Jazz Articles about Julian Lage

About Julian Lage

Live Review

Festival International de Jazz de Montréal 2026

by Mark Sullivan
July 16, 2026

Festival International de Jazz de Montréal Various Venues Montreal, Canada June 30-July 4, 2026 The 46th edition of the Festival presented over 350 shows, two-thirds of which were free. The festival organizing team highlighted performances by legendary jazz-funk band The Headhunters, the Charles Lloyd Quartet, St. Vincent Symphonique (a series of orchestral concerts featuring her repertoire), Kamasi Washington, French-Haitian vocalist Naïka, French-Lebanese trumpeter Ibrahim Maalouf, and vocalist Melody Gardot. This year's honorees were ...

Album Review

Joe Lovano: Paramount Quartet

Read "Paramount Quartet" reviewed by Sue Yang

by Sue Yang
June 27, 2026

The risk with a new Joe Lovano recording is that listeners may hear the résumé before the band. The Blue Note Records years, the long triangular history with Paul Motian and Bill Frisell, and the more austere ECM Records terrain of Trio Tapestry (2019) all sit close to the surface of Lovano's sound. Paramount Quartet quickly makes that kind of listening insufficient. This is not Lovano arranging familiar authority around new personnel; it is a band record in which his ...

Album Review

Joe Lovano: Paramount Quartet

Read "Paramount Quartet" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
June 26, 2026

Saxophonist Joe Lovano built a formidable recorded legacy on Blue Note Records, beginning with 1990s Landmarks, running through 1999's 57th Street Themes and 2013's Soundprints --among many other albums on the famed label. But a side outlet for his artistry emerged on ECM Records, beginning with his side man slot on drummer Paul Motian's Psalm (1982). Though he boasts dozens of other side man appearances on ECM Records, he did not release an album under his own name for the ...

Album Review

Julian Lage: Scenes From Above

Read "Scenes From Above" reviewed by Jack Kenny

by Jack Kenny
April 28, 2026

There are always expectations when Julian Lage plays: effortless, assured virtuosity and melodic finesse. Those qualities are present here, but they are deliberately understated, subsumed within a broader emphasis on collective interplay. Produced by Joe Henry, the album resists any attempt to remake Speak to Me. Instead, Lage sought to create an egalitarian session, explicitly avoiding a leader-centric approach. As he has suggested, this was not about “I'm the leader--let's build something around me," but rather about fostering ...

Radio & Podcasts

New Music From Lage, Tarentino, Berndt, Saber, Magris And More

by Bob Osborne
February 5, 2026

The breadth of content in the jazz world is captured in this selection of mostly new releases. From traditional post-bop workouts, through interpretations of popular songs, to full on invention and improvisation, this playlist demonstrates the variety of music which might be generally described as jazz but in reality covers a more complex set of variables. There is a focus on the January releases of the excellent Relative Pitch Records. Playlist Julian Lage “Night Shade" from Scenes From ...

Live Review

Julian Lage At Empire Music Hall

by Ian Patterson
November 21, 2024

Julian Lage Empire Music Hall Belfast, N. Ireland November 13, 2024 It is not too often that Julian Lage tours with nothing more than an acoustic guitar in tow. The solo acoustic album World's Fair (Modern Love, 2015) suggested at the time that the Californian might juggle solo performances with his group projects, but the following decade turned out differently. “My head was somewhere else," he told the Belfast audience. That ...

Live Review

Julian Lage at Club Hancher

by Joshua Weiner
September 20, 2024

Julian Lage TrioClub Hancher at Hancher Auditorium Iowa City, IA September 15, 2024 The gorgeous new Hancher Auditorium, rebuilt in 2016 following severe flood damage to the original building in 2008, is situated on the campus of The University of Iowa. While the large Hadley Stage auditorium seats 1,800 and is home to Broadway shows, multimedia events, and orchestra concerts, the smaller Strauss Hall magically converts into Club Hancher, a hip jazz and comedy ...