Nels Cline (born in Los Angeles in 1956) is an American guitarist and composer. Currently he is the lead guitarist of the rock band Wilco. Nels began to play guitar at age 12 when his twin brother, Alex Cline took up the drums. Cline is not classically trained. This gives him a unique avant-garde style that many other jazz guitarists fail to match, due to their probable conventional training. He is noted for his apt use of effects pedals and looping devices, which enhances his style and gives his approach to guitar and music a distinct sound.

Cline is known for his improvisational work and for the diversity of his musical projects. He has played with jazz musicians Charlie Haden, Gregg Bendian, Wadada Leo Smith, Tim Berne, Vinny Golia and the late bassist Eric von Essen, a longtime musical companion in the L.A. jazz group Quartet Music.

Cline has also performed and recorded with punk rock hero Mike Watt in his touring bands The Crew of the Flying Saucer and The Black Gang, as well as with members of Sonic Youth and country music legend Willie Nelson, and in the jazz/punk/improv band Banyan with Watt and ex-Jane's Addiction drummer Stephen Perkins. He frequently participates in jazz projects with his twin brother, Alex, however their first actual duo together was in Culver City, California, during their 50th birthday show.

Nels's first appearance on an album was on Vinny Golia's 1978 record, Openhearted, and his first work as a bandleader was 1988's Angelica. In the late 1980s, Cline formed the Nels Cline Trio, which featured his guitar playing complemented by Mark London Sims at bass and Michael Preussner at drums. The trio released several 7 inch demos and one album, before replacing Sims with Bob Mair at bass. This new trio released three albums before splitting up, featuring some of Cline's most melodic works, before he ventured into a freer and more minimalist territory in the decade to come. Shortly before the end of the trio, Nels recorded two albums, In-Store, and Pillow Wand, with Sonic Youth frontman and guitarist, Thurston Moore. In 1999, Cline paired up with jazz drummer Gregg Bendian to record a modern rendition of John Coltrane's 1967 album, Interstellar Space. On Interstellar Space Revisited: The Music of John Coltrane, Bendian and Cline boldly interpret Coltrane's already obscure piece using their musical backgrounds and talents, and create an album whose music is written by Coltrane, but whose sound is distinctly associated with musicians who perform it. Cline's current outfit is the improv/free jazz ensemble The Nels Cline Singers, with which he has recorded two albums, Instumentals and The Giant Pin, his most recent work as a leader. The Nels Cline Singers are currently signed with Cryptogramophone Records.

Cline has performed on over 100 albums in the jazz, pop, rock, country, and experimental music genres. He continues to expand his audience as a member of the Grammy-winning rock band Wilco, which he joined in early 2004. He was later featured in the cover story of Guitar Player Magazine for his newfound collaboration with the band.

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Thurston Moore is an American musician best known as a singer and guitarist for Sonic Youth.

Moore was born in Coral Gables, Florida and was raised in Bethel, Connecticut. Although he enrolled at Western Connecticut State University, he opted to move to New York City instead. There he learned to play guitar from Glenn Branca and soon co-founded Sonic Youth, serving as the band's guitarist and lead vocalist.

In 1985, he married Sonic Youth bassist, guitarist and vocalist Kim Gordon, with whom he has a daughter, Coco Hayley Gordon Moore. Thurston is known for playing Fender Jazzmaster guitars along with a host of other Fender models like the Mustang and Jaguar. Thurston is also very well known for being very harsh on his guitars.

In addition to his work with Sonic Youth, Moore has also released albums as a solo artist, one under the moniker David Adelmen, including 1995's "Psychic Hearts". He has collaborated with scores of artists, including My Cat Is An Alien, DJ Spooky, Nels Cline, William Hooker, Christian Marclay, Loren MazzaCane Connors, R.E.M. and Cock E.S.P. In the mid-90's Moore formed a side band, The Dim Stars, with punk legend Richard Hell of Richard Hell and the Voidoids. In 2004, Moore performed in and produced an album for the all-star noise band To Live and Shave in L.A., the lineup of which also features Andrew W.K..

In 2004 Rolling Stone ranked him and Lee Ranaldo, of Sonic Youth, the 33rd and 34th best guitarists of all time. Their playing style is very innovative and they both use a large variety of extended techniques, like for instance their 3rd Bridge screwdriver technique.

Outside of his work as musical performer Moore runs the independent record label Ecstatic Peace and reviews new music in Arthur Magazine. In May 2005, he released the book Mix Tape: The Art of Cassette Culture.

Solo albums

Psychic Hearts (1995, Geffen Records)
Root (1998, Lo Recordings)
Trees Outside the Academy (2007, Ecstatic Peace)
Demolished Thoughts (2011, Matador Records)




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Mark Stewart (born South Shields, Tyne & Wear) is a British musician and founding member of The Pop Group. He makes polemical noise-funk with a hip-hop reggae dub feel and has recorded for On-U Sound Records and Mute Records. Stewart started out in Bristol in 1978 in music with The Pop Group a band whose titles (such as "For How Much Longer Do We Tolerate Mass Murder?") demonstrate political conviction, disrespect for copyright, and willingness to collaborate that laid the foundations for his later work.

The Pop Group split in 1981, with Stewart and two other members heading off to London to hook up with the emerging On-U Sound "conspiracy of outsiders" as part of the New Age Steppers. On-U became a focal point an absurdly diverse set of networks - punks, reggae players from both the UK and Jamaica and free-jazzers.

Stewart has since made several albums under his own name as well as collaborating with big names such as Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails fame, Massive Attack, Tricky to name just a few. In 2005, he released a collection of his best work on Soul Jazz Records titled 'Kiss the Future'.

He is currently living in Berlin. Despite this, he is constantly touring.

Mark is well known in several European countries and Japan. He is currently having a documentary filmed about him which will be out on dvd (monitorpop) in february 2008 along with his new album "edit" (crippled dick hot wax!). He will be touring with Tha Maffia (Adrian Sherwood, Keith LeBlanc, Doug Wimbish, Skip McDonald) in April 2008.

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Gyan Riley is a rising figure of guitar and contemporary music, both as a performer and composer. In 1999, he became the first guitarist ever to be awarded a full scholarship from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. While still studying at the conservatory, he received a recording contract for his debut CD of original works, Food for the Bearded (New Albion Records). Gyan's awards include First Prize in the Portland International Guitar Festival Competition and First Prize in the San Francisco Conservatory Guitar Concerto Competition. Gyan played in the American premiere of John Adams' El Nino with soprano Dawn Upshaw and the San Francisco Symphony. Concert tours have taken him to some of the world's most prestigious concert halls in the UK, Germany, Austria, Italy, France, Croatia, Turkey, Norway, and throughout the United States. Gyan tours regularly with the Los Angeles based Falla Guitar Trio, the Feinsmith Quartet, and father/composer/pianist Terry Riley. Gyan has received commissions from the Carnegie Hall Corporation, the New York Guitar Festival, and the Elaine Kaufman Cultural Center. Gyan served as the artistic director for the San Francisco Classical Guitar Society from 2002-2004, and as professor of guitar at Humboldt State University for the 2005-2006 academic year.

-source www.gyanriley.com

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Guitarist/composer/singer/arranger Joel Harrison occupies a musical space between many worlds. His medium is primarily jazz, but his music has various influences that cover the musical spectrum. He has recorded 7 CD's as a leader since 1996 most of which feature his own compositions, and has toured around the world at major clubs and festivals since 1999. Of his eclectic approach the Village Voice wrote, "Harrison is a brilliant, take-it-anywhere-guitarist," and the Irish Times said "This is the music of the future." His ACT CD, Free Country (creative Jazz renditions of old Country and Appalachian tunes), received worldwide acclaim and was chosen as one of the top 50 CD's of 2003 by Jazz Times magazine. Harrison's collaborators on this and other CD's have been David Binney, Uri Caine, Norah Jones, Jen Chapin, David Liebman, and others.

Harrison is a 2-time winner of the Jazz Composer's Alliance Julius Hemphill Composition Competition, and has written numerous film scores for HBO, A&E, etc. He is a recipient of grants from Meet the Composer, Arts International, NYSCA, American Music Center, and is a MacDowell Colony and VCCA Fellow. In 2006 he received two composition grants from Chamber Music America. Joel Harrison's latest CD is Harrison on Harrison (Highnote Records), Jazz explorations of George Harrison's music. His upcoming project will be released in February 2007 on Highnote and is collaboration with Nguyen Le (guitarist), Jamey Haddad (percussion), David Binney (sax), Gildas Bocle (bass). This project was funded by Chamber Music America's French/ American Jazz Exchange program and will features new compositons by Harrison.



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Ben Monder (Born 1962, New York City) is an American guitarist and composer. He has appeared on over 90 albums as a sideman and recorded 5 albums as a leader.

Ben Monder is very well known for his atypical approach to the instrument. He is one of the few guitarists to fully utilize polyrhythm. His improvisational style usually involves two lines in counterpoint rather than a single melodic line.

Ben Monder is also an master of organic time signature changes.

He is a former teacher at the New England Conservatory where he was the premier Jazz Guitar professor.

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