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Julian Lage: Love Hurts
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
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
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
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
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 ...
read moreJulian Lage: Modern Lore
As a young guitar prodigy, Julian Lage often went to gigs at the Bay Area jazz club Yoshi's. There he would sit up front, put his head on stage and watch admiringly. Backing his early heroes at Yoshi's were two musicians who now form a trio with Lage. Double bassist Scott Colley and drummer Kenny Wollesen performed on Lage's 2016 album Arclight (Mack Avenue Records) to wide acclaim. The threesome reunites here for Modern Lore, with Lage's friend and collaborator ...
read moreThe Julian Lage Trio at SFJAZZ
The Julian Lage Trio SFJAZZ Center San Francisco Sept. 11, 2016 Guitar virtuosity was the theme for the opening week of San Francisco presenter SFJAZZ's 2016 season. In the intimate Joe Henderson Lab at the SFJAZZ Center, that meant four nights of modern guitar wunderkind Julian Lage working through a string of alternately reflective and bracingly visceral tunes from his new album, the impressive Arclight (Mack Avenue, 2016). In the much larger main ...
read moreThe Julian Lage Trio at Signal Kitchen
The Julian Lage Trio Signal Kitchen Burlington, Vermont May 9, 2016 Burlington Vermont's Signal Kitchen offered the Julian Lage trio a more confined, but ostensibly more hip atmosphere than the venue of the guitarist's last visit to Vermont when he played the assembly hall of a church outside the Queen City. But the meeting of minds between a knowledgeable audience and an intelligent band was the same, the end result an exquisite concert experience, albeit ...
read moreJulian Lage: Arclight
Anyone who saw guitarist Julian Lage in concert with bassist Scott Colley and drummer Kenny Wollesen in 2015 will be equally surprised and delighted by Arclight. On his Mack Avenue label debut: Lage proves himself not just a student of his instrument--as if that needed further affirmation given his previous solo work and collaborations with vibraphonist Gary Burton and guitarist Nels Cline--but an exceedingly fast learner in the art of studio recording. No question he benefits from ample ...
read moreJulian Lage: Arclight
Julian Lage's star has been on the rise since the premiere of Julian at Eight--the award winning 1997 documentary short about the precocious guitar prodigy's childhood years. Since then, Lage has become a key collaborator to modern masters like Gary Burton, Jim Hall and Fred Hersch. Lage's widely acclaimed virtuosity is uncontestable, yet he remains a tonal traditionalist--an aspect reinforced on Arclight, the first recording to feature him exclusively playing a solid body electric guitar. Despite the overdriven twang of ...
read moreJulian Lage: World's Fair
Guitarist Julian Lage's chameleon-like abilities have covered many styles from jazz in ensembles with vibraphonist Gary Burton and drummer Eric Harland to avant-free expressions with guitarist Nels Cline in Room (Mack Avenue, 2014) and folksy bluegrass with Punch Brother's member Chris Eldridge in Avalon (Modern Lore, 2014). A phenomenal technician Lage is more importantly a player with pronounced tonality and delicate touch who exudes a plethora of moods from his instrument as displayed with his first solo release World's Fair. ...
read moreThe Julian Lage Trio at Richmond Congregational Church
The Julian Lage Trio Congregational Church Richmond, Vermont February 15, 2015 Striding from the vestibule to the stage of this tiny house of worship, The Julian Lage Trio were afforded a hearty round of applause, which was just a precursor to further acclamation in the form of whoops and hollers that became increasingly frequent during the course of their single ninety-minute set. But a mutual admiration arose between performers and audience during the ...
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