By Troy Collins Troy Collins View Profile | Contact Me Senior Contributor Joined AAJ in 2006 Troy has also written for Cadence, Bagatellen, One Final Note and Junkmedia. More about Troy.

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Draw Breath, the third album from guitarist Nels Cline's ironically named instrumental trio, The Nels Cline Singers, offers another superlative collection of diverse electro-acoustic improvisation.

Cline has been the subject of an unprecedented amount of press for an avant-garde musician, courtesy of his recent stint as lead guitarist for Wilco and his designation as a "Guitar God" by Rolling Stone Magazine. Deserving of the hype, Cline is one of the most versatile and essential guitarists working today, irrespective of genre or style.

Cline's long-standing trio with upright bassist Devin Hoff and drummer Scott Amendola continues to grow, perfecting its intuitive, collective sensibility. Covering a wide range of territory, The Singers explore everything from folksy acoustic ballads and apocalyptic doom metal to jittery free jazz and psychedelic soundscapes with conviction.

Opening with the somber, down-tempo "Caved-In Heart Blues," the trio proves it can work with subtlety and grace as easily as volume and histrionics. Investigating traditional concepts of melody and harmony, "The Angel of Angels" rides a simmering waltz, brimming with bittersweet Americana. Exceedingly lyrical, it shares similarities with the bucolic pair "Recognize I” and “Recognize II," both introspective acoustic musings.

The majority of the album however, revels in punk rock intensity by knitting progressive jazz structures to raucous free improvisation.

With blistering fury, kinetic angularity and virtuosic interplay, both "Attempted" and "Confection" explode with bracing intensity and sudden dynamic shifts. "Mixed Message" expands the concept further, moving episodically from vigorous, knotty free-bop to a hushed electronic interlude before erupting in a Sonic Youth inspired torrent of pneumatic riffing.

The epic centerpiece, "Evening At Pops'," steadily ascends from an abstract quilt of shimmering electronic texture and fitful agitation to the trio's heaviest playing on record as Cline churns out a sludge metal riff that sounds like an out-take from a Melvins record.

Closing on a delicate experimental note, "Squirrel of God" features Wilco drummer Glenn Kotche. Unfolding cinematically from atmospheric musique concrète to a stirring pop climax, it conceptually brings the album full circle.

Rivaling Cline's beloved 1990s trio (with bassist Bob Mair and drummer Michael Preussner), Draw Breath reveals The Nels Cline Singers to be his most versatile and impressive ensemble to date.

The Nels Cline Singers at All About Jazz.
Visit The Nels Cline Singers on the web.

Track listing: Caved-In Heart Blues; Attempted; Confection; An Evening At Pops'; The Angel of Angels; Recognize I; Mixed Message; Recognize II; Squirrel of God.

Personnel: Nels Cline: electric and acoustic guitars, effects, megamouth; Devin Hoff: contrabass; Scott Amendola: drums, percussion, "live" electronics/effects; Glenn Kotche: percussion, crotales and glockenspiel (9).

Style: Modern Jazz
Published: July 12, 2007

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The Nels Cline Singers' Draw Breath

Bruce Tannenbaum wrote on 2007-07-12 15:43:39: Excellent review, Troy. Before I logged on to AAJ, I had known about the Nels Cline Singers' CD via an email from the All-Music Guide and comments in The Boston Globe and DownBeat magazine. I'm familiar with Nels Cline since I am an obsessive Wilco fan, a reader of too many music mags and a purchaser of lots of "cheap" compilations. On my music ToDo list was to investigate Nels' music further. Today I got the chance. I subscribe to one of the online music services and decided to make this an "out-of-the-mainstream" jazz day. Draw Breath was one of the albums I chose to hear, and I'm glad I did. The opening cut, Caved-in Heart Blues arrived with a bang after Opsvik & Jennings' Apology/Goodbye (from Commuter Anthems) - I worked for awhile in radio and I couldn't have planned a better segue! As I listened, I felt like I was back in 70s and playing my Mahavishnu Orchestra/John McLaughlin albums. The great buzz from that feeling hung on through the entire set of songs, and then Nels' music morphed into Jean-Luc Ponty's latest (The Acatama Experience), which also kept the 70s vibe alive. Nothing wrong with that. This is music for listeners who want to be engaged and surprised. There's nothing static about the efforts of Nels' and his cohorts. It's not a trip down memory lane; it's the expression of someone who has learned from the past masters, jazz and rock gods, and has put those lessons to good use. Nice to hear Scott Amendola on the album. I'm a fan of Scott since I heard my first T.J. Kirk album. More recently I saw Scott on the Sundance Channel's "Live From Abbey Road", playing drums for Madeleine Peyroux (he manned the kit on her Half the Perfect World album.

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