The Nels Cline 4, "Furtive" (Blue Note)

At age 63, guitarist Nels Cline is still making compelling music outside of his best-known outlet, the avant-Americana unit Wilco, for whom he's been playing for 15 years. To give you an idea of Cline's range, he may be the only musician who's ever collaborated with both Thurston Moore and Willie Nelson, Mike Watt and Julius Hemphill.

Cline's most recent album for the legendary and still important Blue Note label, Currents, Constellations, finds Cline and his quartet in that cerebral zone between ECM-indebted fusion and introspective post-rock. On the LP's opening track, "Furtive," Cline and guitarist Julian Lage engage in a taut, fascinating duel that's simultaneously serpentine and hypnotic. Drummer Tom Rainey and bassist Scott Colley keep the rhythm shifting with agitated elegance. In the press release, Cline cites Duke Ellington’s “Tourist Point of View” from The Far East Suite as the inspiration for "Furtive": “Uptempo with a vamp, amazing dense harmonies. I just have tiny bits of written material connected by improvisation and I cue things with numbers. It’s a way to encourage guitar interaction that’s non-soloistic and that lets Scott and Tom blaze away.” This is fraught spy jazz that keeps you riveted for its entire 293 seconds.

The Nels Cline 4 play Columbia City Theater Wednesday, February 13. The lineup is Nels Cline (guitar), Julian Lage (guitar), Tom Rainey (drums), Jorge Roeder (bass).