Alex Cline

Last updated
Alex Cline
Born (1956-01-04) January 4, 1956 (age 67)
Los Angeles, California
GenresJazz
Occupation(s)Musician
Instrument(s)Drums
Years active1980s–present
LabelsNine Winds, Cryptogramophone

Alex Cline (born January 4, 1956) is an American jazz drummer.

Contents

Biography

Born in Los Angeles, California, Cline began playing drums with his twin brother, guitarist Nels Cline, at the age of 11. [1] Their first band was called Homogenized Goo and included David Hirschman on guitar. Alex Cline began a musical association with woodwind artist Jamil Shabaka in 1976 as "Duo Infinity". In 1977, he became a member of Vinny Golia's group as well as the Julius Hemphill Trio (along with Baikida Carroll), [2] formed the electric improvisational trio Spiral (with brother Nels and synthesizer player and multi-instrumentalist Brian Horner) and began performing solo percussion concerts.

In 1979, Alex and Nels Cline, along with bassist Eric von Essen and violinist Jeff Gauthier, formed "Quartet Music", a group that enjoyed continued success in its performances and four recordings over an eleven-year period and was awarded grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the California Arts Council. [2]

In 1982, Alex Cline made his solo debut with Not Alone (Nine Winds), a double LP of percussion music. In 1987, he recorded The Lamp and The Star (ECM), his first album as a bandleader-composer. As the leader of his own group, The Alex Cline Ensemble, he can be heard on Sparks Fly Upward and The Constant Flame, [3] two releases on Cryptogramophone Records, an LA-based independent creative-jazz label. Cline's other improvisational collaborations include right of violet and The Other Shore, both with Jeff Gauthier and ex-Shadowfax guitarist G.E. Stinson, and Cloud Plate (Cryptogramophone) with Stinson, vocalist Kaoru and koto player Miya Masaoka.

Other groups Cline has led are Alex Cline's Band of the Moment and The Rain Trio (with Eric Barber and Scott Walton). He has also been involved in duo percussion collaborations with Ron George, Peter Erskine, Christopher Garcia, Andrea Centazzo, Gregg Bendian and Dan Morris, as well as involved in performing the works of composers such as Robert Eriksson, Harold Budd and David Means.

Cline has served as composer and/or performer for numerous modern dancers and dance companies in Los Angeles, including Margaret Schuette, Linda Fowler, the Momentum Company's "Soundspace" concerts, Dance/LA, the UCLA Dance Company and has enjoyed a longstanding involvement with Will Salmon's Open Gate Theatre company.

He has participated in performance collaborations with visual artists Yoshio Ikezaki, Norton Wisdom, Kio Griffith and 2-Tu. He has worked on feature and cable television film soundtracks, done numerous sound workshops and percussion clinics, plus lecture-demonstrations on Asian metal percussion instruments. Cline has also been the curator of the Open Gate Theatre's Sunday Evening Concerts series, a new music/creative jazz showcase held monthly in Eagle Rock, California (since 1997).

He also works as an interviewer/interview series developer-coordinator at the UCLA Library Center for Oral History Research. [2]

Cline has worked with Gregg Bendian, Tim Berne, Arthur Blythe, Bobby Bradford, John Wolf Brennan, John Carter, Buddy Collette, Mark Dresser, Marty Ehrlich, Vinny Golia, Henry Grimes, Charlie Haden, Joseph Jarman, Henry Kaiser, Yusef Lateef, Charles Lloyd, Myra Melford, Frank Morgan, Don Preston, Elliott Sharp, and Wadada Leo Smith.

Discography

As leader

With Quartet Music

As sideman

With Gregg Bendian

With Tim Berne

With John Wolf Brennan

With Nels Cline

With Jeff Gauthier

With Vinny Golia

With Richard Grossman

With Ross Hammond

With Armen Nalbandian

With David Moss, Alex Cline, Andrea Centazzo

With John Rapson

With others

Related Research Articles

Mark Dresser is an American double bass player and composer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tim Berne</span> American jazz saxophonist

Tim Berne is an American avant-garde jazz saxophonist and record label owner. His primary instruments are the alto and baritone saxophones.

Gregg Bendian is an American jazz drummer, percussionist, pianist, and composer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Kaiser (musician)</span> American guitarist, film director, and scientific diver

Henry Kaiser is an American guitarist and composer, known as an idiosyncratic soloist, a sideman, an ethnomusicologist, and a film score composer. Recording and performing prolifically in many styles of music, Kaiser is a fixture on the San Francisco Bay Area music scene. He is considered a member of the "second generation" of American free improvisers. He is married to Canadian artist Brandy Gale. He is the son of Henry J. Kaiser Jr. and the grandson of industrialist Henry J. Kaiser.

Cryptogramophone Records is a jazz record label formed in 1998 by violinist Jeff Gauthier to document the music of his friend, Eric von Essen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vinny Golia</span> American composer and multi-instrumentalist

Vinny Golia is an American composer and multi-instrumentalist specializing in woodwind instruments. He performs in the genres of contemporary music, jazz, free jazz, and free improvisation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bobby Bradford</span> American jazz musician, bandleader, and composer

Bobby Lee Bradford is an American jazz trumpeter, cornetist, bandleader, and composer. In addition to his solo work, Bradford is noted for his work with John Carter, Vinny Golia and Ornette Coleman. In October 2009, Bradford became the second recipient of the Festival of New Trumpet Music's Award of Recognition. He taught at Pomona College for 44 years.

Gregory E. Stinson, better known as G. E. Stinson, is an American guitarist and founding member of new age/electronic musical group Shadowfax. Inspired by blues masters such as Bo Diddley and Muddy Waters, Stinson experimented with blues, jazz and other musical genres before co-founding Shadowfax in 1974. He remained with the band for six albums. He departed Shadowfax after recording The Odd Get Even (1989), entering the Los Angeles underground music community to refine his 'extended technique' and 'frequency manipulation'. Since then he has worked with a number of musicians on various projects, including Napalm Quartet, Splinter Group, Stinkbug, Metalworkers, Alex De Grassi, Devin Sarno and others. In 2000, he collaborated with drummer Gregg Bendian, violinist Jeff Gauthier, and bassist Steuart Liebig on an album of collective improvisational pieces recorded live in the studio, entitled Bone Structure. Released in 2003, it was given four stars by Jim Andrews in DownBeat magazine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ken Filiano</span> Musical artist

Ken Filiano is an American jazz and orchestral bassist based in Brooklyn, New York.

Nine Winds is an American jazz record label that was founded in 1977 by Vinny Golia.

Eric Von Essen was an American jazz bassist, pianist, and composer active on the West Coast jazz scene of the 1970s, 80s, and 90s.

Wayne Edward Peet is an American jazz pianist and organist, active chiefly on the West Coast jazz scene.

Ira John Rapson, III was an American jazz trombonist and educator.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scott Amendola</span> American drummer (born 1969)

Scott Amendola is an American drummer from the San Francisco Bay Area. His styles include jazz, blues, groove, and rock.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rich Halley</span> Musical artist

Rich Halley is an American jazz tenor saxophonist and composer. He has released 24 recordings as a leader. As Down Beat described him: “Oregon-based saxophonist Rich Halley has been turning out smart brawny music for a couple of decades”. All About Jazz called his music “a sublime balance of the cerebral and visceral”.

<i>Dirty Baby</i> 2010 studio album by Nels Cline

Dirty Baby is an album by American guitarist Nels Cline performing compositions inspired by Edward Ruscha, which was released in October 2010 on the Cryptogramophone label.

<i>For People in Sorrow</i> 2013 live album by Alex Cline

For People in Sorrow is an album by American percussionist Alex Cline performing a composition inspired by the Art Ensemble of Chicago's 1969 album People in Sorrow which was recorded live at the Angel City Jazz Festival in 2011 and released on the Cryptogramophone label.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeff Gauthier</span> American violinist (born 1954)

Jeff Gauthier is an American violinist who works with classical, jazz, new music, and free improvisation music. He is also active as a music producer and nonprofit consultant.

Steuart Liebig, born July 25, 1956, is an American bassist and composer of modern creative jazz and the free improvisational music. He plays 6-string bass guitars.

Jeff Kaiser is an American trumpet player and composer who teaches music technology and music composition at the University of Central Missouri. As a trumpet player, he has performed and recorded with Vinny Golia's Large Ensemble, Eugene Chadbourne, The Motor Totemist Guild, and Guerino Mazzola, and played on the soundtrack for the HBO TV series Deadwood. As a composer and performer, Kaiser's recording on Nine Winds Records, Nothing is Not Breath, has been referred to on AllMusic as "one of the best presentations of Southern California improvising talent ever recorded, indicating his superior talents as a bandleader and conductor.” Performances of his experimental big band, The Jeff Kaiser Ockodektet, have been included among the top jazz concerts in San Diego.

References

  1. "Nels Cline, Alex Cline Interview: An Avant-Jazz Fraternity". NPR. 14 February 2009. Retrieved 27 March 2013.
  2. 1 2 3 DeLuke, R J (9 March 2009). "Alex Cline: Free-Spirited Drummer". All About Jazz. Retrieved 3 September 2011.
  3. Kelman, John (5 February 2009). "Alex Cline: Continuation (2009)". All About Jazz. Retrieved 3 September 2011.