It started with an idea, but it wasn’t until I shared with some of the other musicians that it became something. We started having these dialogues about what would the Julian Lage record be. We would talk about it all the time. What kind of songs it would have and what would it say...I didn’t want it to be virtuosic; I wanted there to be a more storytelling in this. I constantly thought about how I could represent the common theme in all these songs.
Lage performs two solo tracks on the release, the remainder of the album consists of pieces played by three separate combos. There are two duets, "Tour One"[3] and "All Blues", with pianist Taylor Eigsti[8] and three all-string bluegrass inspired numbers, "The Informant", "Long Day, Short Night", and "Alameda", with Chris Thile on mandolin and Béla Fleck on banjo.[3] The remaining six tracks are played by some combination of Lage's touring band; saxophonist Ben Roseth, cellist Aristides Rivas, bassist Jorge Roeder, and percussionist Tupac Mantilla.[8] There are no trap drums on the recording, Mantilla plays cajón, djembe, frame drums and cymbals.[9]
Selected tracks
The album's opening track, "Clarity" was written by Lage when he was 15 years old for Gary Burton's album Next Generation. It was rewritten for this release to feature the cello playing of Aristides Rivas.[10] "All Purpose Beginning" is about writing a letter to a friend. It starts with the sound of a pencil writing on paper.[10] The album's closing track, "All Blues" is a cover of the Miles Davis composition.[11] There are two other covers, Elliott Smith's "Alameda" and Neal Hefti's "Lil' Darlin'",[4] a piece made famous by Count Basie.[8]
David Wiegand in his review in the San Francisco Chronicle wrote that Lage "demonstrates a jaw-dropping stylistic range and thrilling technique" on this "exquisite" album.[13] In his review in The Washington Post, Geoffrey Himes called Lage "a jazz newcomer more interested in elegance than in flash, more interested in instrumental storytelling than in virtuosity."[3]
The Chicago Tribune's Howard Reich found the album to be inferior to Lage's live performances. He wrote "The power of this music proved significantly greater in concert than on the recording" and "What often sounds static and predictable on disc becomes dramatically more vibrant and detailed in concert".[14]John Fordham quips in The Guardian that a "downside of the music is a sometimes becalmed over-refinement".[12]
In Patrick Ferrucci's New Haven Register review, he called the release "a cohesive and entertaining jazz journey".[2]All About Jazz managing editor wrote "a fully-formed voice that transcends yet incorporates his multifaceted stylistic interests, Lage's impressive debut points to a giant in the making".[11]AllMusic's Michael G. Nastos called the album "as impressive a debut recording as you'll hear" and Lage "a legitimate rising star".[8]
Tracks
All tracks are written by Julian Lage except where noted
