With Wilco on hiatus, Nels Cline has been profiting from his so-called downtime. The guitarist is presently prepping for a tour along with his Consentrik Quartet, which simply launched its self-titled debut on Blue Word. The album revels within the swinging, grooving, unpredictable (however at all times tasteful) chemistry between Cline, sax participant Ingrid Laubrock, bassist Chris Lightcap and drummer Tom Rainey. It’s additionally a formidable showcase for the type of versatility not as readily obvious in Cline’s extra restrained work with Wilco.
MAGNET’s Hobart Rowland checked in with Cline earlier this month.
How did you hyperlink up with the wonderful gamers within the Consentrik Quartet?
My affiliation with drummer extraordinaire Tom Rainey began possibly 20 years in the past once I fashioned an improvising trio with him and accordionist/digital musician Andrea Parkins, which launched the recordings within the early aughts. I’d been a fan of his taking part in for a while—he’s performed with virtually all people—and at all times felt we had sturdy chemistry. I nonetheless really feel that manner. I can’t recall how I met Chris Lightcap, however it could have been by our mutual producer/creator pal David Breskin. We join on each jazz and rock ranges, as he’s exceptional on each acoustic and electrical bass and is an excellent composer and bandleader.
Just a few years in the past, I began a trio with Chris and Tom. We performed a number of instances in New York Metropolis and as soon as in Japan, however it was heavy on cowl songs and had a considerably completely different aesthetic than Consentrik. It did lead me to play with them on the Stone in Brooklyn when John Zorn had that moving into an artwork gallery in Crown Heights. The second of my two nights there, I invited Ingrid, Tom’s wonderful spouse, to hitch us for an evening of all-improvised music—and it was pretty. I’d heard Ingrid on recordings, stay with the duo she and Tom have achieved for years, and with the Mary Halvorson Octet, amongst others. She’s additionally a formidable composer. After that evening on the Stone, I suppose I began questioning … Everybody performs so superbly, they usually’re fantastic human beings.
What position did Philadelphia’s Ars Nova Workshop play?
Mark Christman, who heads up Ars Nova, noticed a grant come throughout his desk that required a composer to create and carry out music for a quartet—and he considered me. Initially, I consider he was considering of my band with Julian Lage known as the Nels Cline 4. I defined that Julian was on his personal wonderful path taking part in his personal music, and that the quantity of taking part in we’d achieved collectively was, in gentle of his phenomenal profession and talents, miraculous. I couldn’t ask him to do extra. I advised Mark about my new quartet thought, and he principally mentioned, “Nice, simply write one thing about what you wish to do and why.” I did, and I acquired the grant. And right here we’re.
You’ve described this new LP as a love letter to the Brooklyn improvised music scene. Inform us extra about that scene.
Hmm … I believe one other author got here up with that concept. However I definitely love the vitality and virtuosity I understand in Brooklyn, and I’ve so many pals there who encourage me. After all, the New York Metropolis space has been well-known on this regard for many years—and for a superb cause. The variety of inventive and expert musicians residing and dealing there may be big, and the potential for taking part in and collaborating is at all times current. This mentioned, some of the fantastic issues about taking part in music is that it holds out the potential for taking part in with people from throughout. Good music might be discovered nearly wherever, and it’s a privilege to attempt to play it.
How did the pandemic form the music on Consentrik Quartet?
After I acquired that grant … growth, the pandemic. On the block the place we lived in Brooklyn, there was a fireplace station and a police station, and issues had been actually getting gnarly. A detailed pal advised my spouse and me to go away our crowded constructing and are available upstate for some time to a rural space with small dairy farms and the like. Upon arriving at a slightly odd spot heavy with snow within the woods close to Davenport, N.Y., we had been abruptly in a realm of just about pure stillness. It’s the place I wrote “Time Of No Sirens,” which must be self-explanatory. “The 23” is the variety of a county freeway we frequently discovered ourselves on. “Home Of Steam” refers to how, throughout this freezing time, the home windows within the kitchen would at all times steam up. Musically, I really feel this piece—in addition to “Allende” and “The Bag”—may’ve been written wherever at nearly any level in my life, so long as I used to be enthusiastic about these particular musicians.
“Satomi” is for our expensive pal Satomi Matsuzaki, and it’s a tribute to her power and kindness and seemingly inexhaustible help. The ebullient first half is type of a musical portrait of her within the exceptional band she performs and sings in known as Deerhoof. The second, poignant half is a mirrored image of my concern for her in the course of the pandemic as she needed to cope with very heavy household stuff in Japan—definitely an outgrowth of the pandemic. The remainder of the songs on the report had been written post-pandemic, however we stayed in rural upstate New York.
In what methods has your Blue Word output through the years carried over into your work with Wilco?
Attention-grabbing query. I believe they stay in fairly separate worlds, truly. My data are solely instrumental, and I suppose they’re “jazz” data. Jeff Tweedy’s songs are about 95-percent phrases and music, which is nice as a result of he’s a real poet and an important communicator. As an improviser who tries to play songs, the act of taking part in is, in some ways, the identical for me in each worlds—although a stay Wilco present is definitely extra of a “present.” It’s typically huge and extra of a spectacle.
I’m simply attempting to play coherently in each musical scenario—to make use of my creativeness and no matter else I can deliver to bear on the proceedings. I suppose it’s all one huge, swirling sonic stew to me, with each be aware, gesture and utterance linked to all of the others, regardless of perceived variations in style or milieu. The guitar is sort of naturally a sort of shuttle diplomat, traversing numerous musical realms with relative ease. It could appear odd to function in worlds that appear considerably dissimilar. However I suppose for me, it’s pure.
See the Consentrik Quartet stay.
