Up until the mid-2000s, guitarist Nels Cline was probably best-known for his work in the group Quartet Music and other projects in the jazz, rock, and avant-garde idioms, as well as for his general involvement in the West Coast’s avant and improv scenes. During the ’90s, Cline recorded a pair of duo outings with Thurston Moore and Devin Sarno before embarking on Interstellar Space Revisited: The Music of John Coltrane with drummer Gregg Bendian ; he joined the latter’s Interzone group while leading his own trio, the Nels Cline Singers. In 2004, Cline opened up a much larger audience for a jazz guitarist than is typical, joining the alt-country and experimental pop act Wilco . Whether playing the music of other jazzmen such as Andrew Hill (2006’s New Monastery: A View Into the Music of Andrew Hill), recording a score to accompany the massive touring retrospective of iconic Los Angeles painter Ed Ruscha (Dirty Baby), collaborating with guitarist Julian Lage , jamming and recording with Medeski, Martin & Wood , or rocking with White Out , Cline is a figure with global influence. In 2016, he issued Lovers, his Blue Note debut, featuring the guitarist leading his own group and a chamber orchestra in a collection of standards and originals. He followed with 2018’s Currents, Constellations and a trio of 2020 albums that included Share the Wealth.

Born in Los Angeles in 1956, Cline began playing guitar around the age of 12, when his twin brother Alex began learning the drums. By the time Cline reached his twenties, he was heavily involved in L.A.’s improvisational community and, in 1978, appeared on his first recording, Openhearted, by multi-instrumentalist Vinny Golia . He went on to appear on over 70 releases, lead several of his own groups — including the Nels Cline Trio and the sextet that followed, Destroy All Nels Cline — and tour internationally with a variety of bands. As a composer, Cline has scored films in addition to writing much of his own material. He has also produced albums for himself, G.E. Stinson , and Jeff Gauthier , among others.

Bassist Eric Von Essen and Cline met up in the late ’70s and began working together, recording an album of duets called Elegies that was released in 1980 on the Nine Winds label. Von Essen got involved in an orchestra with violinist Gauthier , and it wasn’t long before the three formed a group of their own. Alex Cline sat in on their first concert and eventually joined the three permanently, resulting in the group Quartet Music , which remained together throughout the ’80s. In addition to his work in Quartet Music during this decade, Cline worked with Liberation Music Orchestra West Coast, was a member of a rock band called Bloc, worked with Julius Hemphill as well as Charlie Haden , and released his first album as leader, Angelica, which included members of Quartet Music , saxophonist Tim Berne , and more.

The first half of the ’90s found his new Nels Cline Trio hosting a weekly improv series for four years and recording as many albums. During the ’90s, Cline also worked with Thurston Moore (of Sonic Youth ), Stephen Perkins ( Jane’s Addiction ), Mike Watt ( Minutemen ), and the Geraldine Fibbers . A duo recording by Cline and percussionist Gregg Bendian covering John Coltrane ‘s Interstellar Space was released by the Atavistic label in 1999. That same year, the California Music Awards named Cline Outstanding Jazz Artist. The next year, he released Inkling on Cryptogramophone , beginning a collaborative relationship with Andrea Parkins that would continue for the next several years. Destroy All Nels Cline was next, followed by the formation of the Nels Cline Singers, who released their first album, Instrumentals, in 2002.

In 2004, Cline was asked to join Wilco and has toured and appeared on all subsequent albums by them. He still had time for other projects, however: there have been several one-off collaborations during the ensuing years and two albums by the trio of Cline, Andrea Parkins , and Tom Rainey . In 2004, the Nels Cline Singers released Giant Pin, which Cline followed with an album of Andrew Hill compositions in 2006, the sublime New Monastery. Cryptogramophone subsequently issued two more releases by the Nels Cline Singers, Draw Breath in the summer of 2007 and the two-CD package Initiate in 2010. Later in the year, Cline released Dirty Baby, a double-disc collaborative project with poet and producer David Breskin. Breskin selected 66 period images by the artist Ed Ruscha and evenly split them into two groups, wherein he commissioned the guitarist to compose one long work and one short work to accompany the images, without further instruction. Cline recorded these with a large group of musicians including Jon Brion , Scott Amendola , brother Alex Cline , and Devin Hoff . There is also a lushly illustrated book version with larger reproductions of these works with 66 written pieces by Breskin. Add this project to all the work Cline has done as a sideman since the turn of the century, and you’ve got one extremely busy, prolific, and versatile guitarist. In April of 2014, he appeared as a guest on Joan Osborne ‘s Love and Hate album, and as a full collaborator with Medeski, Martin & Wood on Woodstock Sessions 2. In 2014, Macroscope, with the Nels Cline Singers, and Room, a duet offering with classical guitarist Julian Lage , appeared on Detroit’s Mack Avenue Records .

After recording Star Wars with Wilco and a tour, Cline signed to Blue Note . His debut for the label was the double-length Lovers. Realizing a long-held dream, the set was inspired by Bill Evans , Jim Hall , Gil Evans , and Henry Mancini . Cline created an ambitious, self-proclaimed “mood music” project with a 23-member ensemble conducted and arranged by Michael Leonhart . It was produced by David Breskin and recorded and mixed by Ron Saint Germain. Lovers contained jazz and Great American Songbook standards alongside originals and covers of songs by Annette Peacock , Gabor Szabo , Sonic Youth , Jimmy Giuffre , and Arto Lindsay . The single/video “Beautiful Love” was issued in early June of 2016, premiered live at the Newport Jazz Festival in July, and released in August.

Cline’s recording experience with Lage on Room proved indelible. The pair often speculated on what an album would sound like if they chose a rhythm section. To that end, Cline asked bassist Scott Colley and drummer Tom Rainey (who had played hundreds of shows together as a running rhythm section in the ’90s) to accompany them at a residency at New York venue The Stone in 2016. At that time, Colley and Lage were playing in Gary Burton ‘s group and the bassist eventually joined the guitarist’s trio. Cline had played with everybody before. The live gig went so well it laid the foundation for the recording sessions that resulted in Currents, Constellations, Cline’s second Blue Note album, with the intrepid quartet calling itself the Nels Cline 4. He wrote seven of the record’s eight compositions; the lone cover was Carla Bley ‘s “Temporarily,” a rarity closely associated with the Jimmy Giuffre Three. According to Cline, the point wasn’t to feature “sovereign” fewer guitar solos, but to facilitate an ensemble sound, whether marked by heated collective improvisation or a more delicate and precise approach on the contemplative pieces. The funky preview single, “Imperfect 10,” was released in March along with a promotional “in-studio” video. Currents, Constellations was released in mid-April a few days before the band — with bassist Jorge Roeder sitting in for a previously committed Colley — undertook a European tour.

In January of 2020, Cline, bassist William Parker , and keyboardist Thollem McDonas , issued Gowanus Sessions II for ESP-Disk . During the spring, Cline and pianist/organist/synthesist Jamie Saft aided drummer/composer Bobby Previte in the RareNoise trio outing Music from the Early 21st Century. In October, Blue Note Records issued the single “Beam/Spiral” preceding the release of Share the Wealth, Cline’s third label offering, this time by an expanded Nels Cline Singers. Curiously, the lineup he assembled — saxophonist Skerik , percussionist Cyro Baptista , keyboardist Brian Marsella, bassist Trevor Dunn , and drummer Amendola , had yet to play a gig together when they entered Brooklyn studio The Bunker. Cline and co-producer Eli Crews recorded the band over two days, playing long, spontaneous jams. Cline originally wanted to edit the sprawling proceedings heavily, in order to create a cut-and-paste, collaged, psychedelic record. Upon listening closely to the uninterrupted jams, however, he changed his mind and decided to release them unedited. The double-length Share the Wealth was released in November. ~ Sean Westergaard & Thom Jurek, Rovi

Nels Cline: Consentrik Quartet, a Brooklyn-based ensemble (born in Crown Heights Brooklyn in summer 2019), consists of Ingrid Laubrock (tenor & soprano saxophones), Chris Lightcap (acoustic bass), Tom Rainey (drums), and Nels Cline on electric guitar. The repertoire consists of pieces Nels wrote during the pandemic and a hefty helping of spontaneous improvisation. For those who need categorical/generally-accepted genres, “free jazz”, “folk jazz”, and “backwards + forwards jazz” could work.

A saxophonist who has garnered international acclaim particularly in avant-jazz circles, German-born Ingrid Laubrock has seemingly heeded a call to travel west, first gathering notice for her work in London’s vibrant creative jazz community before jumping the pond and making a name for herself in the cutting-edge improvised music scene of 21st century Brooklyn. With her own albums, she has moved from engaging small group work, such as 2011’s Madness of Crowds, to ambitious large groups, as on 2018’s orchestral Ingrid Laubrock: Contemporary Chaos Practices.

Born in Stadtlohn, Germany in 1970, Laubrock was attracted to jazz from an early age, particularly European free jazz, and spent several of her teenage years soaking up the music from radio, recordings, and attending live performances. Not enamored of small-town life, she moved to Berlin immediately after finishing school, and in 1989 crossed the Channel to England and settled in London. Without any formal training, she began busking on alto saxophone in the London Underground with her guitarist boyfriend, but decided to take the plunge into formal lessons with tenor and soprano saxophonist Jean Toussaint in 1993. Continuing on the path toward the life of a professional jazz saxophonist, she took master classes with Dave Liebman in the U.S. during 1998 and 1999, and then threw herself into rigorous practice back home in Germany before returning to London, where she also completed a post-graduate jazz course at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

In 1993 Laubrock met two Brazilian musicians living in London, singer Mônica Vasconcelos and guitarist Ife Tolentino , and she made her first recorded appearance on the 1994 Vasconcelos recording Nóis, which also featured Tolentino among the musicians. In addition, Laubrock and Vasconcelos co-founded As Meninas (The Girls) as an outlet for their exploration of Brazilian jazz; the group became a quartet with the addition of Tolentino and drummer/percussionist Chris Wells , and later underwent a name change to Nóis 4 .

When the time came for Laubrock to record her first album as a leader, she tapped Tolentino as guitarist for her own band, along with British keyboardist/accordionist Kim Burton, Italian bassist Davide Mantovani, and Mozambican percussionist Helder Pack. Released by the Candid label in 1998, Who Is It? immediately established the saxophonist as an artist with an international perspective. Two years later, Laubrock appeared as part of a large ensemble supporting Vasconcelos on the singer’s second album, Nóis Dois, and in 2000 she joined Vasconcelos , Tolentino , and Wells on the As Meninas disc Bom Dia. Laubrock’s sophomore album as a leader, 2001’s Some Times (also on Candid ), found her on soprano, alto, and tenor saxophone leading a much larger ensemble than her debut, featuring Tolentino , bassist Larry Bartley, drummer Tom Skinner, saxophonist/clarinetist Julian Siegel , trombonist Mark Bassey, trumpeter/flügelhornist Bryon Wallen , and pianists Karim Merchant and Nikki Isles — some of these musicians, along with Laubrock, would join the F-IRE Collective (Fellowship for Integrated Rhythmic Expression), an aggregation of London-based artists who originally met to investigate West African dance music.

Over the next two years, Laubrock would appear on recordings by Vasconcelos , Bartley, and trumpeter/flügelhornist Tom Arthurs , while moving in a more avant-gardist, exploratory direction as a F-IRE Collective participant. Laubrock drew from the Collective — which received a BBC Jazz Award for Innovation in 2004 — to derive the lineup of her third album, Forensic, which featured bassist Bartley, drummer Skinner, pianist Merchant, and cellist Ben Davis in addition to the leader on soprano, alto, tenor, and baritone saxophones. Released in 2005, the same year that Laubrock received a Rising Star nomination from the BBC Jazz Awards, Forensic was lauded as a creative leap forward for Laubrock, combining diverse improvisational and jazz-based idioms into an adventurous meld.

During this time period, Laubrock also recorded in collaborative or sidewoman settings with Nóis 4 (Gente, 2004, Candid ), Brigitte Beraha (Prelude to a Kiss, 2004, FMR ), Polar Bear (the Mercury Music Prize-nominated Held on the Tips of Fingers, 2005, Babel ), and Barry Green (Introducing, 2005, Tentoten ) before teaming with pianist Liam Noble for the duo recording Let’s Call This… (2006, Babel ), featuring original pieces interspersed amidst the music of Monk , Mingus , Ellington , and Konitz . Laubrock and Noble were introducing their duo to creative jazz listeners at roughly the same time that Noble was also performing and recording with his Anglo-American quartet featuring British guitarist Phil Robson and the American bass-drums team Drew Gress and Tom Rainey (the quartet appears on Noble ‘s 2005 Basho label album Romance Among the Fishes).

Noble served as a catalyst of sorts for the next phase of Laubrock’s life in music, as Laubrock met Rainey for the first time at the 2006 Cheltenham Jazz Festival when Rainey was performing with the pianist at the event. Learning that Laubrock was an improvising saxophonist, Rainey listened to, and was mightily impressed by, her Forensic album; Rainey invited her to improvise with him, and the musical connection was immediate. In September 2007, Rainey joined Laubrock and Noble in London to record the eponymous debut album by Laubrock’s new trio, Sleepthief, released on the Swiss Intakt label the following year. (A second Sleepthief album, Madness of Crowds, arrived on Intakt in 2011.) In 2008 Laubrock was drawn to Brooklyn, crossing the Atlantic to live there with Rainey and begin a new phase in her life as a key contributor to Brooklyn-based creative jazz.

Laubrock’s first New York band would be a collaborative trio, Paradoxical Frog , which emerged from a session at pianist Kris Davis ‘ house with drummer Tyshawn Sorey . Laubrock, Davis , and Sorey all contributed compositions to the ensemble, which released two albums on the Clean Feed label, an eponymous debut in 2010 and Union in 2012. After linking up with Davis and Sorey in Paradoxical Frog , Laubrock met guitarist Mary Halvorson , and the saxophonist’s invitation for Halvorson to play a session with her and Rainey ultimately resulted in formation of the Tom Rainey Trio , Rainey ‘s first group under his own name after decades of major contributions to creative jazz and improvised music projects by collaborative outfits or led by others. The trio’s debut album, Pool School, was released by Clean Feed in 2010 — the same year that Laubrock and Rainey were married — and a sophomore Tom Rainey Trio outing, Camino Cielo Echo, arrived on Intakt in 2012.

With the Tom Rainey Trio serving as a vehicle for Laubrock in purely improvisational mode and Paradoxical Frog moving forward as a leaderless collaborative threesome, Laubrock decided the time was right to lead her own New York-based ensemble that would provide an outlet for her compositional side. She invited bassist John Hébert to join her new group Anti-House , also featuring Rainey and Halvorson . The band’s eponymous debut album — with pianist Davis a featured guest — was released by Intakt in 2010. By 2013 Anti-House had solidified into a quintet with Davis a full-fledged member on the group’s sophomore Intakt album, Strong Place. The group’s third Intakt album, 2015’s Roulette of the Cradle, featured clarinetist Oscar Noriega on two tracks.

As the 2010s progressed, Laubrock remained extremely busy in settings as a leader, collaborator, or sidewoman. In 2011 she was commissioned by German public broadcasting corporation SWR to compose and perform new music for that year’s edition of the venerable New Jazz Meeting (founded in 1966); for the occasion, she assembled an octet comprising musicians from both sides of the Atlantic, with herself on tenor and soprano saxophone joined by Rainey , Halvorson , bassist Gress , pianist Noble , trumpeter Arthurs , cellist Ben Davis, and accordionist Ted Reichman . She also performed and recorded in groups including a trio with pianist Veryan Weston and cellist Hannah Marshall, playing soprano and tenor on the album Haste (2012, Emanem ); Catatumbo with bassist Olie Brice and drummer Javier Carmona, playing tenor on the trio’s eponymous album (2012, Babel ); pianist Kris Davis ‘ quintet with Rainey , violist Mat Maneri , and bassist Trevor Dunn , appearing on Capricorn Climber (2013, Clean Feed ); LARK with Rainey , Kris Davis , and trumpeter Ralph Alessi , featured on soprano and tenor on the quartet’s eponymous debut (2013, Skirl ); Lily’s Déjà Vu with guitarist Guillermo Celano , bassist Jasper Stadhouders, and drummer Marcos Baggiani , appearing on Music from Another Ass (2013, Trytone ); and the Mary Halvorson Septet with Halvorson , bassist Hébert , trumpeter Jonathan Finlayson , alto saxophonist Jon Irabagon , trombonist Jacob Garchik , and drummer Ches Smith , playing tenor on Illusionary Sea (2013, Firehouse 12 ).

In May 2014, Intakt released Zürich Concert, a recording of the Ingrid Laubrock Octet ‘s performance at the 2011 SWR New Jazz Meeting. Laubrock also appeared that year on the eponymous debut album (also released by Intakt ) by a new Tom Rainey ensemble, Obbligato , also featuring Gress , Alessi , and Kris Davis , with the quintet improvising on standards by the likes of Ellington , Monk , Kern , and Styne , and embarked on a U.S. tour in support of And Other Desert Towns, an album of ten improvisations by the duo of Laubrock and Rainey released by Relative Pitch Records . The Laubrock- Rainey duo tour came close on the heels of Laubrock’s appearance, also during May 2014, at the Onassis Cultural Centre in Athens, Greece as a member of 2014 NEA Jazz Master Anthony Braxton ‘s Diamond Curtain Wall Quartet, also including Halvorson and trumpeter/cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum . The following year, she issued Ubatuba with Rainey and Tim Berne . She then joined pianist Cory Smythe and bassist Stephan Crump for 2016’s Planktonic Finales. In 2018, she released Ingrid Laubrock: Contemporary Chaos Practices, which showcased her orchestral works featuring soloists Mary Halvorson , Kris Davis , and Nate Wooley . Kasumi, a duo recording with pianist Aki Takase , arrived in November 2019. ~ Dave Lynch, Rovi

Chris Lightcap is a bassist, bass guitarist, arranger, bandleader, composer, and improviser. As a sideman he has worked with dozens of artists including Regina Carter , Whit Dickey , Craig Taborn , Marc Ribot , Joe Morris , Rob Brown , and Tom Harrell , to name a scant few. He has also arranged recording dates for several artists. Since the late ’90s he has appeared on more than six-dozen recordings. In addition to his work as a sideman, he has led several bands since 2000 and produced critically acclaimed albums of his original music, including 2003’s widely celebrated Bigmouth with drummer Gerald Cleaver and saxophonists Tony Malaby and Bill McHenry . He later he expanded the group to a quintet (also called Bigmouth ) with Taborn , Cleaver , and Malaby and Chris Cheek on tenor saxophones. Whether playing straight jazz changes, classical/jazz and folk hybrids, or his own curious brand of jazz-rock fusion, Lightcap’s approach is direct and pulse-centric. His tone on the upright bass is warm, deep, woody, and rich; it’s rife with fat pizzicato runs. His electric playing is both an engine and a hub driving his various band’s performances in studio or on-stage. His 2010 album Deluxe with Bigmouth (that included selections with alto saxophonist Andrew D’Angelo ) was celebrated by numerous media outlets in the United States and Europe as one of the best recordings of the year. In 2018, he issued Superette, by his all-electric ensemble of the same name featuring Jonathan Goldberger and Curtis Hasselbring on guitars and Dan Rieser on drums. (Keyboardist John Medeski and guitarist Nels Cline also assisted.)

Lightcap is from Latrobe, Pennsylvania. As a youngster he played violin and piano before taking up electric bass at age 14. He began studying the upright bass as a senior in high school and furthered his studies at Williams College where he studied bass, composition, and improvisation with Milt Hinton , Cameron Brown , Alvin Lucier , and Bill Dixon . He also studied and performed with drummer Ed Blackwell shortly before the latter’s death in 1992. After graduation and winning the school’s prestigious Hutchinson arts grant, he relocated to New York City. From the late ’90s onward, he has been active in the quartets of guitarist Joe Morris , Rob Brown , and Whit Dickey , as well as a member of Carter ‘s studio and traveling bands, and with PLK Trio (with saxophonist Lisa Parrot and drummer Heinrich Köbberling ) in addition to his own groups. His first two leader offerings were 2000’s Lay-Up and 2003’s Bigmouth — both issued by Fresh Sounds New Talent . In 2001 he began working with Taborn on the keyboardist’s Light Made Lighter, and in 2003 debuted with Carter ‘s group on Paganini: After a Dream. In addition to his own recording and touring, Lightcap worked with Anthony Braxton , Lawrence “Butch” Morris , Cecil Taylor , James Carter , Tom Harrell , and Archie Shepp .

Though Lightcap began arranging as early as 1997 for Brown ‘s Scratching the Surface, he came into his own with his work on Matt Wilson ‘s That’s Gonna Leave a Mark (2009), and Bigmouth ‘s Deluxe album (on Clean Feed ) a year later. He also arranged a pair of Carter dates in 2010’s Reverse Thread and Southern Comfort in 2014, along with Mary Halvorson ‘s Meltframe. In 2015, Bigmouth , trimmed themselves back to a quintet and issued the wildly adventurous Epicenter for Clean Feed . Not only was the record well-received critically, but the band’s live shows were exceptionally well-reviewed, including appearances at European jazz festivals including Willisau, North Sea, Ljubljana, and Edinburgh. After returning to the States, Lightcap focused on his role as a sideman. He appeared on albums by Parrot, Wilson , Carter , Skye Steele , Taborn , and Shakers ‘n’ Bakers . He formed the Superette band in late 2017 with guitarists Goldberger and Hasselbring , and Rieser on drums. Rather than confine themselves to jazz, the quartet were a fusion outfit who created a hybrid sound that bled through harmolodic jazz, psychedelic rock, West African urban and folk styles, and even surf music. In September 2018, they issued their self-titled debut for Royal Potato Family Records , which also featured Cline and Medeski in the lineup and David Breskin as co-producer. The recording closed with a subtle cover of Neil Young ‘s “Birds,” with Lightcap guiding the melody. In 2019, Lightcap combined his Superette and Bigmouth projects for the ambitious studio album SuperBigmouth. ~ Joslyn Layne, Rovi

A native Californian who grew up in Santa Barbara, drummer Tom Rainey moved to New York City in 1979 while in his early twenties (after studying at the Berklee College of Music in Boston starting in 1975 and then returning to California to live in San Francisco). The new resident of Brooklyn kicked around town with some straight-ahead jazz gigs in the early ’80s and began playing in a trio with pianist Kenny Werner and bassist Ratzo Harris (having first encountered the latter at a California music camp), and in the early to mid-’80s met and started gigging with saxophonist Tim Berne , although Rainey would not appear on a recording with Berne until Big Satan ‘s I Think They Liked It Honey, recorded live in Paris in 1996. But in the interim, Rainey made a lasting impression on discs by Werner , Jane Ira Bloom , Fred Hersch , Mark Helias , Tom Varner , Ray Anderson , Andy Laster , New and Used, and others, before live and studio dates with Berne began taking up a larger portion of his schedule. On a number of recordings — including albums by the Fred Hersch Trio and Paraphrase (the latter featuring Berne on saxophones) — Rainey was paired with bassist Drew Gress , forming an empathetic bass-drums tandem heard on a number of notable avant and modern creative jazz discs.

From the mid-’90s well into the 2000s, Rainey forged a close musical partnership with Berne , performing and recording with the saxophonist in the ensembles Big Satan , Paraphrase, Hard Cell, and Science Friction. Paraphrase offered listeners an opportunity to hear Rainey’s mastery of the drum kit in three-way improvisational dialogues, the drummer’s notions of propulsion and momentum as well as texture and color keeping the music moving forward where other collective improvisational experiments might have collapsed into aimlessness. Visitation Rites and Please Advise, two Paraphrase CDs (live German club recordings from 1996 and 1998) released on Berne ‘s Screwgun label, are good places to hear Rainey at his most freewheeling. And in Big Satan ( Berne , Rainey, and guitarist Marc Ducret ), Science Friction ( Berne , Rainey, Ducret , and keyboardist Craig Taborn ), and Hard Cell (Rainey, Berne , and Taborn ), Rainey proved to be a drummer uniquely attuned to these ensembles’ often lengthy compositional/improvisational hybrids. During the 2000s, he made strong contributions to albums by all three of these groups, including Science Friction’s eponymous debut (2002, Screwgun ) and The Sublime And (2003, Thirsty Ear ), Big Satan ‘s Souls Saved Hear (2004, Thirsty Ear ) and Livein Cognito (2006, Screwgun ), and Hard Cell’s Live (2004, Screwgun ) and Feign (2005, Screwgun ). The two-CD live set The Sublime And by Science Friction stands as a high-water mark for all involved. Also noteworthy is Prezens (2007, ECM ), which includes Rainey in a quartet led by guitarist David Torn , and also features Berne and Taborn from Berne ‘s Hard Cell unit.

While it may be tempting to focus on Rainey’s involvement with Tim Berne ‘s bands during this period of the drummer’s career, Rainey participated in a variety of other ensembles as well, with many fine recordings as evidence. Trio dates include Come Ahead Back (1998, Koch Jazz ), New School (2001, Enja ), Verbs of Will (2003, Radio Legs ), Atomic Clock (2006, Radio Legs ), and Strange Unison (2008, Radio Legs ) by Open Loose, the sax-bass-drums threesome led by Mark Helias (another bassist with whom Rainey has had a particularly strong rapport); Short Trip (2001, Knitting Factory Works ), Drip (2003, Knitting Factory Works ), and Places You Go (2007, Songlines ) by guitarist Brad Shepik ‘s trio; Alive in Brooklyn (2004, Sarama ) and Alive in Brooklyn, Vol. 2 (2005, Sarama ) by the sax-Wurlitzer-drums trio of Tony Malaby , Angelica Sanchez , and Rainey; and Ash and Tabula (2004, Atavistic ) and Downpour (2007, Victo ) by the noisy soundscape-exploring outfit of Rainey, guitarist Nels Cline , and multi-instrumentalist Andrea Parkins .