GERALD CLEAVER, LARRY OCHS & NELS CLINE

May 26, 2015​

Hear three giants of experimental music in their first trio set together.

Larry Ochs (saxophone)
Nels Cline (guitar)
Gerald Cleaver (drums)

One set.

Photos by Peter Gannushkin.

Drummer Gerald Cleaver, raised in Detroit, is a product of the city’s rich music tradition. Inspired by his father, drummer John Cleaver, he began playing the drums at an early age. He also played violin in elementary school and trumpet in junior high school and high school. He gained early invaluable experience with Detroit jazz masters Ali Muhammad Jackson, Lamont Hamilton, Earl Van Riper, and Pancho Hagood. While attending the University of Michigan as a music education major, he was awarded a Jazz Study Grant, from the National Endowment for the Arts, to study with drummer Victor Lewis. He graduated in 1992 and began teaching in Detroit where he worked with Rodney Whitaker, A. Spencer Barefield, Marcus Belgrave, Donald Walden, Wendell Harrison, and with visiting musicians Hank Jones, Tommy Flanagan, Barry Harris, Kenny Burrell, Frank Foster, Cecil Bridgewater, Ray Bryant, Eddie Harris, Dennis Rowland, Howard Johnson, Diana Krall, and Don Byron. In 1995 he accepted an appointment as assistant professor of Jazz Studies at the University of Michigan, and in 1998 also joined the jazz faculty at Michigan State University. He moved to New York in 2002. He has toured and/or recorded with Henry Threadgill, Roscoe Mitchell, Lotte Anker, Matt Shipp, William Parker, Craig Taborn, Kevin Mahogany, Charles Gayle, Mario Pavone, Ralph Alessi, Jacky Terrasson, Muhal Richard Abrams, Tim Berne, Jeremy Pelt, Ellery Eskelin, David Torn, Miroslav Vitous, Terje Rypdal, Michael Formanek and Tomasz Stanko, among others.

Saxophonist Larry Ochs has made more than 30 recordings and 50 tours with ROVA SAXOPHONE QUARTET in North America, Europe and Japan (1977 – present.. Most recent CD: A Short History (2012). www.rova.org
Other touring bands: REMPIS-JOHNSTON-OCHS: “free” horn trio, touring USA May 2015 (CD Spectral on Aerophonic, 2014). KIHNOUA (2007 to present): with Dohee Lee, vocals, Scott Amendola and guest string players; The Sybil’s Whisper released 2012. LARRY OCHS - DON ROBINSON DUO: 2011 to present (The Throne on Not Two, 2015). LARRY OCHS SAX & DRUMMING CORE (2000 – present): 4 CDs including April 2015 release on Rogue Arts - Wild Red Yellow: Satoko Fujii, Natsuki Tamura, Amendola, W. Winant, M. Bossi. JONES JONES with Vladimir Tarasov and Mark Dresser (2008-present): We All Live the Same Way (2009) on SoLyd. Frith, Masaoka, and Ochs aka MAYBE MONDAY (1997– present): 3 great CDs, all very different. TRIO OCHS, MASAOKA, LEE/JEANRENAUD (2000-2004): Peggy Lee replaced Joan Jeanrenaud on cello in 2004. CDs on Intakt and Rogue Art labels. ROOM with Chris Brown, William Winant (1986 – 1995; 2 recordings): pioneering band coupling computers and acoustic instruments. WHAT WE LIVE: with Lisle Ellis and Don Robinson (1994 – 2002). Many recordings. Recommended: Trumpets with Leo Smith and Dave Douglas, or What We Live on DIW. GLENN SPEARMAN DOUBLE TRIO (1991 – 1998): Four dynamic recordings. JOHN LINDBERG ENSEMBLE: w/ Andrew Cyrille and Wadada Leo Smith (1998 – 2002). Ochs has composed many works for large ensembles. Most recent large ensemble CD release: The Mirror World (for Stan Brakhage) featuring an all star cast of Bay Area improvisers and Rova, voted best large ensemble CD of 2008 by All About Jazz.com. Watch out for the BluRay/DVD release of Channeling Coltrane including beautiful recording and video of Electric Ascension in late 2015. Ochs has also performed and/or recorded with among others Marilyn Crispell, John Zorn, Steve Lacy, Anthony Braxton, Nels Cline, Ikue Mori, Butch Morris, George Lewis, Henry Kaiser, Barry Guy, Carla Kihlstedt, Jenny Scheinman, Alvin Curran, India Cooke, Ben Goldberg, Kronos
Quartet. As executive director of Rova:Arts he has produced many shows in San Francisco Bay Area. www.ochs.cc


Brooklyn resident Nels Cline is the lead guitarist for the mega-rock band WILCO. But before the Wilco Era and ever since he has also been one of the most open-minded and adventurous guitarists playing improvised music. In the last few months before this May show, his band “Nels Cline Singers” completed a major European tour, Cline toured the states in a duo tour with acoustic guitarist Julian Lage, and Cline was featured on several shows at the 2015 Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, TN. nelscline.com