The Nels Cline Singers
The Nels Cline Singers Yours truly, Nels Cline, is best known as a guitarist, is sometimes known to have penned a composition or two, and is often known for largely improvised forays into sound, melody, and rhythm. I was born in Los Angeles, CA in 1956. I have a twin brother named Alex who is also a musician (and a damned fine one at that!). After a long run of mostly obscure activities in the U.S. and Europe (see the Discography Dept. for added clues and/or insights), I have landed in a rather notable ROCK band called WILCO. This occurred in Spring of 2004, and it is a real pleasure, let me tell you. I'm still doing a lot of other music when time allows, and this site is the place to find out about all of that. My working band that plays my own type of instrumental music is called THE NELS CLINE SINGERS. As it is the nature of so-called "jazz" and freely improvised musics, I am often found collaborating with a large and sometimes unpredictable pool of musicians from all over the place. Don't get confused, this is fun! Check it out... Some of the artists I collaborate with and/or work for may be familiar to you. Many of them will not be. Lately I've been working with quite a few so-called singer-songwriters - a strange, unplanned pleasure! But most often you can find me playing for between 10 and 100 or so folks in a gallery, old theater, or dingy nightclub playing with odd and often magically gifted instrumentalists. Some of these sounds have - often erroneously - been labeled "jazz", though at times that term seems accurate. I come from a musical twilight zone in which world communication/awareness and cultural boundaries were expanded, altered, exploded. Like many people who were affected by the revolutionary atmosphere of the late Sixties and early Seventies, I remember what change could feel like, what kind of pure magic sound can create. Hell, I believe in the transcendent properties of art, in its ability to affect one's life in a profound way. And, as I've previously stated here, I still - after over 30 years of guitarcentric creative endeavors - derive a near-moronic pleasure from playing the various musics I play. I've never had a plan. I'm practically my own worst enemy! But I haven't given up yet - and don't think I haven't been tempted to! But check out my tiny life and the wonderful people who I get to share musicmaking with. How did this come to be? Welcome to my world! It's just like yours, only different. We all make choices, we all have accidents - the good kind and the bad kind. My life's chock full of 'em, lord knows....