During phone interviews that took place while he was in Nashville and Brooklyn, five-time Grammy-nominated jazz guitarist Julian Lage recently explained how collaborating with other musicians helps him grow as an artist.
“I think part of the study for a musician is that when you are next to people who are really in their element, you’re going to have to stand for something,” said the 34-year-old Lage. “Quite selfishly, collaboration makes me better. I can’t bring as much fat. I have to be the Julian representative in the collaboration.”
On View with a Room (Blue Note), his 12th album, Lage is trim, indeed, as he augments bassist Jorge Roeder and drummer Dave King with jazz-guitar great Bill Frisell, a longtime collaborator on stage, but this is Frisell’s first recording with Lage. “Bill is the master. He’s not only a hero of mine, but I also feel so fortunate that we’ve become closest friends over the years,” said Lage. “It’s monumental to be in his presence, to learn from him, to collaborate. During the writing of this album, Bill became an inspirational North Star. As I was writing, I would think, ‘What would work well with Bill? How does this music support our relationship and our collaborative efforts?’”
For the marathon two-day recording session, Frisell brought an arsenal of guitars, both acoustic and electric (including a baritone) to enhance the sonic palette. “In playing the music, as often happens, the sound took on an identity of its own without need to reference my vision,” said Lage. “It took on its own unique expression. It was full of surprise and deep inspiration and total delight. It was one of the most enjoyable sessions ever for me.”
Margaret Glaspy, Lage’s wife and musical partner, produced the 10 tracks, working closely with engineer Mark Goodell (Rosanne Cash, Mipso) at Brooklyn’s Bridge Studios. Lage’s longtime friend and collaborator Armand Hirsch (Hank Jones Quartet, Bobby McFerrin) added integral post-production elements.
The result, the follow-up to Lage’s 2021 Blue Note debut Squint, takes on an almost orchestral feel that finds Frisell bolstering the arrangements as he complements Lage’s lead lines. The two guitarists—the journeyman and the master—are well-suited, sharing a fondness for Jim Hall-inspired atmospherics, John Zorn’s style of avant-garde, Americana, and such pop references as the Beach Boys and the Beatles. “It was like he was the singer and I was the guitar accompanist, or he was the voice and I was the orchestrator,” Frisell said of the sessions.
Last year, Lage sent 16 demos and charts to Frisell and the two began discussing the project. “In general, we didn’t rehearse this material until the day before we went into the studio,” Lage says. “So a lot of our first efforts were captured on this album. He’s deeply inspiring. Bill sets a tone for the band that is unbeatable. Playing with him really brings out the best in everyone. He’s the greatest.”
Frisell, 71, known for both lush Americana and fearless free-form extemporizations, was pleased to get the call from Lage. “There’s this mind-boggling facility and technique, but his strength as a player lies in his personality,” Frisell said. “His curiosity and humility—he just listens like crazy. He’s genuinely humbled by the enormity of music. It’s not like he’s trying to show off, he’s trying to get deeper and deeper and figure out what it’s all about through the music.
“I really relate to that. For however many years I’ve been playing, every morning when I wake up I feel like I’m at the beginning. You just can’t ever really get it together. And Julian has that spirit. He’s just hungry to learn all the time. He’s very generous. When we play together, there’s a real conversation going on. It’s not a contest, it’s more like you’re really getting in there together and talking to each other.”
A child prodigy, Lage grew up in Santa Rosa, California, 40 miles north of San Francisco, and started playing guitar at age 5 after hearing his father strumming the instrument. At 12, he had already contributed to 1998’s Dawg Duos with David Grisman, played on the 2000 Grammy Awards telecast for an international audience estimated at one billion people, and been the subject of the Academy Award-nominated documentary Jules at Eight. By 16, he had studied sitar and tabla at the prestigious Ali Akbar College of Music (where he met future collaborator and tabla master Zakir Hussain) and was composing for and performing with veteran jazz vibraphonist Gary Burton. He released his solo debut, Sounding Point (EmArcy), in 2009, recorded with fellow alumni of the Berklee School of Music, and he has gone on to record with guitarists Nels Cline and Chris Ethridge.
At 17, Lage met Frisell at the Newport Jazz Festival, where the then-teen guitarist was playing with Burton’s band. “He was lovely,” Lage recalled. “Over the years, we’d run into each other and he’d always say hello. The first time we played guitar together was with Anthony Wilson at the Stanford Jazz Workshop. After that, we started doing some duo things and then some larger ensemble things and then some Zorn things together. I just consider myself very lucky to play with Bill at all, let alone as much as we have over the last few years.”
For Frisell, the feeling is mutual. “He’s just an example of being true to yourself and that’s what comes through in his music. It’s just great to play with Julian—I learn something every time I play with him. He’s beautiful.”
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