Scott Amendola (born February 6, 1969) is an American drummer from the San Francisco Bay Area. His styles include jazz, blues, groove, rock and new music. He is considered central to the Bay Area music scene.
Amendola was originally from New Jersey and studied at Berklee School of Music in Boston. After relocating to the San Francisco Bay Area he came to popularity in the 1990s as a member of T.J. Kirk with Charlie Hunter, Will Bernard and John Schott. Their second album received a Grammy Award nomination. He has led his own bands and trios which have included Nels Cline, Jenny Scheinman, Jeff Parker and John Shifflett as well as Ben Goldberg and Devin Hoff. Often favoring guitarists he has toured with Bill Frisell and Kelly Joe Phelps and recorded with Pat Martino, Jim Campilongo, G.E. Stinson, Nels Cline and Tony Furtado. He is an original member of the Larry Ochs Sax & Drumming Core. He has been a session percussionist for Cris Williamson, Noe Venable, Carla Bozulich and Odessa Chen.
He is often playing inconverts with Mike Patton as a part of his Mondo Cane project.
In 2011 Amendola premiered his orchestral work, "Fade To Orange", performed in conjunction with the Oakland East Bay Symphony as one of the symphony's New Visions/New Vistas premieres. Amendola was joined by Nels Cline and Trevor Dunn.
He is also noted for his use of electronics and synthesizers in his compositions and live performance along with his drumming.