Earthwise welcomes Nels Cline Phillip Greenlief Scott Amendola Trio

Phillip Greenlief/Nels Cline/Scott Amendola Trio: Phillip and Scott are celebrating the release of “Stay With It”, out on Clean Feed Records. Phillip introduced Scott to Nels back in 1994 when they played Nels’ legendary New Music Monday series at the now defunct Alligator Lounge in Los Angeles. That meeting eventually led to the forming of The Nels Cline Singers in 2001. With Phillip relocating to Maine this coming June, we’re excited to reunite the 3 stellar musicians for a very special send off. Two sets of sonic exploration by 3 masters of improvisation.
Phillip Greenlief - tenor/alto saxophones, Bb Clarinet

Nels Cline - guitar + stuff

Scott Amendola - drums/percussion/electronics

Since his emergence on the west coast in the late 1970s, saxophonist Phillip Greenlief has achieved international critical acclaim for his recordings and performances with musicians and composers in the post-jazz continuum as well as new music innovators and virtuosic improvisers. He has performed and recorded with Wadada Leo Smith, Meredith Monk, Nels Cline, and They Might Be Giants; albums include THAT OVERT DESIRE OF OBJECT with Joelle Leandre, and LANTSKAP LOGIC with Fred Frith and Evelyn Davis. Recent residencies have included Headlands Center for the Arts. He is the recipient of a San Francisco Bay Guardian Goldie Award. "The Bay Area's do-it-yourself ethos has produced a bevy of dazzlingly creative musicians, but few have put the philosophy to worK as effectively as Phillip Greenlief." – Andrew Gilbert, San Francisco Chronicle
Phillip has played with, among others: Horace Tapscott, Natsuki Tamura, Tango #9, Cecil Taylor, Chad Taylor, Carl Testa, Thelonious Monster, Sonship Theus, Eric Thielmans, They Might Be Giants, Iluyemi Thomas, Suzanne Thorpe, Lauren Tietz.

Guitar explorer Nels Cline, a Blue Note recording artist, is best known these days as the lead guitarist in the band Wilco. His recording and performing career — spanning jazz, rock, punk and experimental — is well into its fourth decade, with over 200 recordings, including at least 30 for which he is leader. Cline has received many accolades including Rolling Stone anointing him as both one of 20 "new guitar gods" and one of the top 100 guitarists of all time.

Beyond Wilco, Cline performs in a duo project with guitarist Julian Lage in addition to a quartet, The Nels Cline 4 (featuring Lage plus bassist Jorge Roeder and drummer Tom Rainey), collaborates with his partner Yuka Honda as the duo CUP, performs as Stretch Woven with percussionist Scott Amendola, leads The Nels Cline Singers (featuring Amendola plus bassist Trevor Dunn and percussionist Cyro Baptista) and plays with Stained Radiance (an improvisational live project with performance painter Norton Wisdom). Cline also periodically presents concerts of his concept album Lovers, which involves a 17-person ensemble and collaborates dozens of composers/improvisers.

For Scott Amendola, the drum kit isn’t so much an instrument as a musical portal. An ambitious composer, savvy bandleader and capaciously creative foil for some of the world’s most inventive musicians, Amendola applies his rhythmic virtuosity to a vast array of settings. His closest musical associates include guitarists, Nels Cline, Jeff Parker, Charlie Hunter, Hammond B-3 organist Wil Blades, violinists Regina Carter and Jenny Scheinman, clarinetist Ben Goldberg, players who have each forged a singular path within and beyond the realm of jazz.

As a sideman, Amendola has performed and recorded with a vast, stylistically varied roster of artists, including Bill Frisell, John Zorn, Mike Patton, Mondo Cane, John Scofield, Cibo Matto, John Dieterich from Deerhoof, Wadada Leo Smith, Bruce Cockburn, Madeleine Peyroux, Joan Osborne, Jacky Terrasson, Shweta Jhaveri, Phil Lesh, Sex Mob, Kelly Joe Phelps, Larry Klein, Carla Bozulich, Wayne Horvitz, Johnny Griffin, Julian Priester, Sonny Simmons, Pat Martino, Jim Campilongo, Bobby Black, Larry Goldings, Paul McCandless, Rebecca Pidgeon, and the Joe Goode Dance Group. Amendola also appears May 10 with Jim Campilongo group at Lytton Plaza by Earthwis.

Event Venue

Mitchell Park Community Center, 3700 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto, United States