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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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Nels Cline: Consentrik Quartet
by Don Ball
While Nels Cline has been playing the guitar-hero rock star for the past two decades with Wilco, he continues to release his own solo recordings under various names (including the Nels Cline 4 and the Nels Cline Singers, which, amusingly, contain no vocalists) tailored toward the avant-garde side of jazz (with the notable exception of his lush, lovely jazz orchestra Blue Note release from 2016, Lovers). His 2025 release, Consentrik Quartet, brings together some of the finest jazz musicians working ...
Continue ReadingNels Cline, Billy Mohler, Koi Kingdom, Sophie Lüssi & More
by Ludovico Granvassu
A slew of gorgeous new albums on the NY-LA express is at the core of this episode which also takes us to Switzlerland and Australia, for good measure!Happy listening!Playlist Ben Allison “Mondo Jazz Theme (feat. Ted Nash & Pyeng Threadgill)" 0:00 Billy Mohler “Those Who Know" The Eternal (Contagious) 0:16 Host talks 4:28 Nels Cline “The Bag" Consentrik Quartet (Blue Note) 6:04 Host talks 10:58 Sophie Lüssi “Orpheuspotter" Atlantic Puffin (ezz-thetics) 13:09 Koi Kingdom “Ark" Koi ...
Continue ReadingNels Cline: The Shape of Sound
by Leo Sidran
For nearly two decades, Nels Cline has been best known as the mercurial, shape-shifting guitarist of Wilco, a role that has introduced his name to legions of fans and placed him at the center of a beloved and influential American band. But to reduce Cline's career to his work with Wilco would be to miss the expansive, restless nature of his artistry. He is a guitarist's guitarist--an improviser, a sonic architect, and a musician equally at home in the avant-garde ...
Continue ReadingVarious Guitarists: The Middle of Everywhere: Guitar Solos Vol. I
by Glenn Astarita
Produced by laudable guitarist/composer Joel Harrison and the Alternative Guitar Summit, The Middle of Everywhere: Guitar Solos Vol. 1 is a compelling exploration of the intersections between jazz, classical and world music traditions--think of it as a musical United Nations, where six-stringed diplomats from various genres come together to harmonize. In the album liners, Harrison states, “The idea for this project started when I presented a concert of virtual solo performances from around the world during the pandemic." Hence, it ...
Continue ReadingWadada Leo Smith: Fire Illuminations
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.
Continue ReadingWadada Leo Smith: Fire Illuminations
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 ...
Continue ReadingSara Schoenbeck: Sara Schoenbeck
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 ...
Continue ReadingStLJN 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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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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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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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 ...
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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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The Nels Cline Singers - Initiate (2010)
Source:
Something Else!
By PicoMultiple personality disorder is considered an affliction among the mentally disabled, but when it comes to the artistry of that unquenchable, multidimensional guitarist Nels Cline, it's the very thing that makes him such an unpredictably compelling musician. Each time I've audited a new record of his, like his celebration of the music of Andrew Hill or another genre-bending effort by his Nels Cline Singers, it's always been an intriguing experience. He uses genres interchangeably as a means ...
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Guitarist Nels Cline Interviewed at AAJ
Source:
All About Jazz
While joining alt-country group Wilco in 2004 has done a lot for Nels Cline's profile, it's his own work as a fearless, boundary-averse guitarist that's turned him into what Jazz Times has called “The World's Most Dangerous Guitarist."
The guitarist's latest release with Nels Cline Singers, Initiate (Cryptogramophone, 2010), represents a number of first for his nearly decade-old group with bassist Devin Hoff and drummer Scott Amendola. It's the trio's first double album and, with one disc recorded in the ...
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The Jazz Session #166: Nels Cline
Source:
Michael Ricci
Guitarist Nels Cline may be best known these days for his work with Wilco, but hed already established himself as an inventive guitarist and composer long before teaming up with the band. On his new CD, Initiate (Cryptogramophone, 2010), the Nels Cline Singers trio explores a variety of rhythmic and harmonic concepts from their very original viewpoint. In this interview, Cline talks about the all-inclusive concept behind his current trio; his concerns years ago about playing in the trio format; ...
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Wilco Guitarist Nels Cline Reconnects with His Jazz Side on New Album
Source:
All About Jazz @ Spinner
By Tad Hendrickson
Nels Cline was been straddling the line between jazz and rock guitar since the late '70s. He got his start working with jazz musicians of the likes of Julius Hemphill, Charlie Haden and Tim Berne, while also doing more rock-oriented stuff with Mike Watt, the Geraldine Fibbers and others, though his major claim to fame these days is his gig as lead guitarist for Wilco. While that band is seemingly on a never-ending tour, Cline has found ...
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Nels Cline Singers Release 4th Album, a Double CD, "Initiate," (Studio CD + Live CD) on Cryptogramophone Records April 13th, 2010
Source:
Fully Altered Media
The Nels Cline Singers are Nels Cline, Scott Amendola & Devin Hoff Live Guests Include David Witham, Yuka Honda (Cibo Matto), Greg Saunier (Deerhoof), John Dieterich (Deerhoof) & Satomi Matsuzaki (Deerhoof)
Artwork Features Photographs of The Large Hadron Collider at CERN (Switzerland), The Largest Machine in the World
Album Produced by David Breskin (Ronald Shannon Jackson, Bill Frisell, John Zorn) Engineered by Ron Saint Germain (Bad Brains, Ornette Coleman, Soundgarden)
The concept of duality has been a defining characteristic of ...
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Nels Cline
Location: Los Angeles
Instrument: Guitar, electric
Born: 1956
