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www.liraproductions.com/Alex_Cline.html
NINE WINDS DISCOGRAPHY:
NW0102 Vinny Golia, Baikida Carroll, Nels Cline, R.Miranda, A. Cline - Openhearted
NW0106 Jeff Gauthier, Eric von Essen, Nels and Alex Cline - Quartet Music
NW0113 Ocean Park Quartet Music
NW0117 The Vinny Golia Quintet - Going Ahead with John Fumo, Wayne Peet, Ken Filiano, Alex Cline
NW0122 Window On The Lake - Quartet Music
NW0127 The Vinny Golia Quintet - Out For Blood with Mike Vlatkovich, Wayne Peet, Ken Filiano, Alex Cline
NWCD0174 Alex Cline - Montsalvat
NWCD0184 Alex Cline, Jeff Gauthier, G.E. Stinson - Right of Violet
NWCD0189 The Vinny Golia Quintet - Nation Of Laws
NWCD0214 Vinny Golia, Bobby Bradford, KenFiliano, Alex Cline- Lineage
For information and bookings contact:
Singing Feathers
P.O. Box 251
Culver City, CA 90232-0251
(310) 839-9080Alex Cline endorses PAISTE cymbals and gongs, ATTACK drumheads, and VIC FIRTH striking implements. He continues to play on early-1970s vintage Camco drums, as he has for the last twenty-eight years, and counts MONTINERI custom snare drums among his array of such instruments.
Born January 4, 1956, in Los Angeles, Alex Cline began playing the drums at age eleven, first in rock bands with his twin brother, guitarist Nels Cline, then, as his interests and experience expanded, in numerous different musical situations. Alex's interest in a larger sonic vocabulary caused him to gather a large family of percussion instruments which he has been heard playing mainly in the "jazz" and "new music" genres.
After beginning a musical association with woodwind artist Jamil Shabaka in 1976 as Duo Infinity, Alex's musical activities began to flourish. In 1977 Alex became a member of Vinny Golia's group as well as the Julius Hemphill Trio (along with Baikida Carroll, a unit which toured Europe and recorded that year), formed the electric improv-isational trio Spiral (with Nels Cline and synthesizer player-multi-insrumentalist Brian Horner), and began performing solo percussion concerts. Since that time, Alex has performed and/or recorded with numerous musical artists, including bandleaders or bands Tim Berne, John Carter, Bobby Bradford, Julius Hemphill's JAH Band (with Nels Cline, Bill Frisell, Steuart Liebig, and Jumma Santos), Richard Grossman, Charlie Haden, John Rapson, Horace Tapscott, Barre Phillips, Charles Lloyd, the European collective Shooting Stars and Traffic Lights, Baikida Carroll, Michael Vlatkovich, Frank Morgan, Wadada Leo Smith, Susan Rawcliffe, Mark Dresser, Andrea Centazzo, Miya Masaoka, Walter Thompson, Buddy Collette, James Carney, Roberto Miguel Miranda, Kim Richmond, Dan Morris, Dave Fiuczynski, Dennis Gonzalez, John Wolf Brennan, Rob Blakeslee, Kate McGarry, Henry Kaiser, Mark Weber, Henry Kaiser and Wadada Leo Smith's "Yo Miles!" project, Karl Berger, Marty Ehrlich, Jim McAuley, BLOC, Jey Clark, Nicholas Kirgo, Steve Lockwood, Tina Marsh, Grey Pavilion, Lenny Carlson, Burton Green, John Fumo, Lynn Johnston, Iris Lord, Thirteen Frightened Girls, Sam Phipps, John Wood, and Wayne Peet (in duo, quartet, and in Wayne's group Doppler Funk). His musical pursuits have taken him all over the United States, Europe, and Canada, including appearances at such major jazz festivals as the North Sea Jazz Festival in the Hague, the Netherlands; the Du Maurier International Jazz Festival in Vancouver, B.C., Canada; the Lucerne Festival, Lucerne, Switzerland; and jazz festivals of Willisau, Switzerland; Saalfelden, Austria; Nickelsdorff, Austria; Hofheim, Germany; Ris-Oranges, France; Milan, Italy; Ljubljana, Yugoslavia; and Skopje, Macedonia.
In 1979, Alex, Nels Cline, Eric von Essen, and 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. Several of Alex's compositions were performed and recorded by this ensemble. In summer 1989 Quartet Music performed its music for two consecutive evenings together with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra.
Alex 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 (for whom he servedas music director for their "Soundspace" concerts), Dance/LA, the UCLA Dance Company, and currently, Open Gate Theatre (a dance-music-theater ensemble led by dancer-musician Will Salmon). He has worked on feature and cable television film soundtracks, done numerous sound workshops and percussion clinics, plus lecture-demonstra-tions on one of Alex's primary areas of interest and study, Asian metal percussion instruments, particularly the singing bowls of Tibet.
In 1987, Alex recorded his first album as a bandleader-composer entitled The Lamp and The Star. He is now concertizing with his own ensemble, the core of which can be heard on the album (on the ECM label). In 1992, this ensemble recorded their second album, Montsalvat, released in January 1996 on the 9 Winds label. The latest recording of Alex's music, Sparks Fly Upward, recorded in April 1998, was released on Cryptogramophone Records and features the current line-up of his ensemble: vocalist Aina Kemanis, violinist Jeff Gauthier, keyboardist Wayne Peet, guitarist G.E. Stinson, and bassist Michael Elizondo. The critically acclaimed album was produced by Peter Erskine, who also produced the Ensemble's newest recording, The Constant Flame (scheduled for release on Cryptogramophone in July 2001). Alex's compositions have also been heard on recordings or in performances by Dennis Gonzalez, Shooting Stars & Traffic Lights, Barre Phillips, and the Jeff Gauthier Quartet. Profiles of Alex have appeared in such publications as Down Beat, Modern Drummer, Avant, the Los Angeles Times, LA Weekly, Pasadena Weekly, and Glue, and he is one of the artists featured in the upcoming book Percussion Profiles by Trevor Taylor and Michael Bettine.
Other current musical situations in which Alex is involved include the Vinny Golia Quintet and Large Ensemble; Gregg Bendian's Interzone; the Jeff Gauthier Quartet; an improvisational trio with G.E. Stinson and Jeff Gauthier; Destroy All Nels Cline; the Don Preston Trio; the Akashic Ensemble ( a trio led by Don Preston including Nels Cline); the Rain Trio (with saxophonist Eric Barber and bassist Scott Walton); a quartet including kotoist Miya Masaoka, vocalist Kaoru, and G.E. Stinson; the Scot Ray Quintet; bass guitarist Steuart Liebig's group StALiQ; a trio with multi-instrumentalist Wadada Leo Smith and poet Harumi Makino Smith; a duo with drummer Peter Erskine ("Duet o' Stick"); a duo with percussionist Ron George; a duo with percussionist Gregg Bendian; a duo with percussionist Christopher Garcia; solo work; and various freelance capacities. He is also currently leading another group, Alex Cline's Band of the Moment (with John Fumo, Jeff Gauthier, Wayne Peet, and Steuart Liebig).
Having recorded on over sixty albums and performed on numerous concert tours both domestically and abroad, Alex Cline continues to bring his percussive artistry to a wider and increasingly global public. His current work as a composer and bandleader serves to expand and enhance his reputation.
