I have seen Julian Lage's name on records for years and I had a preconceived notion of what type of music he'd be playing. Based on little more than the company he was keeping, I was expecting a downtown NYC, Knitting Factory, avant-garde, guitar jazz/noise funk meets a hipper than thou Velvet Underground "Let's have coffee and a bowl of carrots" crowd. For all I know, all of his records prior to his new release "Speak To Me" might be exactly that. But "Speak To Me" is not that at all. "Speak To Me" is a stunning collection of beautiful music and Lage's guitar playing will satisfy fans of everyone from Django and Jeff Beck to Ry Cooder and Danny Gatton.
My interest in Julian Lage started with his wife Margaret Glaspy. Glaspy's 2023 record "Echo The Chamber" was produced by Lage and was a favorite of the year. If it wasn't for that bit of information I may not have listened to any of "Speak To Me."
It's hard to nail down just what you'll hear on this record, but I assure you, if you are put off by jazz guitar in general, you are in for a surprise. This is one of the most musical records I have heard in a long time, with gorgeous arrangements and melodies that will stick immediately. And the guitar work will make you shout "Wow!" out loud to no one.
Give "Speak To Me" a chance to speak to you.
I hope "Speak To Me" speaks to you the way it spoke to me.
Listen to these tracks and hopefully you'll dig them enough to go in for the rest.
If there are any long time fans of Julian Lage who love this record, can you suggest an earlier release that might be similar?
9 comments:
I'm not a jazz guy but I loved this record. It's so satisfying in so many ways because I don;t think it's a jazz record. It's just a great musical record with a lot of variety and his playing is right on the money. He's like Jeff Beck in that he always plays the right thing at the right time on this record. I was blown away by how much I loved this record.
Hahaha. I love your open rejection of cheesy wordplay on the album title. You'd never be a movie critic on TV, the sort who ALWAYS say "Superman flies!" or "Dune is an oasis in the desert of bad popcorn movies." I'll be checking out Lage, but who hates jazz guitar? Who hates Django? Of course, my favorite is Emmet Ray.
I can't help but hear, in the first song's opening notes, "I got a little change in my pocket/goin' jing-a-ling-a-ling....". And in the third's opening notes, I hear "She said/I know what it's like to be dead....".
Neither is a bad thing, but I liked Obsession best.
C in California
Here's Lage covering Roy Orbison:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYRYhAGt14A
Hey, I'm a fan of Django Reinhardt and Danny Gatton! I first heard of Julian Lage when his previous record, View With a Room, came out, in 2022. I picked up that one and the accompanying mini-album, The Layers. I'd say they sound much more like "Serenade" than like "Omission" or "Northern Shuffle," but neither one is avant garde noise-funk. The Layers is half acoustic/half electric, while View With a Room is all electric, and Bill Frisell plays on both. Not many jazz guitarists play a Telecaster, as Lage does, but I like Telecasters as much as I like jazz guitar, so that's fine with me.
I see that he's quite prolific, so I have a lot of records to catch up on.
Marc
I'm not sure but I'd bet he's heard some of Jim Campilongo's records, in both the free-spiritedness of the writing and arranging and that clean, strangled tone. Never heard of him, I love it. Need more.
Sounds great! "View From A Room" was on a lot of best of lists last year, but I couldn't get out of it what others did ... this sounds good.
Sal: this sounds like a keeper. I haven't kept up with Lage recently. ArcLight/Modern Lore and Love Hurts all sucked me in and remain in rotation. I especially like his Telecaster playing and he reminds me, at times, of Bill Frisell and Ted Greene. I'm not up on the acoustic/bluegrass stuff that he has done (record with Nels Cline as well). He's reportedly a child prodigy on guitar so his prolificness is somewhat understandable. He seemingly plays all the time. He also played with Gary Burton a few years back on a really good record. Cheers, Michael D.
Thanks Sal for turning me onto Lage. FYI, he's playing in Ridgefield CT at The Playhouse. It's about a 90 minute drive from Astoria. Tix are only $46.00, which proves you don't have to spend insane amounts of money to hear great music.
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