Hailed as one of the most prodigious guitarists of his generation and “highest category of improvising musicians" (New Yorker), Julian Lage has spent more than a decade searching through the myriad strains of American musical history via impeccable technique, free association and a spirit of infinite possibility. The California-born New York-based musician boasts a prolific resume on his own accord in addition to collaborating with Gary Burton and John Zorn, as well as duo projects with Nels Cline, Chris Eldridge and Fred Hersch, among others.
It’s all effects. In fact - I think the whole song was just 1 note and a ping pong ping pedal randomly generated the rest of the tune - he just pantomime/air guitar’s the rest. I kicked him out of a lesson once back in Berkley - not college of music - Berkley Karate Studio - he forgot his gi. I am glad he kept with guitar.
As Julian hits the VI chord at 1:18 to set up the completion of the section, he smiles that irrepressible smile of II7 to V7alt to I. It's such a happy progression.
I love The Layers. A work of genius. Since I discovered it last year, it has become one of my all time favorite instrumental pieces. So glorious and heavenly. Thank you Mr Lage, you are fantastic!
When you’re this good I guess guitar pedals only make you sound bad. I don’t know any other guitar play that exposes himself. He doesn’t hide behind anything.
I used this as an audition piece for music school a couple years back. The otherwise brilliant and good spirited but prickly and very old school principal looked at me and said “well little one, that was beautifully played but tell me: who wrote this and against whom?”. Spicy spicy chord changes.
There should be an award or a Grammy for best improvisation or best improviser because I feel like Julian would win a lot of Grammys if this were a thing. Idk if I like this version or the album version better. He sustains the groove so well and plays so in the pocket despite having absolutely no band behind him. It’s mesmerizing I’ve been obsessed with Joe Pass’ style of chord melody but this feels like the natural progression of that. He’s throwing in a lot of language, a lot of baselines against the melody, basically sounding like a whole band is behind him even when he’s soloing. He really lets the song go wherever it wants to, lets the music he’s laying down dictate the music he’s about to lay down. Everything so connected, so melodically interesting, and he’s not showing off at all. The fast runs and the crazy fast runs all sound perfectly placed and add a lot of dimension and contrast to the more melodic parts. I also want to say that I breath very loud and make noises when I play just like Julian, and I was so embarrassed by it until I saw and heard Julian literally exhaling and inhaling on worlds fair. It made me not feel as weird about it, made me not care so much about it, because it really dictated how I feel when I play knowing my breathing can be heard above it all, but that breath is life, that breath is passion, and Julian helped me realize that and learn to accept it instead of avoiding it. He’s a fantastic musician, and an even more fantastic human being whose influence stretches far wider than he knows. He’s making me proud to be a jazz guitarist that still plays standards and enjoys the rich history of music that comes with the genre.
A great guitarist (and there are lots of them) can play something very fast and technical and make you go- wow. A guitarist who's also a great musician (and there are fewer of them) can play something slow and technically unexceptional, and make you go- wow. And it's a deeper wow.
