Julian Lage - Love Hurts (2019)
Hi, my name is Nathan from JazzGuitar Lessons.net and you're listening to Album
Deep Dives.
During this episode we will explore the sonic world of one of the most incredible
jazz guitarists of the current generation, that is: Julian Lage.
I'll discuss his latest
record, titled "Love Hurts", released in 2019 under the Mack Avenue label, so be
ready to be amazed by this exciting and dynamic album.
As is customary for these podcasts, let's start with some background information.
Julian Lage was born on Christmas day, 1987 in Santa Rosa, California.
Julian
was considered a child prodigy, starting to play guitar when he was only 5, and
having his first public performance just a year later.
By the age of 8, he played on
stage with none other than Carlos Santana, and was the subject of the Oscar
nominated mini-documentary "Jules at Eight".
If this wasn't enough, he played at
the 2000 Grammy awards when he was only 12 years old!
One of the main
characteristics that make Julian Lage such an exciting musician is his seemingly
unending musical curiosity.
He has mentioned during a few interviews how his
modus operandi is to pursue everything he feels attracted to.
He feels a sort of
artistic obligation to get to know any type of music he likes to the point where he
can communicate with people that have mastered that particular style or genre.
He
mentions his intention is not to be a master of every kind of music he loves, but to
be fluent enough to be able to express himself with relative ease.
And this certainly
holds up, as he has been a student at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music,
the Sonoma State University, Berklee College of Music, and even the Ali Akbar
College of Music, where he studied the Indian/Pakistani percussive instrument, the
tabla.
This curiosity permeates every project Lage has been a part of, whether it is
solo guitar, jazz trio format, large ensembles, backing up singers, or collaborating
with veterans of the jazz world such as Gary Burton, Pat Metheny, John Zorn, Bela
Fleck, Fred Hersch, among many others.
Julian always has something fresh to
bring to the table, and at only 31 years old, he already has a curriculum vitae that
any professional player of any age would be proud of.
[music clip "In Heaven" 00:00 – 1:15]
Isn't his sound hypnotic? We'll explore this further, but his dynamic control and
phrasing is out of this world, and it's even more impressive if you get to experience
--- PAGE 2 ---
his playing live. Getting back to our discussion, "Love Hurts" is quite a special
album because it completes what Julian considers to be an album trilogy.
Ever
since his first jazz trio album as a leader "Arclight" came out in 2016, Lage was
looking to explore the jazz trio dynamic deeply.
He was inspired by guitar legends
that mastered the jazz trio approach, such as Jim Hall (with whom he took lessons
and played with on several occasions).
In Julian's mind, there is something very
challenging in a jazz guitar trio because the separation between each instrument's
range is very evident.
It's hard to make a jazz trio sound as a unit, and for the
interaction between the instruments to feel organic.
To put it in Julian's own words,
and I quote:
"Certainly with guitar, bass, and drums, there's a greater disparity between the
frequency of the cymbals and the open strings of the guitar, for example, and from
there to the low end of the bass a more skeletal system is how I think of it [...]
Jim Hall was such a master of that: He would play whole solos and never use the B
or the high E string. As a consequence, his lower-register playing had this
gravitational pull toward the upper range of the bass, this lovely fusion which I've
always thought was so gorgeous."
It is also good to point out that this album features a different trio from the one that
participated in his two previous releases in this trilogy.
On this occasion, Julian was
backed up by "The Bad Plus" drummer Dave King, and the Peruvian bassist Jorge
Roeder.
"Love Hurts" features a very eclectic set of tunes, focusing mainly on the American
music of the late 60s and 70s.
Starting with Peter Iver and David Lynch's "In
Heaven". One of the many characteristics that make Julian such an impressive
musician is his musical sensibility.
He has such a clear idea of what he is going for
at all times, and this frees him to take chances and experiment with whatever
concept he is curious about.
For starters, the amount of detail, work and precision
that goes into his tone is astounding.
We will listen to a short example of this, and
during the scarce 50 seconds of this clip we can appreciate him playing very
delicate melodies, moving in a matter of seconds to a much more aggressive
approach, creating a dynamic interest in his phrasing that maintains the listener's
interest and makes his musical phrases sing beautifully.
Notice especially how he
uses his dynamic control to separate his melodies from his harmonic comping.
He
is such a master of making the different voices in his playing sound independent.
Let's listen.
[music clip "In Heaven" 01:45 - 02:35]
--- PAGE 3 ---
As a sidenote, Julian has developed such control in his playing because for years
he has been working on modifying his tone only by touch.
He doesn't use any
pedals while recording, and the ones he uses on stage are only to emulate the
sound he would get from going straight to a small tube amp when he is forced to
use bigger amps due to the size of the venue.
He has nothing against pedals, but
he just feels he doesn't need them and prefers to change his tone naturally with his
playing technique.
[music clip "The Windup" 00:00 - 00:45]
What we just heard is the head for the third track of this album.
It's an exciting
composition by the great Keith Jarett titled "The Windup", and it's such a joy to
listen to.
It's surprising how well this song fits the guitar, given that it is composed
by a pianist.
Julian suspects that it might be due to the kind of musical language
developed inside the popular ECM sound that Keith was a part of.
This sound was
heavily driven by guitarists during the 70s with musicians like Pat Metheny, John
Abercrombie, and Ralph Towner.
In this trio's interpretation of this tune, right
before the head out, we get a chance to listen to "the other face" of Julian Lage.
He
has always been a lover of free jazz, especially of proponents like Ornette
Coleman.
So, at the end of his blowing he takes a short but very exciting solo
guitar interlude, stretching the time feel and harmony of the tune, and giving us a
taste of his love for free improvisation.
[music clip "The Windup" 02:16 - 03:03]
Now, I mentioned earlier that one of the main objectives Julian Lage had when
recording his 3 jazz trio albums was to explore the orchestration challenges that
this configuration of instruments creates.
It's fair to argue that the whole album is
full of examples of his particular approach to the jazz trio, starting with the craft of
his tone, his choice of register, and his mastery of comping his own lines.
But to
make this even clearer, let's listen to an excerpt from the title track of the album
and Boudleaux Bryant's famous song "Love Hurts".
Listen to how, after finishing
his musical thought with a couple of rhythmic chord shots, he delineates the form
by leaving some space.
Right at this moment, Jorge Roeder takes the opportunity
to fill up that space by playing a small motif in the upper register of his bass.
Julian
hears this and uses that same motif to develop the last section of his solo.
He
starts playing it in the middle register of the guitar, so that it blends nicely with the
register where Jorge played it in his bass and sounds as if he "took the baton" and
continued the idea organically.
This type of interplay is magical when it happens,
and exactly the kind of thing Julian was excited to explore in a jazz trio setting.
--- PAGE 4 ---
Let's take a listen.
[music clip "Love Hurts" 02:30 – 03:15]
Being witness to that level of communication between musician is pretty magical
right?
Well, this album holds two other interplay gems, and funnily enough, they
are the two Julian Lage originals featured on this record.
The first one is called
"Circles", and it's a beautiful composition based on a repeated pattern that
permeates the whole track.
For the sake of time, we will only discuss the second
original track, named "Lullaby".
What is special about both of these tracks is the
treatment that the trio gave to them.
It reminds me a lot of how the Paul Motian Trio
with Joe Lovano and Bill Frisell play together.
(By the way, if you haven't checked
out the Bill Frisell deep dive yet, I encourage you to do so, as we discuss one of his
records with Paul Motian).
Julian Lage's trio treats these tunes a lot more freely
than the rest of the tracks in this album.
The time feel is much more elastic, and
they really have to follow each other to be able to make it feel good.
What I found
really interesting in "Lullaby" is the way the tune grows.
The melody is very delicate
and simple (like a lullaby) and the tune very gradually grows and grows in intensity
until it reaches its climax (unlike a lullaby).
Here, the delicate melody is juxtaposed
with a very thick texture given by the bass and drum's playing intensity, and the
tone of Julian's guitar.
His tone becomes much more aggressive and distorted, and
let's remember that Julian doesn't use pedals, so all of this is controlled by how
much force he is using while playing and the amp's response to that audio signal's
intensity.
Imagine the control he has for him to squeeze so many different timbres
out of his guitar.
[music clip "Lullaby" 01:23 02:15]
The last song on the album is Roy Orbison and Joe Melson's famous song
"Crying".
The interpretation of this song is very much like the one on "Love Hurts",
but it has a few great surprises that makes it a perfect end to this dynamic album.
Julian's tone is as amazing as ever, and this song features what is probably his
most aggressive approach to the guitar in the album.
Right before Julian's solo the
band goes into a rock vamp that pushes the intensity to the max and provokes his
solo to start rocking right from the get go.
To make this song even more interesting,
Julian's interpretation of the melody uses a huge range of techniques that creates
great variety and interest in an already beautiful melody.
As we mentioned before,
Julian's unending curiosity has driven him to learn many different genres and
styles.
In the short excerpt that we are about to listen to, we can hear traces of his
mastery of the country guitar picking and language, his proficiency with legato
playing and extended techniques such as harmonics, and once again his incredible
--- PAGE 5 ---
touch for harmonizing his lines. If you listen to the full tune (which I highly
recommend you do) you can hear his use of slides, fingerpicking, and many more
techniques he is able to pull out of the bag to make the melody sing.
Let's listen.
[music clip "Crying" 03:08 - 03:55]
If you're intrigued by Julian Lage's artistry, there is plenty more to explore.
I would
strongly encourage you to check out the rest of this jazz trio trilogy, which includes
"Arclight" (2016) and "Modern Lore" (2018).
For some of his solo guitar work, you
can listen to "World's Fair" (2015).
And if you want to explore his folk and country
side, I would encourage you to listen to his collaboration with the member of the
Punch Brothers Chris Elridge.
Their albums are "Avalon" and "Mount Royal" and
they are such an amazing listen.
Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Album Deep Dives, I hope that
you enjoyed it.
Julian Lage is a clear example of what is possible if a child
prodigy's love for music keeps running strong and is cherished throughout the
years.
It's rare for this to happen due to the extreme pressure that child prodigies
usually experience, but we are all lucky that this was not Julian's case.
His
undeniable talent and hard work will hopefully gift us with more music in the
following years, and we'll be waiting anxiously.
Once again, I've been your host, Nathan, from JazzGuitarLessons.net. Make sure
to check out the other Album Deep Dives on the website as well as the other
courses offered as part of the Jazz Guitar Mastery program.
If you want to send me
an email, you can send it to me at nathan @jazzquitarlessons.net.
Until next time,
happy shedding!
