Dirty Baby

iTunes Review

Guitarist Nels Cline has played with saxophonist Julius Hemphill and Willie Nelson, Charlie Haden and Wilco. And on 2010’s Dirty Baby, the ever-exploring Cline pushes himself into places he’s never been before. Conceived by poet/producer David Breskin, the double-album is a musical response to two sets of paintings by the Los Angeles-based pop artist Ed Ruscha. Cline leads a pair of large bands — mostly made up of fellow Angelenos, including Jon Brion, Vinny Golia, and Nels’ twin brother, Alex Cline — through pieces that incorporate improvisation. The first album, or “Side A,” is made up of a single, six-part suite that gradually moves from acoustic Americana to music that brings to mind the electric jam sessions that Miles Davis led in the early ‘70s. “Side B” takes a very different approach: it consists of 33 works, many shorter than two minutes, which jump from style to style. John Zorn’s postmodern pastiches come to mind, but “Side B” has a sense of pacing and wholeness that doesn’t leave the listener feeling so tossed about. Cline seems to feel at home in all the places he takes us.