Biography
Drummer and percussionist Alex Cline entered the West Coast jazz and new music circles in the late 1970s and has remained active there ever since. Born and raised in Los Angeles alongside his twin brother, guitarist Nels Cline, the two began creating music together while still quite young. One of their best-known joint ventures was the award-winning 1980s ensemble Quartet Music, which also featured violinist Jeff Gauthier and bassist Eric Von Essen. Although that group dissolved in the mid-1990s, Cline kept working with several of its participants across other projects, among them Gregg Bendian’s Interzone, the G.E. Stinson Group, the Jeff Gauthier Quartet, and his own Alex Cline Ensemble. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s he also helmed sessions for ECM, Vinny Golia’s 9 Winds imprint, and Cryptogramophone. Additional endeavors included the Duo Infinity partnership with woodwinds player Jamil Shabaka, the free-improvisation trio Spiral, and periodic solo recitals; these outlets gave him opportunities to draw on the extensive array of percussion instruments—especially Asian metal ones—he had gathered over time.
By the turn of the millennium Cline had already appeared on more than forty recordings alongside prominent bandleaders such as Julius Hemphill, with whom he played in both a trio and the JAH Band, and Vinny Golia, across multiple configurations. Other distinguished associates have included Charlie Haden, John Carter, and Tim Berne. He has contributed to film scores, partnered with Los Angeles dance troupes, and conducted lectures, percussion workshops, and clinics. During the late 1990s he maintained involvement in several of the aforementioned groups while also joining the Bobby Bradford Mo’tet. His second album as a leader for Cryptogramophone, The Other Shore, appeared in 2000.
Cryptogramophone next issued Sparks Fly Upward, taped in April 1998, together with its companion release The Constant Flame in 2001; both projects, which received strong critical notice, were produced by Peter Erskine. In the interval before his subsequent label effort, 2005’s Cloud Plate, Cline stayed occupied with session and touring work. His playing surfaced on recordings by his brother, violinist Jeff Gauthier, and Lydia Lunch, and he participated as a member of Gregg Bendian’s Interzone, the Richard Grossman Trio, and the Scot Ray Quintet. He joined pianist John Wolf Brennan’s quintet for the 2007 album Shooting Stars & Traffic Lights and returned to Gauthier’s Goatette for the 2008 release House of Return. Early in 2009 Cline issued Continuation, featuring violinist Myra Melford and bassist Scott Walton; several months afterward he appeared on the Goatette recording One and the Same.
In 2011 Cline unveiled his arrangement of the Art Ensemble of Chicago’s landmark suite For People in Sorrow as a tribute to composer Roscoe Mitchell, the Art Ensemble itself, and Chicago’s Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians. First encountered during high school, the 1969 recording had exerted a lasting influence on his artistic outlook. The large-scale multimedia performance featured Melford, Oliver Lake, Vinny Golia, Marc Dresser, Zeena Parkins, and Dwight Trible among its participants. Cryptogramophone documented the event in both audio and video formats, releasing the results in March 2013. Cline composed the extended suite Oceans of Vows in 2015, drawing inspiration from the Buddhist text known as The Avatamsaka Sutra, or Flower Garland Discourse; Cryptogramophone issued a recording of the work in 2017.
By the turn of the millennium Cline had already appeared on more than forty recordings alongside prominent bandleaders such as Julius Hemphill, with whom he played in both a trio and the JAH Band, and Vinny Golia, across multiple configurations. Other distinguished associates have included Charlie Haden, John Carter, and Tim Berne. He has contributed to film scores, partnered with Los Angeles dance troupes, and conducted lectures, percussion workshops, and clinics. During the late 1990s he maintained involvement in several of the aforementioned groups while also joining the Bobby Bradford Mo’tet. His second album as a leader for Cryptogramophone, The Other Shore, appeared in 2000.
Cryptogramophone next issued Sparks Fly Upward, taped in April 1998, together with its companion release The Constant Flame in 2001; both projects, which received strong critical notice, were produced by Peter Erskine. In the interval before his subsequent label effort, 2005’s Cloud Plate, Cline stayed occupied with session and touring work. His playing surfaced on recordings by his brother, violinist Jeff Gauthier, and Lydia Lunch, and he participated as a member of Gregg Bendian’s Interzone, the Richard Grossman Trio, and the Scot Ray Quintet. He joined pianist John Wolf Brennan’s quintet for the 2007 album Shooting Stars & Traffic Lights and returned to Gauthier’s Goatette for the 2008 release House of Return. Early in 2009 Cline issued Continuation, featuring violinist Myra Melford and bassist Scott Walton; several months afterward he appeared on the Goatette recording One and the Same.
In 2011 Cline unveiled his arrangement of the Art Ensemble of Chicago’s landmark suite For People in Sorrow as a tribute to composer Roscoe Mitchell, the Art Ensemble itself, and Chicago’s Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians. First encountered during high school, the 1969 recording had exerted a lasting influence on his artistic outlook. The large-scale multimedia performance featured Melford, Oliver Lake, Vinny Golia, Marc Dresser, Zeena Parkins, and Dwight Trible among its participants. Cryptogramophone documented the event in both audio and video formats, releasing the results in March 2013. Cline composed the extended suite Oceans of Vows in 2015, drawing inspiration from the Buddhist text known as The Avatamsaka Sutra, or Flower Garland Discourse; Cryptogramophone issued a recording of the work in 2017.
Albums
Singles
