Initiate
| Initiate | ||||
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| Studio album by Nels Cline Singers | ||||
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Publication |
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| Label (s) | Cryptogramophone Records | |||
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Format (s) |
CD |
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Title (number) |
21st |
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running time |
135: 26 |
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David Breskin |
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Studio (s) |
Fantasy Studios Berkeley |
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Initiate is a double album by the Nels Cline Singers , which is classified between the pop and jazz genre. The studio recordings (CD 1) were made from March 23 to 25, 2009 in Fantasy Studios Berkeley, the live recordings (CD 2) on September 3, 2009 in Cafe Du Nord in San Francisco. The album was released in 2010 on Cryptogramophone Records .
background
Since Cline played at Wilco in 2004 , work with the Nels Cline Singers took a back seat. After Instrumentals (2001), The Giant Pin (2003) and Draw Breath (2007), Initiate is the fourth album by the Nels Cline Singers group , the Nels Clines trio with bassist Devin Hoff and drummer Scott Amendola , which was revived in 2009.
Music of the album
With influences from jazz, experimental and rock music , the trio follows the tradition of the bands of Jimi Hendrix and Tony Williams ' Lifetime Trio with John McLaughlin . Other musicians occasionally take part on the live album.
Track list
- The Nels Cline Singers: Initiate (Cryptogramophone - CG 143)
CD 1: Studio
- Into It - 2:51
- Floored - 5:04
- Divining - 7:37
- You Noticed - 2:53
- Red Line to Greenland (Nels Cline / Devin Hoff / Scott Amendola) - 8:57
- Mercy (Supplication) - 2:25
- Grow Closer - 6:45
- Scissor / Saw (Nels Cline / Devin Hoff / Scott Amendola) - 3:41
- B86 (Inkblot Nebula) - 2:10
- King Queen - 7:15
- Zingiber - 3:51
- Mercy (Procession) - 7:00 am
- Into It (You Turn) - 2:55
CD 2: Live
- Forge - 8:20 am
- Fly Fly - 11:25 am
- Raze - 8:08
- And Now the Queen ( Carla Bley ) - 5:35
- Blues, Too - 7:13
- Thurston County - 9:14 am
- Sunken Song - 7:05
- Boogie Woogie Waltz ( Joe Zawinul ) - 14:25
- All other compositions are by Nels Cline.
reception
Thom Jurek gave the album 4½ (out of five) stars in Allmusic and said that Nels Cline had become very well known through his membership in the band Wilco , but it was his work under his own name that made him stand out. “Divining”, contained on the first CD, is a “hallucinatory piece” that begins acoustically with mbiras and double bass before Cline's acoustic guitar is added. Then the whole thing develops texturally and dynamically into an “orgy of electric jazz with world music” with an open end, exploring a percussion carpet of mined terrain with wordless singing, as one is used to with Pat Metheny . "Grow Closer" evolves from Latin rhythms into North African playing styles; “King Queen” is stylistically based on the jam sessions of the early Santana band, to which the organ playing by guest musician David Witham contributes.
John Fordham wrote in the Guardian not to be fooled by the band's name; this "scorched earth" metal-electronica improvisation band pulls your socks off. While smacking funk grooves in the studio part were reminiscent of the sound of the late Miles Davis touring band, the live part was "mercilessly scarce", occasionally explosive electronics and sounds reminiscent of the roar of a wounded elephant complement the freely improvised duets with bassist Devin Hoff. "Blues Too" is an unexpectedly splendid development of runs over broomstick and the occasional bow game, reminding me of Jim Hall . In the 15-minute Joe Zawinul composition "Boogie Woogie Waltz", a palette of sounds blazes in which a melodic motif mimics a Chinese erhu violin. It's pretty fierce, but a contemporary guitar buff's dreamworld , summarizes Fordham.
Troy Collins said in All About Jazz that Nels Cline reveals two different aspects of his band Singers with the double album ; Ron Saint German's (who worked as a sound engineer for bands like Bad Brains and Soundgarden ) was a well-rehearsed studio session in which every nuance was captured in crystalline detail. The second record, however (the trio's first official live recording) is a “rough and unedited snapshot” of the singers and is the “yang” to the “yin” of the studio set. There the Singers moved in a wide range of genres, with references to Latin, Miles Davis (“Floored”) to quiet ballads like “You Noticed” and “Mercy (Supplication)”. Cline has absorbed the innovations of Jimi Hendrix like no other contemporary guitarist by flawlessly incorporating pedaling and effects devices into his expressive playing. With its combination of studio precision and live energy, Initiate reveals the most complete picture of the Nels Cline Singers . With the cover (a photograph by photojournalist Simon Norfolk of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN ), this compilation would capture the band's urgent electrical energy; this proves that one can sometimes “choose a book by its cover”.
Mike Shandley noted in JazzTimes that Initiate shows the different abilities of the trio from brutal strength to gentle relaxation. In Pitchfork Media , Joe Tangari stated: “More than anything else, Initiate shows a band whose feeling for give and take and for intuitive interaction is extremely well developed.” Cline is able to lead his colleagues wherever they are Sinn drives him, and they follow him with ease, whether he's mixing Frippertronics with jazz or Krautrock à la Wilco, or whether David Witham weaves in a 1960s organ solo. Cline may hardly reach a larger audience by creating under his own name, but that shouldn't be his goal either. The results are "exuberant, chaotic and worth a few hours of our time".
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Review of Thom Jurek's album at Allmusic (English). Retrieved July 11, 2015.
- ↑ The LA Times music blog April 12, 2010
- ↑ Twenty Perfect Jazz Albums of the 21st Century ( Memento of the original from July 14, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Discographic information at Discogs
- ↑ Review of John Fordham's album (2010) in The Guardian
- ^ Review of Troy Collins in All About Jazz
- ^ Nels Cline: Of Singers and Sound - Interview with Nels Cline (2010) in All About Jazz
- ↑ Review of the album in JazzTimes (2010)
- ↑ Discussion in Pitchfork
