Alex Cline

All Music Guide:

Drummer and percussionist Alex Cline has been active in West Coast jazz and new music scenes since the late '70s. Cline and his twin brother, guitarist Nels Cline, were born and raised in Los Angeles, where they began making music together at a fairly young age. Perhaps one of their most-recognized groups together is Quartet Music, an award-winning '80s band with violinist Jeff Gauthier and bassist Eric Von Essen. Although Quartet Music disbanded in the mid-'90s, Cline continued to collaborate with some of its members in different ensembles since, such as Gregg Bendian's Interzone, G.E. Stinson Group, and the Jeff Gauthier Quartet, as well as his own Alex Cline Ensemble. Cline has, in fact, led dates during the '80s and '90s for ECM, Vinny Golia's 9 Winds label, and Cryptogramophone. Cline also formed Duo Infinity with woodwinds player Jamil Shabaka, led the improvised music trio, Spiral, and staged occasional solo performances over the decades. His numerous projects allowed him to utilize the large collection of percussion instruments (particularly Asian metal instruments) he had acquired over the years.

By 2000, Cline had performed on over 40 recordings with a number of notable leaders including Julius Hemphill (he played in Hemphill's trio as well as in his JAH Band) and Vinny Golia (in various ensembles). Alex Cline has also performed with such renowned musicians as Charlie Haden, John Carter, and Tim Berne. He has worked on film soundtracks, collaborated and performed with Los Angeles area dance companies, and given lectures, percussion workshops, and clinics. The late '90s found Cline active in some of the previously mentioned groups as well as in the European band, Shooting Stars and Traffic Lights, and the Bobby Bradford Mo'tet. In 2000, he enjoyed the release of his second led date for Cryptogramophone, entitled The Other Shore.

Wikipedia:

Alex Cline (born January 4, 1956, in Los Angeles, California) is an American jazz drummer.

Cline began playing drums with his twin brother, guitarist Nels Cline, at age 11. Their first band was called Homogenized Goo and included David Hirschman on guitar. He began a musical association with woodwind artist Jamil Shabaka in 1976 as "Duo Infinity". In 1977, Alex Cline became a member of Vinny Golia's group as well as the Julius Hemphill Trio (along with Baikida Carroll), 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.

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, 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.

Cline has played on over eighty recordings, and 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, Wadada Leo Smith, Philip Gelb, Richard Grossman, and others.