• Future Flora (6:27)
• Invisible Ink, Revealed (5:09)
• Bye Bye Bees (10:43)
• Pianos of the 9th Ward (6:06)
• Everyone Is Going (8:02)
• Cloud Of Dust (6:09)
• Warm Stone (4:47)
• Paper Trombones (6:59)
• Whistle (3:30)
• Tiny Resistors (6:45)
• Barnacle (3:51)

Artists

• Andrew Bird
  violin, whistle
• Ani DiFranco
  voice
• Shane Endsley
  trumpet
• Alan Ferber
  trombone
• Mike Gamble
  guitar
• Adam Levy
  guitar
• Simon Lott
  drums and percussion
• Allison Miller
  drums and percussion
• Todd Sickafoose
  bass, piano
• _ Skerik
  baritone sax
• Ben Wendel
  tenor sax, bassoon

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), 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 a leader but first to receive broader distribution. Irrespective, it's a far more adventurous and eclectic affair than the largely mainstream Blood Orange (Secret Hatch, 2006), well deserving of Crypto's backing and greater public attention.
  While occupying its own space, it's the kind of record that simply could not have been made before Bill Frisell began to twist jazz on its side in the mid-1990s. With two guitarists—longstanding Norah Jones bandmate Adam Levy and relative newcomer Mike Gamble—Sickafoose's penchant for relaxed grooves (often disposed to irregular meters) and skewed harmonics make it a strange combination of accessible and challenging, sporting unmistakable roots in Frisell records including the horn-driven Blues Dream (Nonesuch, 2000), sample-rich Unspeakable (Nonesuch, 2004), and ambient Americana sound sculpting of Floratone (Blue Note, 2007). In addition to the twin-guitar line-up and playing a more extensive collection of instruments himself (various keyboards, vibes and marimba), Sickafoose's core group includes three horns, drums and percussion, with guest appearances from equally on-the-edge saxophonist Skerik, DiFranco and violinist Andrew Bird, for a set of eleven originals with emphasis firmly on the word original.
  
  Sickafoose creates broad soundscapes where unshakable, jam-like grooves are offset by arrangements that feel born of the moment, despite there being no way they could have been anything but carefully conceived. Folkloric acoustic guitar strumming and clean electric guitar lines get “Everyone is Going” off to a gentle start, but with trumpet, trombone and tenor sax weaving long, serpentine and off-kilter lines through the slowly solidifying rhythm, a foundation is set for Kneebody trumpetere Shane Endsley's warm-toned solo, leading to a hypnotic finale where shifting dynamics gradually dissolve for an electronics-filled coda that ethereally fades to black.
  
  “Cloud of Dust” has clearer form, with its song-like changes and Bird's haunting melody. Sickafoose layers piano over his electric bass as Levy delivers a prismatic solo that transcends any Frisell references into a profound place all its own. The two guitarists drive the funky “Warm Stone” alongside drummer Simon Lott and percussionist Allison Miller, with Sickafoose's bass line not entering until close to a minute in. As sketch-like as some of Sickafoose's writing is, his ability to shape the music by combining a multiplicity of miniature motifs and aural derivatives makes for a thrilling listen that combines spontaneity with ever-present focus and intent.
  
  Filled with powerful grooves, nuanced improvisational elan and its own blend of multifarious stylistic markers that combine for a twisted set of distinctive compositions, Tiny Resistors is a sure bet for sleeper hit of 2008. 

  -by John Kelman 

  John Kelman
  All About Jazz [June 3, 2008]

• 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. That he's able to bend genres and use studio effects so successfully comes as a relief. 

  Most of the 11 tracks feature the kind of tricky meters, dark grooves, and off-kilter harmonies that would fit right in on a Dave Douglas record. Selections such as "Future Flora" and "Invisible Ink, Revealed," with their spiky, effects-laden guitar lines and brooding melodies, sound like the soundtrack to a futuristic thriller. 

  A bold horn section propels the best cuts, driving the melody and adding a measure of tension to "Warm Stone" and "Bye Bye Bees." Selections that lack strong frontline horns, such as "Pianos of the 9th Ward" and "Whistle," come off as nicely woven (if somewhat cold) soundscapes.

  Sickafoose's main asset is his ability to create seamless transitions from one motif to another while maintaining a consistent mood. The size of the band - which includes four horn players, two guitarists, and two percussionists - lets Sickafoose expirament with layers and tectures while maintaining improvisational spontaneity. Aside from acoustic and electric bass, Sickafoose himself plays several instruments, including piano, vibes and celeste. He's obviously the restless kind, which works to his advantave on this disc. -by John Frederick Moore
  

  John Frederick Moore
  Jazziz [September 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 variegated color - a skill that got him hired by folk goddess Ani DiFranco, who guests on his new album "Tiny Resistors..."
  

  
  

  San Francisco Chronicle [9/7/08]
• 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 weird textural noises on two tracks. Sickafoose, trumpeter Shane Endsley and drummer Allison Miller are all DiFranco collaborators, so her indie-acoustic vibe crops up. So does the wobbly Americana of Bill Frisell, notably on "Pianos of the 9th Ward" and "Barnacle." The crafty orchestration, ambiguous meters and sweet-sour melodies amount to virtuosity of an unassuming sort. - by David R. Adler
  David R. Adler
  Philadelphia Weekly [June 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, Sickafoose projects his involved jazz language into an atmosphere of bent and sometimes lachrymose Americana, doubling on piano, Wurlitzer and vibes, and writing for multiple horns. A San Francisco native, he's kept busy on the exploding Brooklyn jazz scene for several year now. His formidable quintet will feature saxophonist John Ellis, trombonist Alan Ferber, Mike Gamble on guitar and Allison Miller on drums. - by David R. Adler
  David R. Adler
  Philadelphia Weekly [Sept 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 Resistors one of the years most compelling listens. This stuff grooves and simmers. From the opener, "Future Flora," to the closer, "Barnacle," the album envelops its audience. Yet it's hard to pin down. There are pieces of many puzzles in this mix: Bitches Brew-style fusion, Eno-meets-Radiohead rock-electronica, postmodern film soundtrack music, and more. 

  What is most evident from this document is that Sickafoose sees his musicians not so much as a band as a palette from which to paint the canvas as he hears it. The band itself is an eclectic ensemble: trumpeter Shane Endlsey, saxophonist Skerik, violinist Andrew Bird, and alt-folk singer Ani DiFranco (whose vocals are processed beyond recognition on "Bye Bye Bees"). Not everyone performs on every track; instead Sickafoose uses them when appropriate for his conceit.

  There is much to get lost in: the sweet pairing of guitar and piano toward the end of "Bye Bye Bees"; the plaintive way the piano, bass and horns convey the mournful theme of "Pianos of the 9th Ward"; the wonderful use of celeste and plunger on the dirgelike march of "Paper Trombones"; the very pretty and very simple melody that constitutes "Whistle" (accentuated by some actual whistling by Bird). It's all so hard to resist. -by Steve Greenlee
  

  
  

  Steve Greenlee
  Jazz Times [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 Scott Amendola and Jenny Schienman, as well as a backing bassist for Ani DiFranco, there are a number of alt-music strains floating through Tiny. Plucked guitar lines usually give way to muted horn melodies over syncopated drums, vibes, or sprinkly bells that keep the moody urban street-shuffling tone mostly out of the shadows. Songs sometimes drift into one another, but bits like the slippery girl vocals in "Bye Bye Bees" remind the listener that Sickafoose resides (un)squarely in Brooklyn. -by ED
  ED
  CMJ New Music Report [June 2, 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 of thickly braided flourishes. Evidently, that's a signature trait of Sickafoose the composer-arranger, because the medium-sized ensemble that creates the music on Tiny Resistors can claim a similar victory.

  For a guy smitten with elaboration, the New York bassist builds his oft-genial, mildly exotic and somewhat dreamy tunes from simple melodies that state themselves and then multiply into little labyrinths. I occasionally hear it as a blend of the late-period Lounge Lizards and Greg Osby's Sound Theatre. John Lurie and the M-Base gang milked orchestral ideas from intricate cross-hatches, and Sickafoose does something similar. One of the marvels of this new disc is "Bye Bye Bees," a sweeping piece that starts out in one spot, but ends up in another. The conclusion has elements of its origin, but they're two discrete places--nice trick. Something similar happens on "Pianos Of The 9th Ward," a bittersweet tune that introduces itself as a brass-'n'-reeds prayer; slow, steady, morphing is a key strategy here.

  Sickafoose isn't working in a swing vernacular per se. He grew up on rock, has spent lots of time onstage with Ani DiFranco, and claims Tortoise and Bill Frisell as influences. Propulsion and lilt are in full effect on these pieces, however. "Everyone is Going" manages to blend a martial undercurrent and a sweeping grace. Trumpet, Trombone, two guitars, drums and some effects from DiFranco (ukulele) and Andrew Bird (violin) make the program rich.

  Rather than each piece being a showcase for specific soloist, the group is perpetually playing hot potato with shards of melody and textural colors. With this rather selfless tack, this remarkable music--especially the eratz African bounce of "Warm Stone" and the Middle Eastern blues of "Cloud of Dust"-- is bolstered by the one-for-all atmosphere. By holding hands, they've created something unique.
   

  Jim Macnie
  Downbeat [September 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 cross-genre blend that blurs boundaries without dissolving into faceless fusion.

  The core band is trumpeter Shane Endsley, tenor saxophonist Ben Wendel, trombonist Alan Ferber, violinist Andrew Bird, and guitarists Adam Levy and Mike Gamble, with Allison Miller and Simon Lott sharing drumming and percussion duties. Skerik blows bari sax on two tracks, and the voice and electric uke of Ani DiFranco (the bassist's recent employer) show up on another. Bill Frisell's music is the closest jazz analog to Sickafoose's melodic, guitar-driven, and violin-accented instrumental Americana. But bits of blues and funk crop up in the rhythms and solos, and when Suckafoose adds his own piano, Wurlitzer, vibes, marimba, bells, celesta, and accordion, a post-rock aesthetic takes hold.

  There's a slight gloss to the sonics, but lots of air between spaciously arranged instruments, a lusckous resonance to the acoustic bass, and nicely muted brightness to the acoustic guitar, violin, brass, percussion, and (on one track) whistling. Repeated listening receals new details in this fascinating tapestry of texture. -by DR
  

  DR
  The Absolute Sound [September 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 Manhattan and Brooklyn?” Always seemed like a good question to me.

  Todd Sickafoose—a bassist, composer, and multi-instrumentalist who has been playing and touring with indie force Ani DiFranco—is plainly on Joel’s wavelength. In Tiny Resistors he 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 compositions are challenging and give the players chances to improvise with personality.

  The more listens you give Tiny Resistors, the harder it is to nail down its method and describe the result of its stylistic blend. It is not a jazz record made with rock rhythms and electric instruments—this is no “fusion” effort. Neither is it a pop record sprinkled with jazz solos or colored by jazz affections such as a walking bass line. What, then, do I mean when I say that it blends indie-rock and jazz?

  “Bye Bye Bees” is the most plainly “indie” tune here, with a groove established by straight quarter note repetitions on guitar, underpinned by syncopated handclaps and a whirling synth of some kind. Atop this, add the whistling of indie phenom Andrew Bird and a distant telephone-filtered vocal by DiFranco—then layer in the horn section and a set of grooved syncopations on guitar, bass and percussion. It’s no jazz record. While Alan Ferber gets in a somewhat standard trombone solo amidst the textural glory, most of the song is an exercise in brilliant layering—with Sickafoose playing not just bass but also piano, celeste, and other keyboards as necessary to enrich the sonic stew. It has as much in common with Philip Glass or Radiohead as it does with Miles Davis. And it’s a complete pleasure to hear.

  The compositions that follow a more classic “jazz” approach are still easy to distinguish from traditional jazz. “Pianos of the 9th Ward”, for example, is a waltz with a clear melody stated in a mournful way by piano and guitars, then backed by a subtle use of Sickafoose’s small horn section. The recording features an acoustic bass solo (where the leader’s training with Charlie Haden is evident) and a statement on muted trombone by Ferber before the melody returns. The structure, therefore, is just like a jazz tune, but the feeling is less so. The deliberate waltz time has a gentle folk quality, and the arrangement pulls instruments in and out of the mix as if this were a kind of rock chamber music. “Everyone is Going” fits this mold too—it features a catchy melody on electric guitar (Adam Levy and Mike Gamble, in tandem) then reiterated by the horns, all over a stuttering groove in 11/8 time, setting up a ruminative trumpet solo from Shane Endsley that builds power back into the melody.

  The jazz that Tiny Resistors most resembles is the music of folks like Bill Frisell. Frisell has built a body of work that begins with jazz but has morphed over the years into something distinctive and beyond category—a form of American music that draws in the most catholic way from all the strains of our various folk musics. And so it is no surprise to discover that Sickafoose has been rubbing elbows, for example, with violinist Jenny Scheinman and trumpeter Ron Miles (a frequent Frisell collaborators), with guitarist Nels Cline (also a musician with one foot in creative jazz and another in indie-rock with Wilco), or with pianist and composer James Carney. It’s also no surprise to find this album out on Cryptogramophone Records, the eclectic home to so many brilliant west coast musicians who see jazz as their jumping-off point for destinations both further out and compulsively listenable. Sickafoose was born and educated in California but has lived in Brooklyn since 2005, and his music has a freshness one might associate with either place.

  The real of joy of Tiny Resistors is how it banishes the sterility that is sometimes associated with both precious indie-rock and intellectual jazz. A tune like “Warm Stone” builds from gut-bucket groove to get increasingly complex as the horns dig out the dirt over the beat. “Paper Trombones” begins with Sickafoose’s distinct use of celeste, but the track quickly initiates an irresistible ride over a heartbeat bassline, with muted horns and guitar sounding like Ellington-Meets-Zappa. And the title track rollicks in 6/8 time, allowing Andrew Bird to send his violin in a lovely arc over the punching horn melody. If these tunes occasionally get quiet and delicate, then they do so with their edges still showing.

  Indeed, the ballad “Whistle” may be the high point of Tiny Resistors. Simple of melody at first, Sickafoose allows the tune to twist harmonically to discover itself, and he provides a gentle arrangement that uses the horns as pure accompaniment and that does not bring in Bird’s actually whistling until the theme is restated.

  Todd Sickafoose has made two previous solo albums, available on iTunes if not easy to find otherwise. Tiny Resistors should lift his name and reputation to the next level. More orchestral and more dazzlingly colored than either Dogs Outside or Blood Orange, this new disc is a statement of purpose and a call to young listeners, the very call my friend Joel believes in: Come one, come all!  Come ye young people and dig some jazz!  It’s the real thing: true independent music, music with daring and rhythm and guts and melody. And trombones and soul and barely detectable record sales.

  Still, here’s hoping as always for a greater impact and visibility for a musician deserving in the extreme. -by Will Layman
  

  Will Layman
  Pop Matters [July 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 and guitar lines swirl around a tonal center, and over a calmly asymmetrical pulse. "Cloud of Dust," the title of one, feels appropriate; so too does "Invisible Ink, Revealed." Mr. Sickafoose has serious training in jazz, and there are more than enough intelligent solo flashes on the album to place it on a progressive post-bop axis. But he's also a rock musician, best known to many fans as a longtime confrere to Ani DiFranco (who appears briefly and unobtrusively here). As a composer he favors a straightforward rhythmic thrust and deceptively simple melodies; the most intricate developments tend to occur in a hazy middle register, where layered chords agglomerate and shift. Crucial to this balance is the rapport of a working band, cultivated within the eclectic Brooklyn scene. Some individual playing stands out - the trombonist Alan Ferber and the guitarist Mike Gamble both distinguish themselves - but nothing outshines the collective sound. Obviously Mr. Sickafoose, who augments his bass playing with assorted work on keyboard and mallet-percussion instruments, has a band identity in mind here. He achieves it with a rigorously focused imagination, and with no apparent strain. - by Nate Chinen
  Nate Chinen
  New York Times [June 23, 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 with a dramatic flair while playing not just the bass. Overdubbing keyboards, accordion, mallet instruments and the electric bass guitar, he orchestrates charts with many layers for a large ensemble that features electric guitars, brass and some woodwinds. Special guests Andrew Bird and Ani DiFranco play cameo roles, while the dynamic drummer Allison Miller focuses on tricky rhythms - rock and funk - to drive these pieces along bumpy hillsides. A walking to jogging pace, serious to whimsical, identifies "Future Flora" (great title!) as the amplified guitars of Adam Levy and Mike Gamble with Sickafoose on the Wurlitzer organ shush along with Miller and the horns of trumpeter Shane Endsley and trombonist Alan Ferber in 10/8 rhythm. A rustic old New Orleans blues rhythm centers the muted brass during "Paper Trombones," a bit dour and holding a mystery train like aura, with the vibes and bass playing of the leader conducting the trip. A wonderfully spacious intro with minimalist bells, vibes and celeste overdubs turns probing, moving forward into dense terrain on the title selection, with Miller's busy drumming as a fulcrum. The pieces "Bye Bye Bees" and "Pianos Of The Ninth Ward" with both Bird (violin) and DiFranco (wordless vocals) have a polyrhythmic base with handclapping, whistling and song sounds in tandem with the horns, or a somber post-Katrina waltz with Sickafoose on piano, the guitars, and an electric ukulele from DiFranco respectively. Bird also plays some country and eastern styled violin for the heartland Americana stylized "Cloud Of Dust." Also along this line of far east/far west dialect comparable to Bill Frisell is the rural feeling of "Whistle" with Sickafoose again on piano, or the very Midwestern "Everyone Is Going." Closest to rock in 7/8 time is "Invisible Ink, Revealed," on the craggy, heavy and darker edge of an inevitable unquiet storm. This is quite an ambitious project from Sickafoose. Considering his need to play many instruments while guiding the talented group through a variety of changes and phases, you would be hard pressed to fully realize the effort to took to make this music perfect. It's very close to complete, universally appealing, and unique unto itself. - by Michael Nastos
  
  Michael Nastos
  All Music Guide [June, 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 compositions are challenging and give the players chances to improvise with personality. This new disc is a statement of purpose and a call to young listeners. Come ye young people and dig some jazz! It's the real thing: true independent music, with daring and rhythm and guts and melody. -by Will Layman
  Will Layman
  Chattanooga Free Press [August 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, 34, is in his fourth year of touring with DiFranco and is featured on her new studio album, "Red Letter Year" (Righteous Babe), in particulare on the single, "Way Tight." Many of the musicians who perform on Sickafoose's album are part of his working New York band, Blood Orange. The band is unique in that it is comprised of two drummers, two guitarists, a battery of keyboard instruments and violin - all connected to a three - and sometimes four-piece horn section. Together, the musicians have created a jazz record with the muscle and scope of na indie-rock orchestra. While the mix coresses borders, the album manages to remain accessible and expressive, while experimenting with irregular meters, angular melody lines and cerebral ambiances..."-by Jerry Duckett
  

  Jerry Duckett
  The Express-Times [9/4/08]