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Nels Cline


Nels Cline is one of the most versatile, imaginative and original guitarists active today. Combining breathtaking technique with an informed musical intelligence, Cline displays a mastery of guitar expression that encompasses delicate lyricism, sonic abstractions, and skull-crunching flights of fancy, inspiring Jazz Times to call him, "The World’s Most Dangerous Guitarist."

Born in Los Angeles in 1956, his earliest musical influences included Jim "Roger" McGuinn, Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, John Fahey and Duane Allman. Later these giants as well of those of jazz, jazz/rock, punk and the improvising avant-garde twisted his head around. Cline claims his most valuable music training came from his work with bassist/multi-instrumentalist Eric von Essen, with whom he performed as a duo from 1977 until von Essen’s untimely death in 1997.

In the late 1970s, Cline played in the chamber-jazz group Quartet Music with his brother, percussionist Alex Cline, violinist Jeff Gauthier and bassist von Essen. Quartet Music recorded 4 albums and toured extensively, a 12 year run that was highlighted by two performances in 1989 with the Milwaukee Symphony for which Nels arranged several of his compositions. Clines’ 1987 Enja release, Angelica, which added New York City altoist Tim Berne to a roster of longtime Cline collaborators Alex Cline, Stacy Rowles, Eric von Essen, is a fine example of his work from this period.

In 1989, the guitarist formed the amped-up Nels Cline Trio, a worthy vehicle for Cline's guitar excursions, which range from probing, reflective balladry to bracing freeform assaults. The Nels Cline Trio recorded 4 CDs, Chest, Ground, Sad and Silencer. Some of the musicians that Nels has performed and/or recorded with include: Julius Hemphill, Charlie Haden, Mike Watt, Tim Berne, Mark Dresser, Bobby Bradford, Zeena Parkins, Elliott Sharp, Thurston Moore, Gregg Bendian, Mark Isham, The Geraldine Fibbers, Wadada Leo Smith, Henry Kaiser, Banyan, Bloc, fIREHOSE, Carla Bozulich and Scott Amendola.

In addition to The Nels Cline Singers, his current projects include a 6-piece ensemble called Destroy All Nels Cline, The Inkling quartet with bassist Mark Dresser, drummer Billy Mintz and harpist Zeena Parkins; and an improvising acoustic guitar trio with Rod Poole and Jim McAuley. Nels especially enjoys collaborating with other musicians a duo format.

Some of these collaborators include Carla Bozulich (Scarnella), Devin Sarno, Gregg Bendian, Zeena Parkins, Woody Aplanalp, G. E. Stinson and Norton Wisdom (a painter). Artists that Nels currently performs with most often include: Scarnella, Vinny Golia, Devin Sarno, The Scott Amendola Band, Gregg Bendian’s Interzone, the Jeff Gauthier Goatette, a trio with Zeena Parkins and Thurston Moore, Banyan and now The Nels Cline Singers.

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Album Review

Wadada Leo Smith: Fire Illuminations

Read "Fire Illuminations" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic


Eighty-one year old trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith comes out flaring like Bitches Brew era Miles Davis, as Fire Illuminations jumps the funk rock from the break of the muscular conflagration “Ntozake." And the grunge jazz clips along as guitarists Nels Cline, Brandon Ross, and Lamar Smith vie, bite, sting, and quarrel over an insistent bass drum power-groove courtesy of bassists Bill Laswell and Melvin Gibbs, percussionist Mauro Refosco, drummer Pheeroan aKlaff, and the deep space electronics of Hardedge.

5
Album Review

Wadada Leo Smith: Fire Illuminations

Read "Fire Illuminations" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


Trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith fronts lots of different bands and puts out lots of albums. After a busy period when he released five boxed sets, totaling 27 CDs, here he debuts his new all-star ensemble Orange Wave Electric, with the download-only offering, Fire Illuminations. As the band name implies, the sound is electric, featuring three electric guitarists, two electric bassists and an electronicist, joining the leader's horn, percussionist Mauro Refosco and drummer Pheeroan aKLaff. For comparison's sake--and using ...

12
Album Review

Sara Schoenbeck: Sara Schoenbeck

Read "Sara Schoenbeck" reviewed by Karl Ackermann


Sara Schoenbeck is cast against type in the world of bassoonists. The versatile double reed, broad-ranged instrument dates to the Renaissance and is commonly found in wind ensembles and chamber orchestras. But Schoenbeck has brought her classical-leaning instrument to creative music in an electrifying body of work. Her self-titled leader debut is the first such project of her career. A series of nine duets allows Schoenbeck to fully explore the scope of the bassoon in close settings. Not ...

Album Review

Satoko Fujii Orchestra New York: Entity

Read "Entity" reviewed by Neri Pollastri


Undicesimo album per l'Orchestra New York di Satoko Fujii, qui composta di tredici elementi, dei quali ben nove già presenti nel primo lavoro, South Wind, risalente al lontano 1997. Il disco è registrato nel maggio del 2019 ed è uscito già lo scorso anno, ma merita egualmente grande attenzione, in quanto si tratta di un lavoro di primissimo livello. Né poteva essere diversamente, considerando non solo la qualità media, altissima, delle produzioni della musicista giapponese, ma anche l'organico straordinario della ...

Extended Analysis

The Boyé Multi-National Crusade For Harmony

Read "The Boyé Multi-National Crusade For Harmony" reviewed by Stefano Merighi


Che trionfo per Julius Hemphill! A dispetto delle poche pagine--o righe--che le recenti storie del jazz dedicano al maestro di Fort Worth, Hemphill emerge da questo cofanetto di inediti come sassofonista-improvvisatore-compositore tra i più profondi della musica afroamericana nei decenni compresi tra gli anni '70 e '90. E questa preziosa edizione non solo torna a far luce su repertori e organici già conosciuti dai cultori, ma porta in superficie una gran mole di musica fresca, sorprendente, che ...

10
Album Review

Julius Hemphill: The Boyé Multi-National Crusade For Harmony

Read "The Boyé Multi-National Crusade For Harmony" reviewed by Mark Corroto


There is something inherently objectionable when a billionaire acquires an artistic masterpiece by say, Leonardo DaVinci or Claude Monet, only to sequester it from public view. You might feel the same about Julius Hemphill's recordings Dogon A.D. (Mbari, 1972) and 'Coon Bid'ness (Arista/Freedom, 1975). Both five star recordings, now out of print, cost a small fortune to acquire. Years ago saxophonist Tim Berne, a disciple of Hemphill, endeavored to rescue the saxophonist's Blue Boyé (Mbari, 1977) by rereleasing it in ...

1
Album Review

The Nels Cline Singers: Share the Wealth

Read "Share the Wealth" reviewed by Vincenzo Roggero


L'idea era di registrare delle lunghe improvvisazioni per poi selezionare frammenti, operare un copia-incolla di davisiana memoria e dar vita ad una sorta di mosaico/collage psichedelico. L'ascolto del materiale registrato, la percezione della magia sprigionata dalle sessions e della unicità dei brani hanno cambiato le carte in tavola e suggerito di pubblicare integralmente, senza sforbiciate, quello che è diventato Share the Wealth. Ossia--nella versione doppio LP e CD (oltre ottanta minuti) registrato in soli due giorni dalla versione allargata di ...

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Video / DVD

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Nels Cline 4 offers guitar times two

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Nels Cline 4 offers guitar times two

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman

This week, let's take a look at some videos of the Nels Cline 4, who are coming to St. Louis to perform on Friday, August 10 at Delmar Hall. They're on the road for a series of dates in August in support of their album Currents, Constellations, which was released in April on the Blue Note label. Cline probably is best known these days as a member of alt-rock band Wilco, but he started out playing jazz-fusion as a teenager ...

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Contest

Enter "The Nels Cline Singers - Macroscope" Giveaway!

Enter "The Nels Cline Singers - Macroscope" Giveaway!

Source: All About Jazz

All About Jazz members are invited to enter the Mack Avenue Records “The Nels Cline Singers - Macroscope“ giveaway contest starting today. We'll select FIVE winners at the conclusion of the contest on June 28th. Click here to enter the contest (Tracking Nels Cline at AAJ automatically enters you in the contest.) Good luck! Your Friends at Mack Avenue Records About Macroscope Taking in the full breadth of guitarist Nels Cline’s sonic sphere of influence has always required ...

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Event

Alternative Guitar Summit brings together Nels Cline, Mary Halvorson, Ben Monder, Thurston Moore: Jan. 13-15, plus many more

Alternative Guitar Summit brings together Nels Cline, Mary Halvorson, Ben Monder, Thurston Moore: Jan. 13-15, plus many more

Source: Fully Altered Media

Joel Harrison presents the Alternative Guitar Summit Co-sponsored by the New York Guitar Festival Featuring Nels Cline, Mary Halvorson, Vic Juris, Ben Monder, Thurston Moore and many more! January 13, 14 and 15, 2012 Rockwood Music Hall 196 Allen Street New York, NY 10002 (212) 477-4155 The guitar these days is a kind of magic wand, a poly-theistic blow torch, lovely, raging, gentle, noisy, intimate, voluminous, hallucinogenic, funky, juvenile, ageless. More than ...

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Recording

Nels Cline Trio - Silencer (Enja, 2011) ****

Nels Cline Trio - Silencer (Enja, 2011) ****

Source: Free Jazz by Stef Gijssels

By Paul Acquaro There is some quality to the Nels Cline Trio's Silencer that keeps making me think of the first album by the jazz-rock trio Gateway. Cline's guitar here is often a clean and clear fluid mix of single note runs and well placed double stops that echoes Abercrombie's work decades earlier. Likewise, Cline dirties up his sound but often never quite gets into full on distortion when the playing intensifies. Though released nearly 20 years apart, both albums ...

226

Recording

Tim Berne, Jim Black, Nels Cline - The Veil (2011)

Tim Berne, Jim Black, Nels Cline - The Veil (2011)

Source: Something Else!

Three of the larger figures in the downtown New York avant jazz scene, Jim Black, Nels Cline and Tim Berne, joined forces a couple of years ago to form a trio that find the intersection where the three thrive in. That area of overlap falls in the hinterland where jazz dares not tread because it's too brutal, and rock won't go there either because it's too unpredictable and tortuous. This is one of those aberrant trios where the odd combination ...

137

Performance / Tour

Scott Amendola, Nels Cline & Trevor Dunn in World Premiere with Oakland East Bay Symphony

Scott Amendola, Nels Cline & Trevor Dunn in World Premiere with Oakland East Bay Symphony

Source: Chris M. Slawecki

OAKLAND EAST BAY SYMPHONY PRESENTS THE HEIGHT OF ROMANTICISM, FEATURING THE WORLD PREMIERE BY BANDLEADER, COMPOSER AND DRUMMER SCOTT AMENDOLA FEATURING NELS CLINE OF WILCO PLUS TCHAIKOVSKY'S 4th SYMPHONY AND BERNARD HERRMANN'S SUITE FROM ALFRED HITCHCOCK'S FILM VERTIGO The Oakland East Bay Symphony (OEBS) presents an evening of intensity and drama with its concert The Height of Romanticism, held at 8 pm on Friday, April 15th at Oakland's Paramount Theatre. Venturing through two different eras and regions, OEBS will explore ...

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Performance / Tour

Nels Cline Singers: Winter 2011 Tour Dates

Nels Cline Singers: Winter 2011 Tour Dates

Source: JamBase

WILCO LEAD GUITARIST ANNOUNCES WEST COAST DATES Nels Cline Singers are heading out on the road with Yuka C. Honda in support of their 2010 release Initiate. The tour includes stops in Seattle, Portland, Arcata, San Francisco, Felton, LA, and NY. Initiate, in a beautifully designed, six-panel digipak featuring Simon Norfolk's gorgeous photographs of the world's largest machine (the Large Hadron Collider at CERN) is Cline's first double album and, with its second disc culled from a September 2009 performance ...

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Performance / Tour

UCLA Live Presents Alice Coltrane Tribute Dec. 5 All-star evening includes performances from McCoy Tyner, Kyp Malone, Nels Cline, Han Bennink, Daniel Carter, Michael White & Leisei Chen, Radha Botofasina, plus Flying Lotus and special guests

UCLA Live Presents Alice Coltrane Tribute Dec. 5 All-star evening includes performances from McCoy Tyner, Kyp Malone, Nels Cline, Han Bennink, Daniel Carter, Michael White & Leisei Chen, Radha Botofasina,  plus Flying Lotus and special guests

Source: Jessica Wolf

UCLA Live Presents Alice Coltrane Tribute Dec. 5 All-star evening includes performances from McCoy Tyner, Kyp Malone, Nels Cline, Han Bennink, Daniel Carter, Michael White & Leisei Chen, Radha Botofasina, plus Flying Lotus and special guests LOS ANGELES—A host of jazz luminaries and some of modern music's most exciting artists gather on the Royce Hall stage Sunday, December 5 at 7 p.m. in honor of the legendary Alice Coltrane. Led by Kyp Malone, of TV on the Radio and Rain ...

155

Recording

Nels Cline - Dirty Baby (Cryptogramophone, 2010)

Nels Cline - Dirty Baby (Cryptogramophone, 2010)

Source: Music and More by Tim Niland

Guitarist Nels Cline is a fearless sonic explorer spanning genres from jazz to rock 'n' roll and beyond. His latest project has a fascinating concept: he was asked to create music to accompany the artwork of Los Angeles based artist Ed Ruscha. This is not a completely new idea for Cline who released a fascinating DVD earlier this year called Stained Radiance where he improvised in real time with painter Norton Wisdom. This musical interpretation of Rusha's work is divided ...

208

Recording

Nels Cline - Dirty Baby (2010)

Nels Cline - Dirty Baby (2010)

Source: Something Else!

By Mark Saleski You'll often find writing about music and art that separates the two things: music—art. We can all agree that music is an art form and that musicians are (or at least can be) artists. But what about the relationship between music and art? There has been plenty of music inspired by art, from Gunther Schuller (Paul Klee) to Don McLean (Van Gogh) to Tom Waits (Edward Hopper), but do the two forms have an intimate connection? The ...

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Fire Illuminations

Kabell Records
2023

buy

Sara Schoenbeck

Pyroclastic Records
2021

buy

Resonant Bodies

Meta Records
2021

buy

The Boyé...

New World Records
2021

buy

Music from the Early...

RareNoiseRecords
2020

buy

Share the Wealth

Blue Note Records
2020

buy

Parallax

From: Resonant Bodies
By Nels Cline

Entity

From: Entity
By Nels Cline

Videos

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