Virtuoso Guitarist Julian Lage Celebrates Momentous Year
with Live in Los Angeles, Recorded at Blue Whale
Available November 11- Exclusively on Apple Music/iTunes
Available November 25 - Digitally Everywhere
via Mack Avenue Records
Album Features Tracks from First Recorded
Electric Guitar Outing, Arclight
"For Julian Lage, work and play run together. And now that he has a band
that can take him any place he cares to go, he's really in that sweet spot."
- NPR "Fresh Air"
"Lage's status as a guitar hero and rising star of the performing-arts
circuit is largely owed to his skill and imagination..."
- Wall Street Journal
The guitarist Julian Lage is one of jazz's breezier virtuosos, possessed of an
unflappable technical facility and a seemingly boundless curiosity."
- The New York Times
2016 has proven to be a momentous year for guitar virtuoso Julian Lage - In March, he released Arclight, his Mack Avenue Records debut and first recorded outing on electric guitar, with double bassist Scott Colley and drummer Kenny Wollesen. The album reached #1 on iTunes and Amazon jazz charts, and garnered critical acclaim from NPR, Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times, along with a guest spot on A Prairie Home Companion and dates with Steely Dan. Now, Lage is expounding on the story of Arclight with Live in Los Angeles.
Recorded at the popular jazz club, Blue Whale, in June 2016, this
outing features live performances of five tracks from his previous album
and will be available exclusively on Apple Music/iTunes on November 11, 2016 and available digitally everywhere else on November 25, 2016.
Live in Los Angeles puts
Lage's awe-inspiring dexterity and artistry on full display, allowing
tracks that came in under two-and-a-half minutes on the album to stretch
out, giving the trio breathing room to explore the interplay being
fueled by a captivated audience. In this case, the trio stretches out on
"Persian Rug," "I'll Be Seeing You," "Nocturne," "Stop Go Start," and
"Activate." For a thoughtful artist like Lage, who will research and
ruminate on a project long before he sets foot in a studio, this was a
liberating experience, plugging in and playing with a kind of abandon.
"This music was always conceived of as a record but to see how the songs
morphed and evolved in front of an audience brought the music into an
entirely new light," he explains. "Suddenly, the interaction within the
band as well as with the audience, became a whole new and vital
character in the narrative of Arclight."
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Photo Credit: Alex Chaloff
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The new release serves as a continuation in the overall cycle of Arclight, which was prompted after independently releasing a solo acoustic set of largely original material called World's Fair in 2015. That curiosity motivated Lage to reconsider the electric guitar-specifically a Fender Telecaster, "the most refined embodiment of the modern guitar," as he puts it. "The Telecaster has been around for more than 60 years," says Lage, "and it's still so present. I took that as a parameter: Arclight
focuses on my love of the electric guitar, specifically the Telecaster.
And even more specifically, it's centered on a jazz trio. It's basically a realization of this recessive obsession I've had for a long time, but had never followed. I
wanted to do songs that I feel maybe fell through the cracks for me
when I was growing up, but now feel like a brand new kind of music."
Julian Lage
continues to explore more experimental and previously unexplored areas
of his artistry, constantly pushing his own boundaries. "Playing the
music from Arclight live completely transformed our relationship
to the music," he explains. "It allowed us so much freedom to expand and
explore and dive into the inner dynamics of how we played as a band.
These recordings showcase this evolution." The fruit of these efforts
now culminates in Live in Los Angeles, an unprecedented outing that's indicative of what's to come for this virtuoso.
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| Julian Lage - "Persian Rug" |
Julian Lage ·
Live in Los Angeles
Mack Avenue Records · Release Date: November 11, 2016
For media inquiries, please contact:
Greg Angiolillo · greg@dlmediamusic.com
Maureen McFadden · maureen@dlmediamusic.com
For press materials on Julian Lage, Mack Avenue artists or its family of imprints
(including album covers, promotional photos and logos), please visit media.mackavenue.com
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