Jazz Articles
Daily articles including interviews, profiles, live reviews, film reviews and more... all carefully curated by the All About Jazz staff. You can find more articles by searching our website, see what's trending on our popular articles page or read articles ahead of their published dates on our future articles page. Read our daily album reviews.
Julian Lage: Notes With The Weight Of Words

by Leo Sidran
When Julian Lage plays guitar, it's hard not to get swept up in it. His relationship with the instrument is natural and contagious. Maybe that's because it's been with him for most of his life. When he was just 8 years old, Julian was the subject of an Academy Award nominated documentary film called Jules at Eight. Before he entered his teens, he had already performed with Carlos Santana and jazz vibraphonist Gary Burton. While still in high school he ...
read moreJulian Lage: Squint

by Chris May
Before discussing guitarist Julian Lage's album, some food for thought... A credible argument could be put forward to say that the jazz piano trio reached its pinnacle of perfection with Bill Evans' Village Vanguard performances of June 1961, with the trio of bassist Scott La Faro and drummer Paul Motian, and that trios led by guitars, another chordal instrument, have long since replaced piano led trios at the evolutionary edge of the music. Still thinking aloud, as it ...
read moreJulian Lage: Love Hurts

by Doug Collette
By the release of Modern Lore (Mack Avenue, 2018), Julian Lage had fully established his very own style of modern jazz, one arising directly from his approach to the electric guitar. Justifiably proud of what he's accomplished to date, yet not content to rest on his laurels, Lage stretches himself on Love Hurts, simultaneously freshening the appeal of his sound and offering marked contrasts to his previous works. He enlists new musicians to accompany him and chooses to work mostly ...
read moreJulian Lage: Love Hurts

by Chris Mosey
Julian Lage is a tremendously talented acoustic guitarist and by all accounts a polite, mild mannered kind of guy. Though this might not be the whole story. The cover picture of his album is of twenty used matches, which is thought to refer to his worries of becoming burnt-out after being hailed as a child prodigy then burdened with the lofty expectations of his admirers. Lage was an accomplished blues guitarist when featured in the Oscar-nominated film ...
read moreJulian Lage Trio at Flynn Center for the Performing Arts

by Doug Collette
Julian Lage Trio Flynn Center for the Performing Arts Burlington, Vermont December 2, 2018 It was altogether fitting that guitarist Julian Lage led his trio onto a small stage surrounded on three sides by the modified stadium seating in place at FlynnSpace this early December evening. All the better for the swarthy bandleader to graciously exhibit the ever-so-subtle nuances of his skills and those of his bandmates during this first of two performances.
read moreJulian Lage Trio Live at BIMHUIS Amsterdam

by BIMHUIS
At a very young age Julian Lage had already gained recognition from well-known guitarists and jazz musicians (including Santana and Gary Burton) and became a protégé of Jim Hall, one of the most influential masters of the jazz guitar. These days Julian Lage himself is considered a leading guitarist. He plays with Chris Thile on his radio show Live from Here," the follow-up to the legendary Praire Home Companion," and he regularly works with an influential artist like John Zorn. ...
read moreJulian Lage: Modern Lore

by Doug Collette
Modern Lore constitutes a measure of guitarist Julian Lage's grasp of the pragmatic values of a working musician. Adhering to the same three-piece unit with which he recorded his prior solo album, Arclight (Mack Avenue, 2016), he applies continuity to a career that has in recent years included solo work and duo shows with Nels Cline as well as his high-profile membership in the Gary Burton's New Quartet The uniformity within this record is comparable to the last ...
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