FADE UP:
EXT – SOMEWHERE IN LOS ANGELES – DAY
Guitarist NELS CLINE, a tall gentleman wearing black combat boots and a stylish Givenchy shirt, paces back and forth before his 3-man squad of avant-garde jazz musicians. They are drummer SCOTT AMENDOLA, bassist DEVIN HOFF and guitarist JEFF PARKER – all standing at rapt attention.
NELS: My name is Nels Courtney Cline, and I’m putting together a special team. And I need me three musicians. Three – avant – garde – jazz - musicians. Now, you might have heard rumors about a jazz festival happening soon. Well, those rumors are no longer rumors. In two weeks’ time, we’ll be parachuting into the rugged foothills above the Pilgrimage – uh, excuse me – Ford Theater, dressed as normal civilians – and no, I will not be wearing this shirt, sadly to say.
NELS: (Cont'd) And once we’ve staged our assault on the theatre stage, as a bushwhackin' improvisin' seratonin' pocket army of forward thinking alchemists of jazz/rock sonic exploration, we’re gonna be doing one thing and one thing only: melt faces. Musically speaking, that is. The Man has conquered Los Angeles jazz through supper clubs, cocktail lounges, dental offices and hotel piano bars in a pogrom of dilution and faux-respectability.
The Nels Cline Singers live (4/27/07)
The Nels Cline Singers perform “Square King” live at Club Tropical, Culver City (2005)
NELS: (Cont'd)
And that’s exactly what we’re NOT gonna do to them.
Now, I don’t know about y’all, but I sure as hell didn’t come back from a long tour with Wilco of Europe and the subcontinent to soothe the ears. Ears are for absorbing sounds good and bad, are they not? We will ascend that stage and bash it out, and through our bashing, they will know our sonic deviance. They will find the evidence of it in the pig squeals of feedback and the disorienting muzz of electronic loops. We will serve them a steady diet of disorienting and liberating sounds from the likes of Ornette Coleman, Carla Bley, Gabor Szabo, Joe Zaniwul and me, of course. We will unleash an empathetic four-way excursion into the warm and the wild.
Brief snippet of Nels Cline & Jeff Parker performing in the blistering heat at the Pitchfork Music Festival, Chicago, IL, pt. 1 (7/31/06)
Brief snippet of Nels Cline & Jeff Parker performing in the blistering heat at the Pitchfork Music Festival, Chicago, IL, pt. 2 (7/31/06)
NELS stops pacing and looks at everybody.
NELS: Sound good?
ALL: Yes sir!
NELS: I can’t hear you.
ALL: Yes, sir!!
NELS: No, really I can't hear any of you. Wait a sec. (removes iPod buds from ears) I forgot I had these in...
ALL: YES SIR!!!
NELS: Ow, that’s too loud. Dial it back a bit...and save the rest for Sept. 7.
Snippet of the Nels Cline Singers performing “Thurston County” at the Blue Note, Columbia, MO (7/16/08)
The Nels Cline Singers perform “Vamp” live at the Orange Peel, Asheville, NC (7/19/08)
Nels Cline performs “Muzzle of Bees” with Wilco in an abandoned house, from Burn To Shine 02: Chicago DVD
AAJ profile of Jeff Parker
Ten Questions with Jeff Parker
Junk Media interview with Jeff Parker
Jeff Parker & Tortoise interview
Jeff Parker soloing on “Odalipo” with Scott Amendola, Ben Goldberg, Charlie Hunter, Ron Miles & John Schiflett live at Café du Nord (2/06/09)
Jeff Parker solo performance from The Strobe Sessions
Jeff Parker with Tortiose perform “I Set My Face to the Hillside” live in Europe…somewhere
Tortoise with Jeff Parker live at Werchter circa 2004 (full set!)
MARK YOUR CALENDAR:
The Nels Cline Singers with Jeff Parker will perform at the 2009 Angel City Jazz Festival at 6:30pm on Monday, Sept. 7, 2009. A week before in San Francisco, the Singers (sans Parker) will record a two-night stand at Café du Nord. Check out Nels’ tour page for more deets.
