Lage offers a masterclass in guitar trio performance
The Julian Lage Trio played two inspired sets at 'Club Hancher' on Sunday, further exploring the sound of his new album, Speak to Me, and expanding what is possible for this one-time prodigy
Leaving the second of two sets by the Julian Lage Trio on Sunday night, I was followed out by what I assumed were students in the University of Iowa jazz program. All were marveling at what they had just heard, one saying, "I need a drink, because I'll probably never play like that."
With all due respect, I'm going to suggest upgrading that qualifier right now. Practice all you want, son, but you are definitely not ever going to play like that. I have a Telecaster just like Lage, but even if I practiced from now until the end of my days and somehow was able to stand on that same stage with the exact same setup, it wouldn't happen.
Yes, he has been playing and performing since he was a child (a documentary titled Jules at Eight a handy marker of that fact) and despite an already lengthy career, is still only 36. His fingers seem at least an inch longer than normal, his ability to span them across the fretboard makes one wonder about whether he has 27 bones in his hand like everyone else. But it isn't just Lage's chronological or physiological advantages that mean the student will never play like that. It is because of what he does with those gifts, the tone he generates, the creativity of his compositions, and the endless recalibration of what it means to be Julian Lage.
Playing two sets at Hancher's Strauss Hall, dubbed "Club Hancher1" for its growing schedule of jazz performances, Lage was joined by bassist Jorge Roeder and drummer Dave King. He is ostensibly on tour in support of his wonderful new album, Speak to Me. But by my count, they played maybe five or six of the album's 13 tracks across two sets. I may be undercounting — I must admit it is sometimes difficult to remember which tune came from where when hearing them out of context in a show.
The point, however, is a sort of "time is a flat circle" moment: Roeder and King, who both play on that Joe Henry-produced gem of an album, ably backed Lage on the selections from Speak to Me in performances that were no less compelling despite the absence of other players who rounded out the recording. At the same time, that album, to these ears, has released something in Lage such that even songs from his previous albums have a looseness, a more organic quality that reveals layers beneath the usual well-mannered surface. Things that didn’t come from Speak to Me still sounded of a piece with those songs because of the way the trio played them, the way Lage approached everything regardless of its provenance.
Some of this is a function of live performance. Things stretch and take on new form. The few seconds of bass that introduce the album-opening "Hymnal" on Speak to Me becomes a couple of minutes of Roeder exploring every inch of the neck of his instrument on stage. The aptly titled "Quiet Like a Fuse," a well-mannered tune from 2021's Squint, becomes a spirited back-and-forth dialogue between Lage and King that finds both men laughing in response to the audacious twists and turns each drops on top of the other.
As a huge fan of Henry's own music and the productions he has done for artists like Bettye LaVette, Solomon Burke and Loudon Wainwright, I'd like to think a little of this can be credited to a loosening of the reins by the producer, a person with a vision of what a Julian Lage record can be if one thinks a bit less about what a Julian Lage record once was. No slight to the guitarist's back catalog, but this is the first album in a while that I could identify as being separate and distinct from what came before.
After a beautiful first set that found Lage mixing up new songs with covers (a lively version of Charles Lloyd's "Island Blues" that launched from the peaceful "Hymnal"), older material ("Tributary" from View with a Room), an acoustic interlude (a gorgeous "Blue Dove" that Lage said he learned from Jim Hall) and a new song (the skittering "Storyville"), things seemed to lift off a bit in the late set.
The feel was similar at the start, View with a Room's "Castle Park" filling the slow-build opener spot filled by "Hymnal" in the first set, building with "Mantra" from the EP The Layers.Then came that adrenalized version of "Quiet Like a Fuse" that found Roeder standing, bass in hand, watching his bandmates — spar is the word that comes to mind, but they weren't battling so much as lifting one another to higher levels — with a smile on his face. "Tiburon" from Speak to Me followed, and again it took an already wide open song and pushed until it became something more, unexplored corners fully brightened. The strings on the album version were not needed as the performance of each player expanded to fill that space, that softness replaced by a bit of grit.
After what seemed like a fiery set closer, Lage looked over at Roeder as the bassist held up a finger with a look that seemed to say, "Can we please do one more?" They did, tapping a reserve of energy that was met by an equal amount from the audience. The response to that as they left the stage urged them to return for one more short acoustic encore, and then they were gone.
When this show was announced, I had hoped Lage might be joined by more of the musicians who helped to make Speak to Me, such as Henry's son, Levon Henry, who played saxophone, Patrick Warren on keyboards, or Kris Davis on piano. Nice as that would have been, it wasn't necessary. This was a masterclass in guitar-based trio performance, Lage ably chording and soloing to fill the spaces that weren't occupied by Roeder's melodic bass or King's typically creative use of his entire kit.
As for that awed college student, a word of advice: become who you are and let Lage be Lage. Thankfully, he's still figuring that out for himself, and it is an awfully enjoyable experience to be able to listen in as he does.
This is the third or fourth show I have seen in that space, and each has been presented in a slightly different configuration. This was the best, the stage against a long wall, which allowed more people to be close to the stage. Approximating the feel of a jazz club in a multipurpose room is a challenge, but Hancher gets closer with each iteration, and Sunday’s show was the closest yet.