Alex Cline is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 jazz drummer

Jazz drumming

Jazz drumming is the art of playing percussion in jazz styles ranging from 1910s-style Dixieland jazz to 1970s-era jazz-rock fusion and 1980s-era latin jazz...

.

Cline began playing drums with his twin brother, guitarist Nels Cline

Nels Cline

Nels Cline is an American guitarist and composer, currently the lead guitarist of alternative rock band Wilco. David Carr of the New York Times describes Cline as "one of the best guitarists in any genre."-Career:...

, 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

Vinny Golia

Vinny Golia is an American composer and multi-instrumentalist specializing in woodwind instruments. He performs in the genres of contemporary music, jazz, free jazz, and free improvisation....

's group as well as the Julius Hemphill Trio

Julius Hemphill

Julius Arthur Hemphill was a jazz composer and saxophone player. He performed mainly on alto saxophone; less often soprano and tenor saxophones and flute.-Biography:...

 (along with Baikida Carroll

Baikida Carroll

Baikida Carroll is an American jazz trumpeter.Carroll studied at Southern Illinois University and at the Armed Forces School of Music early in his career. Following this he became a member of the Black Artists Group in St. Louis, where he directed their free jazz ensemble...

), formed the electric improvisational trio Spiral (with brother Nels and synthesizer

Synthesizer

A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...

 player and multi-instrumentalist Brian Horner) and began performing solo percussion concerts.

In 1979, Alex and Nels Cline, along with bassist Eric von Essen

Eric Von Essen

Eric Von Essen was an American jazz bassist, pianist, and composer active on the West Coast jazz scene of the 1970s, 80s, and 90s....

 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

National Endowment for the Arts

The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...

 and the California Arts Council

California Arts Council

The California Arts Council is a state agency based in Sacramento. Its eleven council members are appointed by the Governor and the state Legislature...

.

In 1982, Alex Cline made his solo debut with Not Alone (Nine Winds

Nine Winds

Nine Winds is an American jazz record label, founded in 1977 by Vinny Golia.Golia initially founded the label to record West Coast jazz musicians, including himself...

), a double LP of percussion music. In 1987, he recorded The Lamp and The Star (ECM

ECM (record label)

ECM is a record label founded in Munich, Germany, in 1969 by Manfred Eicher. While ECM is best known for jazz music, the label has released a wide variety of recordings, and ECM's artists often refuse to acknowledge boundaries between genres...

), 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

Cryptogramophone Records

Cryptogramophone Records is a Los Angeles-based jazz record label which was formed in 1998 by violinist Jeff Gauthier to document the music of his late friend and musical companion, bassist Eric von Essen...

, 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

Shadowfax (band)

Shadowfax was a new age/electronic musical group, best known for their albums Shadowfax and Folksongs for a Nuclear Village. In 1988 they won the Grammy for Best New Age Performance for Folksongs for a Nuclear Village...

 guitarist G.E. Stinson, and Cloud Plate (Cryptogramophone) with Stinson, vocalist Kaoru and koto

Koto (musical instrument)

The koto is a traditional Japanese stringed musical instrument, similar to the Chinese guzheng, the Mongolian yatga, the Korean gayageum and the Vietnamese đàn tranh. The koto is the national instrument of Japan. Koto are about length, and made from kiri wood...

 player Miya Masaoka

Miya Masaoka

Miya Masaoka is an American musician and composer who performs on the 17-string Japanese koto zither, often augmenting it with string preparations and electronic triggers...

.

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

Peter Erskine

Peter Erskine is an American jazz drummer and composer. He has enjoyed a long and successful career as a session drummer, recording and touring with many famous jazz and rock artists, including Steely Dan and Weather Report...

, Christopher Garcia, Andrea Centazzo, Gregg Bendian

Gregg Bendian

Gregg Bendian is a jazz percussionist and composer, primarily a vibraphonist. He was born on July 13, 1963 in Englewood, New Jersey.Bendian studied under Noel DaCosta. He has played and recorded with Nels Cline, Pat Metheny, Derek Bailey, Peter Brötzmann, Steve Hunt, Gary Lucas and Cecil Taylor...

 and Dan Morris, as well as involved in performing the works of composers such as Robert Eriksson, Harold Budd

Harold Budd

Harold Budd is an American ambient/avant-garde composer and poet. Born in Los Angeles, he was raised in the Mojave Desert, and was inspired at an early age by the humming tone caused by wind blown across telephone wires....

 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

Gregg Bendian

Gregg Bendian is a jazz percussionist and composer, primarily a vibraphonist. He was born on July 13, 1963 in Englewood, New Jersey.Bendian studied under Noel DaCosta. He has played and recorded with Nels Cline, Pat Metheny, Derek Bailey, Peter Brötzmann, Steve Hunt, Gary Lucas and Cecil Taylor...

, Tim Berne

Tim Berne

Tim Berne is an American jazz saxophone player and composer.Described by critic Thom Jurek as commanding "considerable power as a composer and ... frighteningly deft ability as a soloist," Berne has composed and performed prolifically since the 1980s...

, Arthur Blythe

Arthur Blythe

Arthur Blythe is an American jazz alto saxophonist and composer. His stylistic voice has a distinct vibrato and he plays within the post-bop subgenre of jazz.- Biography :...

, Bobby Bradford

Bobby Bradford

Bobby Lee Bradford is an American jazz trumpeter, cornetist, bandleader, and composer. He is noted for his work with Ornette Coleman...

, John Wolf Brennan

John Wolf Brennan

John Wolf Brennan is an Irish pianist, organist, melodica player, and composer based out of Switzerland.Brennan's family moved to Switzerland when he was seven years old. He took piano lessons from age eleven, but played bass guitar in a rock band in 1970 before returning to keyboards in 1974 to...

, John Carter

John Carter (jazz musician)

John Wallace Carter was an American jazz clarinet, saxophone, and flute player.-Biography:Born in Fort Worth, Texas, he played with Ornette Coleman and Charles Moffett in the 1940s. From 1961, Carter was based mainly on the West Coast. There he met Bobby Bradford in 1965, with whom he...

, Buddy Collette

Buddy Collette

William Marcel "Buddy" Collette was an American tenor saxophonist, flautist, and clarinetist. He was highly influential in the West coast jazz and West Coast blues mediums, also collaborating with saxophonist Dexter Gordon, drummer Chico Hamilton, and his lifelong friend, bassist Charles...

, Mark Dresser

Mark Dresser

Mark Dresser is an American double bass player and composer.-Biography:He has performed and recorded with many of the luminaries of "new" jazz composition and improvisation. For ten years he performed with the Anthony Braxton Quartet, as well as diverse groups led by Ray Anderson, Tim Berne,...

, Marty Ehrlich

Marty Ehrlich

Marty Ehrlich is a multi-instrumentalist and is considered one of the leading figures in experimental or avant-garde jazz....

, Vinny Golia

Vinny Golia

Vinny Golia is an American composer and multi-instrumentalist specializing in woodwind instruments. He performs in the genres of contemporary music, jazz, free jazz, and free improvisation....

, Henry Grimes

Henry Grimes

Henry Grimes is a jazz double bassist, violinist, and poet.After more than a decade of activity and performance, notably as a leading bassist in free jazz, Grimes completely disappeared from the music scene by 1970...

, Charlie Haden

Charlie Haden

Charles Edward Haden is an American jazz musician. He is a double bassist, probably best known for his long association with saxophonist Ornette Coleman...

, Joseph Jarman

Joseph Jarman

Joseph Jarman , is a jazz musician, composer and Shinshu Buddhist priest. He is perhaps best known as one of the first members of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians and the Art Ensemble of Chicago.-Early life:Jarman grew up in Chicago, Illinois...

, Henry Kaiser

Henry Kaiser (musician)

Henry Kaiser is an American guitarist and composer.Recording and performing prolifically in many styles of music, Kaiser is a fixture on the San Francisco Bay Area music scene. He is considered a member of the "first generation" of American free improvisers.-Biography:His grandfather was the...

, Yusef Lateef

Yusef Lateef

Dr. Yusef Lateef is an American Grammy Award-winning jazz multi-instrumentalist, composer, educator and a spokesman for the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community after his conversion to the Ahmadiyya sect of Islam in 1950.Although Lateef's main instruments are the tenor saxophone and flute, he is known for...

, Charles Lloyd, Myra Melford

Myra Melford

Myra Melford is a jazz pianist and composer. In recent years, Melford has begun playing the harmonium as well as piano.Melford grew up in the Chicago area...

, Frank Morgan

Frank Morgan (musician)

Frank Morgan was a jazz saxophonist with a career spanning more than 50 years. He mainly played alto saxophone but also played soprano saxophone. During the 1950s he was known as a Charlie Parker successor and recorded several bebop albums.Morgan's father was a guitarist with the vocal group The...

, Don Preston

Don Preston

Donald Ward Preston also known as Dom DeWilde or Biff Debrie born September 21, 1932 in Flint, Michigan. Preston is an American jazz and rock and roll musician.-Biography:Preston was born into a family of musicians and began studying music at an early age...

, Elliott Sharp

Elliott Sharp

Elliott Sharp is an American multi-instrumentalist, composer, and performer.A central figure in the avant-garde and experimental music scene in New York City since the late 1970s, Sharp has released over eighty-five recordings ranging from blues, jazz, and orchestral music to noise, no wave rock,...

, Wadada Leo Smith

Wadada Leo Smith

Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith is a trumpeter and composer working primarily in the fields of avant-garde jazz and free improvisation.-Biography:...

, Philip Gelb, Richard Grossman

Richard Grossman

Richard Lee Grossman was the former co-director of the Program on Corporations, Law and Democracy . He was co-author of Taking Care of Business: Citizenship and the Charter of Incorporation. He lectured widely on issues of corporate power, law and democracy...

, and others.

Discography

• Alex Cline/Kaoru/Miya Masaoka/ G.E. Stinson – Cloud Plate (Cryptogramophone CG121)
• Alex Cline Ensemble – The Constant Flame (Cryptogramophone CG110)
• Alex Cline /Jeff Gauthier/G.E. Stinson – The Other Shore (Cryptogramophone CG105)
• Alex Cline – The Lamp and The Star (ECM 1372)
• Alex Cline Ensemble – Sparks Fly Upward (Cryptogramophone CG102)
• Alex Cline /Jeff Gauthier/G.E. Stinson – right of violet (9 Winds 0184)
• Alex Cline Ensemble – Montsalvat (9 Winds 0197)
• Alex Cline – Not Alone (solo percussion music) (9 Winds 0107)
• Nels Cline – New Monastery: A View into the Music of Andrew Hill (Cryptogramophone CG130) (additional percussion, tracks 5 & 7)
• Destroy all Nels Cline (Atavistic ALP122)
• Vinny Golia/Bobby Bradford/Ken Filiano/ Alex Cline – Lineage (9 Winds 0214)
• Gregg Bendian/ Alex Cline – Espiritu (True Media D 98715)
• Stephen Arroyo – The Psychology of the Sun Signs (cassette book w/original music by Alex Cline, CRCS Publications
• Jamil Shabaka/ Alex Cline – Duo Infinity (Aten 0010)