Julian Lage: View With A Room

View With A Room looks in on two generations of American guitarists; the younger generation is represented by Julian Lage, the leader of the effort, and the older generation by Bill Frisell, who sits in on seven of the ten original Lage tunes ("Echo" is co-written by Lage and the set's bassist Jorge Roeder).

Following 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 side—tunes 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 garage—actually not, though it has that relaxed atmosphere, the ease and fluidity of expression—playing 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.