If Bob LaMendola performs right, you may barely notice his playing.   The essence of bass in the LaMendola theory is to merge with the tune so much that the bass notes are almost absorbed into everything else that's going on.   You can't see the frame of a beautiful cathedral, but you know it's there holding everything up.   The key? Big, fat notes that spike down the edges of the music so it can't get lost, plus a smattering of colorful off-notes and odd rhythms that make improvised jazz so fascinating.   Maybe it was inborn. Like many who grew up in the '60s, Bob started playing guitar after seeing the Beatles on Ed Sullivan. This led him into rock, blues and folk groups in his hometown of Rochester, N.Y., and later in Pennsylvania and Maryland.   But he and his friends noticed that when Bob sang a song from the radio, he sang the bass line, not the melody. So after he moved to Fort Lauderdale in 1987, he switched to the electric bass.

He made his bottom-end debut on his 1971 Fender Jazz Bass in a comedy spoof show, and eventually he met up in 1995 with guitarist Mike Zinna in a straight-ahead jazz trio called Three Bop, which quickly grew into the Survivors.

Unlike his bandmates, Bob has no formal training other than a few years of guitar lessons. He plays primarily by ear and brings an outsider's sensibility to jazz. Scales and harmony set the course, he says, but the notes still have to SOUND good.

To contact the band:

Bob LaMendola  |  954-484-7382  |  4122 Inverrary Dr., Lauderhill, FL 33319.
blamendola@hotmail.com

Photo: Johanna Arnedo  |  johannamav@hotmail.com