Guitarist Julian wage has displayed his wares in a variety of settings over the years in LA. He teamed up with his own trio a few years ago, did a duet gig with Nels Cline, another one with pianist with Fred Hersch, and was a member of Anthony Wilson’s Guitar Quartet. This time around, Lage brought together the team of Scott Colley/b and Kenny Wollesen/dr that produced the latest album Arclight. What Lage and company displayed to the packed crowd at the Blue Whale was that the concise songs recorded on the album are simply starting points for creative interpretations and blue highways for the 3 artists to embark upon.
Armed with a vintage Tele with no frills, buttons or wands, eschewing any type of pedals or loops, and feeding his sounds through a classic old school Gibson amp, Lage simply relied upon talent and ideas, chiming his guitar along with Wollesen’s sleek brush work and Colley’s boogie-ing bass on “Nocturne.” Lage then got into a rockabilly mood as he picked and grinned between Colley’s bopping bass solo on WC Handy’s “Harlem Blues” as the team played with dynamics to make the music rise and fall like waves responding to the lunar pull.
Lage’s delivered a solo opening to “I’ll Be Seeing You” that featured warm-toned droplets of fugue-like rain, and as bass and brushes gently breezed in, Lage made his strings sigh and twinge like a reflective recluse.
The team flexed its collective muscle as they climbed up and down together on the roller coaster of the rapidly pulsed “Activate” as Lage bent, strummed, picked and snapped his strings, while “Stop Go Start” had Wollesen feature his creativity with an earthy and interpretive drum solo that included mallets, a gong and even a gas pipe to complement the free form and abstract kinetic interplay of the three jousters.
While “Island Blue” had Lage’s strings sing with a folksy yodel “Persian Rug” closed the set with Lage’s guitar drawling with nimble fret work with some delicious swing as Wollesen turned up the butanes to have the three horses gallop to a photo finish.
Lage’s impressive album only gives hints of what the trio could deliver in concert. As Sonny Rollins would say, an album is an invitation to a gig; Lage and company rewarded those who RSVP’d.
Upcoming shows at The Blue Whale include Harold Mabern 06/08, Cyrille Aimee 06/09, Bennie Maupin 06/17, John Patitucci 06/25, Juri Pukl 06/29, and Danny Green-Josh Nelson 06/30.
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