Earlier this year guitarist Julian Lage released Modern Lore, the second album to feature his trio with Scott Colley on bass and Kenny Wollesen on drums. The group appears at the Music Hall of Williamsburg on Nov. 29.
Lage, a former child prodigy, recently brought the trio to WBGO to play some of the tunes from Modern Lore, and talk about the mentors who have shaped his experience in music: guitar maestro Jim Hall, whom he met at age 11 and later toured with; vibraphonist Gary Burton, who brought him on tour as a teenager; and composer and saxophonist John Zorn, who has been a more recent collaborative influence.
He also reflected on his new guitar of choice, the Fender Telecaster, which brought him back in touch with some early rock 'n' roll influences. “I have an anthology of Little Richard’s stuff,” Lage says. “I basically listened to it for six months straight. Every song has this nature where it started and it was already at 11, it was already at the peak of its spirit, and it would happen for two to three minutes, and it would just stop, and it would create kind of this void, where you thought, 'I gotta hear another track.'”
Fittingly, Lage's new music has a bit more urgency than before, as you can see and hear in this version of “Look Book,” from our studio. Right out of the gate, he introduces a bluesy idea in tandem with his drummer Eric Doob, followed by a bursting guitar solo with bassist Jorge Roeder to keep the momentum going.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQ3aoAAjXa8
Subscribe to The Checkout on iTunes and Stitcher.
Video: Chris Tobin
Audio: Corey Goldberg
Host & Producer: Simon Rentner
