Nels Cline has led a double, even triple or quadruple musical life since his professional debut. As a rock soloist with Wilco, he also performs contemporary jazz, free improvisation, noise, avant-rock, avant-folk, electroacoustic, and contemporary music of European tradition. It would be a mistake to try to confine him to any one of those boxes. Cline is one of those visionaries evolving at the antipodes of any sectarianism. Fans of American rock recognise his singularity, fans of contemporary music follow his career with interest, practitioners of extreme eclecticism happily enter his universe. The Nels Cline Singers have already given some memorable concerts. Jazz is most probably their dominant idiom, but Share The Wealth includes several stops that have little to do with it. Like John Zorn’s projects such as Electric Masada and The Dreamers, this group embodies what jazz-fusion should have become long ago, before it was transformed into performance music, a forum reserved for virtuoso soloists whose playing too often unfolds at the expense of compositional vision. Luckily, new projects from the original jazz-fusion are emerging from amid the repetition and showboating. Cline is one of the key craftsmen of this trend, combining several traditions around a sort of jazz descending from the great electric sessions conducted in the late ’60s and early ’70s. Not only can we identify references to Miles Davis, Wayne Shorter, Josef Zawinul, Chick Corea, and John McLaughlin, but also to other compositional aesthetics. The Nels Cline Singers is a variable ensemble yet a well-oiled, quick-response machine. Surrounding Cline are saxophonist Skerik, keyboardist Brian Marsella, bassist Trevor Dunn, drummer Scott Amendola, and percussionist Cyro Baptista. No singers in the Nels Cline Singers! This work sits in the realm of human singing that human machines have extended since time immemorial.
Latest 360 Content
Album review Rock/expérimental / contemporain/Instrumental/métal progressif 2024
Hybreed Chaos – Subliminal Abyssal Carnage
By Laurent Bellemare
Album review Experimental / Contemporary/expérimental / contemporain 2024
Senyawa – Vajranala
By Laurent Bellemare
Interview Indigenous peoples
International First Peoples’ Festival 2024: let’s chat about the programming
By Frédéric Cardin
Concert review Africa/latino/Americana
PAN M 360 at Nuits d’Afrique 2024 | Final Evening With a Congolese and Colombian Flavour
By Jacob Langlois-Pelletier
Concert review Africa/Caribbean/Reggae/Soul/R&B
PAN M 360 at Nuits d’Afrique | A Look Back at Rutshelle Guillaume’s Closing Triumph
By Rédaction PAN M 360
Album review Jazz 2024
Domas Žeromskas – Meditations on Providence and Perseverance, Vol.1
By Frédéric Cardin
Album review expérimental / contemporain/Jazz/Spoken Word 2024
Catharine Cary – AIR CAKE and other summery occupations
By Frédéric Cardin
Interview Classical/classique/trad québécois
Festival de Lanaudière 2024 | Tribute to Mémoire et Racines against a backdrop of trad/classical reunion
By Frédéric Cardin
Concert review Africa
PAN M 360 at Nuits d’Afrique – Les Aunties, from Ndjamena to Montreal
By Sandra Gasana
Concert review Africa/Hip Hop
PAN M 360 at Nuits d’Afrique – Fredy Massamba Was Blessed with Some Rain
By Sandra Gasana
Concert review Classical/classique
Festival de Lanaudière 2024 | OSM/Levanon : game saved in the second half
By Frédéric Cardin
Concert review Africa/Indian Ocean/Maghrebi
PAN M 360 at Nuits d’Afrique 2024 | Sofaz Grooves!
By Keithy Antoine
Concert review Africa/Caribbean
PAN M 360 at Nuits d’Afrique 2024 | Birth of a Haitian star
By Keithy Antoine
Concert review Africa/Sacred Music/Hip Hop/Reggae
PAN M 360 at Nuits d’Afrique 2024 | Joyce N’sana On The Rise
By Keithy Antoine
Concert review Africa/Caribbean