Julian Lage - Arclight
Mack Avenue Records MAC1107. CD Review by Rob Mallows
At eight years old, acoustic guitar virtuoso Julian Lage was identified as a prodigy in the Oscar-nominated film Jules at Eight. That prodigious talent has not been wasted, judging by this album.
Like the Arclight of the title, this is jazz that glows with a simple intensity that throws light on what’s possible with six strings and an unlimited imagination. Released on 11 March, Arclight is Lage’s first release with the Mack Avenue label and also his debut electric guitar album. However, unlike Dylan’s decision to go electric, Lage’s selection of electric guitar - specifically, a Fender Telecaster, “the most refined embodiment of the modern guitar” as Lage puts its - seems a sensible choice for a guitarist looking for the next step in his development as an artist.
Conventionally based in a jazz trio format along with bassist Scott Colley and drummer Kenn Wollesen - something which Lage says fills a “recessive obsession” he has - this stripped down format nevertheless proves massively inventive. Eschewing his own compositions, Lage chooses to reinvent classics and forgotten tunes long since left on the musical shelf. In particular, he’s selected tunes from the pre be-bop era and freshened them up to show they still have value. Lage has certainly put his hand down the back of the 20th century’s jazz sofa to unearth a number of lost gems, such as Spike Hughes’ melancholy Nocturne, the third track on the album.
The search has proved productive. Stop Go Start begins with dreamy insouciance before Lage's scrabbling, scratchy sound challenges the melody. Totally atmospheric. Activate has a more conventional sound and rhythm structure which Lage uses as a platform to display fretboard pyrotechnics which are the match of any guitarist out there, and displays Metheny-like inventiveness. What becomes clear across this and the other tunes is how his acoustic experience plays out on this first album with electric guitar: his tremendous dexterity and the different pressures and inflexions on the strings create a wide pallets of tonal colours which elevates this above just being another jazz guitar album.
read more: http://news360.com/digestarticle/I2RWIcBZOEab_hd_yac6mQ
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