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Julian Lage: View With A Room
ByFollowing up on Lage's 2021 Blue Note Records debut, Squint (and let's give the label's boss, Don Was, a big tip of the hat for bringing the label back into the forefront of modern jazz), Lage again employs his blue ribbon trio mates, drummer Jorge Roeder and drummer Dave King, along with his front line cohort and guitar partner, Frisell. The two guitarists share a complete lack of pretense in their approach to music, making excellent, rock- solid, stripped-down guitar atmospherics with a light but deft hand on the production sidetunes which could fit into a playlist with the classic old and new guitar hits. The old: Dick Dale and the Del-Tones, Link Wray, the Chantays. The new: Pat Metheny, Mary Halvorson and (of course) Bill Frisell, the finest of American jazz guitarists (and O. K, vote for Pat Metheny if you want to; an argument can be made), This is two masters of the six strings sitting down without overplanning (or so it sounds), in the Lage's garageactually not, though it has that relaxed atmosphere, the ease and fluidity of expressionplaying guitar tunes as engaging a 1963's "Pipeline" by the Chantays, or Link Wray's "Rumble" from 1958.
Drummer King and bassist Roeder are mostly understated, serving this intricate, plain-spoken music well, on a set which has a subdued mood from start to finish. The album features a definite American feeling, authentically so, twanging at times, picking out sharp, succinct, delicate points of light at others, with the pair of guitars painting lush, beautiful harmonies. It has the feel of a sophisticated and virtuosic cowboy band.
At this point in his career, Frisell has nothing to prove. Then he sits down and proves his expansive talent anyway. Lage, more than three decades Frisell's junior, does have things to prove, and he continues to go about that task with unwavering success on View With A Room.
Track Listing
Tributary; Word For Word; Auditorium; Heart Is A Drum; Echo; Chavez; Temple Steps; Castle Park; Let Every Room Sing; Fairbanks.
Personnel
Julian Lage
guitar, electricBill Frisell
guitar, electricJorge Roeder
bass, acousticDave King
drumsAlbum information
Title: View With A Room | Year Released: 2022 | Record Label: Blue Note Records
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About Julian Lage
Instrument: Guitar, electric
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