Jazz Articles about Nels Cline

The Nels Cline Singers: The Giant Pin

by Franz A. Matzner
February 7, 2004

Pushing jazz into territory usually reserved for hardcore, ambient, and dark wave electronica, the Nels Cline Singers' latest release, The Giant Pin , employs a wide array of electronics, musical technique, and compositional audacity to produce a sonically varied, deadly experimental amalgam of genres and styles. Incorporating undulating waves of pure texture, metal-loud drum beats, and distortion-laden guitar--as well as minimalist, floating soundscapes--with traditional jazz vernacular and improvisational structures, the Nels Cline Singers have done what all of jazz's pantheon ...

A Fireside Chat with Nels Cline

by AAJ Staff
October 29, 2003

I could refer to myself as having long been a Nels Cline enthusiast, but I cannot tell a lie. In fact, I am a recent convert, having listened to Interstellar Space Revisited (The Music of John Coltrane) in the summer of '99 (which doesn't have nearly the ring that the Bryan Adams ditty has). But I have since been a quick study. Cline, like Vinny Golia, Horace Tapscott, John Carter, Bobby Bradford, Adam Rudolph, and too many others to mention ...

The Nels Cline Singers: Instrumentals

by AAJ Staff
August 12, 2002

From the opening notes of Instrumentals, it rapidly becomes clear that the (entirely vocal-free) Nels Cline Singers are out to make some noise. Guitarist Nels Cline, who has eagerly straddled the divide between jazz and rock, maintains an open ear for dissonance--and this is a big reason he's received such broad recognition. “A Mug Like Mine" takes a nine-minute voyage into the higher-order melodies, harmonies and rhythms of energy music, an opening salvo announcing things to come.But like ...

Gregg Bendian's Interzone: Requiem for Jack Kirby

by Todd S. Jenkins
March 1, 2002

An impeccable tribute to an incomparable artist. Jack Kirby was one of the great comic-book creators, a dweller in places of long shadows and stark colors who fathered the Fantastic Four, Captain America, the X-Men and other legendary Marvel Comics. A musical tribute to a visual artist working in that medium might seem strange, but Interzone managed to pull off a coup. The music on Requiem is dead-on evocative of Kirby's grotesque otherworlds, and fascinating at that. From ...

Nels Cline: Destroy All Nels Cline!

by Derek Taylor
June 1, 2001

The nihilistic title and imposing instrumentation on this disc might cause some on-the-fence listeners to cringe, or at the very least reach for the closest pair of earplugs. Others possessing ears familiar with the Cline brothers previous projects are likely to feel the tingle of an expectant grin cross their countenances. Four electric guitars and electric bass guitar, not to mention the drum kit of Alex Cline and the guest voices of Parkins and Peet--that’s a lot of juice feeding ...

Nels Cline: Destroy All Nels Cline

by AAJ Staff
June 1, 2001

As you might guess from the title, nihilism reigns supreme on Destroy All Nels Cline. Guitarist Nels Cline has made a personal mission out of exploring the full range of improvised music: his career is dotted with explorations of noise, rock, free jazz, and straight-ahead swinging jazz, not to mention all the points in between. When Cline takes the helm on Destroy, he brings this worldly experience to fruition in unusual and surprisingly visionary ways. But never one to set ...

Nels Cline: The Inkling

by Michael A. Parker
October 1, 2000

This represents the first recording by a new group led by Nels Cline, although there are clear traces of his previous work with the Nels Cline Trio. As with much of his previous work, this is unique music that might very well slip through the cracks of the improv, jazz, and rock worlds, but such an oversight would be unfair indeed.

Cline has worked with Mark Dresser on 1996's overlooked Eremite release by Gregg Bendian's Interzone, and Dresser brings his ...