasti di Tiny Resistors (uscito nel 2008 per la Cryptogramophone dell'amico Jeff Gauthier e che invitiamo a riascoltare per la bellezza che lo ammanta) che il signor Todd Sickafoose non regalava al mondo un nuovo lavoro. Inneggiato da più voci quale coerente ed intelligentissimo musicista nonché compositore e produttore Sickafoose è stato talmente occupato da non avere avuto tempo per dilettarsi ancora una volta con l'idea che lo ha subito posto all'attenzione del mondo musicale sin ...
Continue ReadingTodd Sickafoose, Joel Ross, Joe Rosenberg and Others
by Jerome Wilson
This program is an eclectic mix of 2023 music from musicians such as Todd Sickafoose and Arina Fujiwara and past work from Joel Ross, Joe Rosenberg, and others. Playlist Henry Threadgill Sextett “I Can't Wait Till I Get Home" from The Complete Novus & Columbia Recordings of Henry Threadgill & Air (Mosaic) 00:00 Duke Ellington Legacy “Happy Go Lucky Local" from Single Petal of a Rose (Renma) 1:02 The Heavy Hitters “Big Richard" from The Heavy Hitters (Cellar ...
Continue ReadingTodd Sickafoose: Things Take A Long Time
by Leo Sidran
Bassist and composer Todd Sickafoose shows up in a lot of places: on stage with singer-songwriter Ani DiFranco, drummer Allison Miller or violinist Jenny Scheinman, behind the scenes as a record producer for artists like Noe Venable and Anais Mitchell, orchestrating the music for the Broadway musical Hadestown (which earned him both a Grammy for record production and a Tony for orchestration), and as a bandleader. His new record Bear Proof is his first album of original music ...
Continue ReadingTodd Sickafoose: Bear Proof
by Jerome Wilson
Bassist Todd Sickafoose released only one album as a leader prior to this one, Tiny Resistors, (Cryptogramophone, 2008). However, he has kept busy in the music world since then. He has extensively worked as a sideman and producer, including collaborating with singer-songwriter Ani DiFranco, and he has orchestrated the Broadway musical, “Hadestown," winning a Tony award in the process. Now he is back with an album that reaffirms him as one of those musicians who are ostensibly based in jazz ...
Continue ReadingTodd Sickafoose, Stewart Copeland, Amaury Faye, Mick Rossi & More
by Ludovico Granvassu
The much awaited return of Todd Sickafoose graces our playlist together with other gems ranging from the gorgeous to the adventurous, with a couple of surprising contributions from musicians whose relationship with jazz has been notoriously... ambivalent, Frank Zappa and Stewart Copeland.Happy listening!Playlist Ben Allison “Mondo Jazz Theme (feat. Ted Nash & Pyeng Threadgill)" 0:00 Samuel Blaser “Lady Rawlinson" Routes (Yellowbird) 0:16 Host talks 5:36 Todd Sickafoose “Switched On" Bear Proof (Secret Hatch) 7:26 Amaury Faye ...
Continue ReadingTodd Sickafoose: Future Flora
by Mike Jacobs
Perhaps currently better known for his long-standing gig with singer/songwriter Ani DiFranco and his recent TONY/GRAMMY-winning work on the Broadway musical “Hadestown," Todd Sickafoose's third album, Tiny Resistors (Cryptogramophone, 2008) is something that should not be left to fly under the radar. As its opener “Future Flora" shows, the album displays Sickafoose's unique ability as a bassist/composer/bandleader to blend and develop simple, melodic motifs into fascinating and memorable pieces that afford plenty of legroom for his smartly-populated ensembles.
Continue ReadingBassist Todd Sickafoose Interviewed at AAJ
Source:
All About Jazz
With the release of his unique, understated, and critically acclaimed Tiny Resistors (Cryptogramophone, 2008), bassist/composer Todd Sickafoose suddenly and unintentionally upped the ante for indie jazz. Surging ahead of such indie mainstays (and label mates) as Nels Cline, Steuart Liebig, and boss Jeff Gauthier, Sickafoose has garnered strong press from such diverse sources as Bass Player Magazine, PopMatters, Jazz Times, USA Today, and The New York Times. The daring, spacious compositions and performances on Tiny Resistors, Sickafoose's third CD collection, ...
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Bassist Todd Sickafoose Walks the Line Between Pitchfork and Down Beat
Source:
All About Jazz
It seems telling that Todd Sickafoose describes his new CD, Tiny Resistors (Cryptogramophone), as “instrumental music." Despite his years leading jazz units, first in his native California and more recently in his adopted home of Brooklyn, Sickafoose is best known as Ani DiFranco's regular bassist, and also tours with folk-jazz violinist Jenny Scheinman. Those generic strands weave together in his own music, resulting in a decidedly modern sound that would fit in amid the reviews at Pitchfork as well as ...
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"A captivating improviser, imaginative composer, and master of collaboration." - San Francisco Chronicle
"Ani DiFranco's secret weapon." - The New Yorker
"An ensemble capable of creating widescreen orchestral panoramas imbued with dramatic effect and washes of color...The continuously unfolding spread of tempos and textures, zigzagging rhythms and shards of melodic interjection, leave it wide open for interpretation-or none at all. Like Sickafoose's last solo release, Tiny Resistors...Bear Proof never stays in one place very long, preferring instead to take off in any number of directions, unexpectedly and quite thrillingly. It's enveloping and demanding – and a rather rewarding way to spend an hour.” – RELIX
Primary Instrument
Bass, acoustic
Location
New York City
Wayne Shorter
saxophone
Bill Frisell
guitar, electric
Charlie Haden
bass, acoustic
Milt Hinton
bass, acoustic
Greg Cordez
bass, acousticPhotos
Music
Hudson
From: Rivers In Our VeinsBy Todd Sickafoose
Videos
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Todd Sickafoose
Location: New York City
Instrument: Bass, acoustic
Publicist: Fully Altered Media
