Interview: Julian Lage Plays The Narrows on St. Patrick’s Day in Support of New Album
Considering jazz guitarist Julian Lage to be a savant in his craft is a vast understatement. The Santa Rosa, California native was considered a child prodigy in his early teens while performing at the Grammys back in 2000. By the time he was 15, he was teaching as a faculty member at the Stanford Jazz Workshop at Stanford University, and he has also taught at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. He’s an incredibly skilled musician who always manages to push the stylistic envelope, which he did with his latest album Speak to Me that came out via Blue Note Records on March 1. There’s an extensive artistic scope being exhibited within the release with the title track, “Nothing Happens Here”, “As It Were” and “Omission” being the highlights.
As part of a tour in support of the full-length, Lage and his band are going be performing at the Narrows Center for the Arts on 16 Anawan Street in Fall River on St. Patrick’s Day with Arny Margret kicking things off at 8pm. We had a talk ahead of the show about the making of the new album, working with a new producer and what people can expect from the record in a live setting.
Speak to Me has a focus on various textures while spanning between gospel, blues, folk and jazz with each style incorporating a unique twist. With this wide sonic range being exhibited, what was the songwriting process like for the album?
It’s funny, to me it all seems kind of normal. It doesn’t seem terribly diverse, its music written on the guitar, for the guitar and also for an ensemble of improvisers. Those are the basic principles of the music, so all the songs that were written share that theme. I think what differentiates them and makes each song a little bit more idiosyncratic than the next is just the orchestration. Some things are clearly for a jazz guitar trio while others are more acoustic guitar driven or they’re more enveloped with a cacophonous energy.
The actual writing language seems to me like I’m kind of writing one song throughout the whole record. That song to me is a spiritual, it’s music that has a certain healing energy to it, at least for myself. I can only speak for myself, but that was kind of the intent. Diversity was kind of spilled into the ensemble as far as texture, sound and color, but the writing is more or less one focus.
Was your first time working with Joe Henry as a producer?
It was, yeah.
What was the experience like working with him on the album?
Joe’s a master and I love him, I love his music and it was very liberating. He took responsibility for some bigger bird’s eye view questions. In Joe’s presence, I felt like I was allowed to write and bring the music. From there, he would help guide the session and I think it was foundational to leave certain decisions to him. It was always a very collaborative environment, but I think he liberated both me and the whole band to trust that the contributions we were making were going to go to a good home.
He was watching closely to what everyone was contributing while handling the music with great care.
That’s great. You mentioned that you had a band full of improvisers with you, which consisted of bassist Jorge Roeder, drummer Dave King from The Bad Plus, keyboardists Kris Davis and Patrick Warren and woodwind player Levon Henry. What was it like having these people involved in the creation process for Speak to Me? I know you’ve played with Dave and Jorge a lot, but how did you go about incorporating everyone else?
It was really seamless. There was the concern going in that there’s this working trio of myself, Jorge and Dave and we were bringing in musicians who are improvisers, but they also span other music styles. Both Patrick and Levon have done compositions for films while Kris comes from the world of prepared piano, so the concern was they would feel like interlopers within a familiar congregation of players. That’s not at all what it felt like, I think everyone knew exactly how to contribute while bringing such care and love to the table. It honestly felt very organic, it felt like everyone knew what to do and there wasn’t really just a vision of a trio versus these new members.
It was quite comforting and illuminating.
You’ve had a prolific career as both a band leader and a sideman, so what makes Speak to Me stand out to you when it comes to every other record you’ve been a part of?
Well, I think the tapestry of sound is what stands out to me the most. In the past, I focused on one orchestration for a record either solo or as a duo or as a trio. In that way, the sonic fingerprint is kind of established and maintained throughout the record, but this record is cool because each track challenges that status quo. Much to my delight, it doesn’t seem to affect the message, it actually enhances it. I was initially worried about it being too diverse sonically, but it actually possesses a certain kind of focus as far as intention.
Maybe it’s because I’m not hamstrung to the belief that it should be one sound the whole time. In other words, I think I let go on this record and delegated with so much beauty rushing in because I wasn’t in control. That’s what makes it stand out.
I get that from listening to the music. What are your thoughts on coming to The Narrows on St. Patrick’s Day and what can folks expect from the show? Do you plan on playing the new album in its entirety or will it be more of a weaving of songs from it in between some of your older material?
It’s a weaving. That’s a good way to put it, Rob. I love playing The Narrows, I’ve felt at home there for years with a lot of diverse projects. That’s awesome and that makes me so excited to come back. The touring band features Jorge Roeder and Levon Henry from the record, but Rob Burger is playing keyboards and Rudy Royston is playing drums, so it’s a new ensemble.
My hope is that we can present the record but also present the sound and one way to do that is to be a bit retrospective. Taking the tunes from different records and kind of putting them through this ensemble, so that’s what I’m looking forward to.
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