Preceded by "Nove Cantici per Francesco d’Assis"” and "Virtue (for Julian of Norwich)", "Teresa de Avila" is the third and final CD in Zorn’s trilogy inspired by towering figures of Christian mysticism. Written for the all-star acoustic guitar trio of Bill Frisell, Julian Lage and Gyan Riley whose performances are steeped in a feeling of love and mutual respect, the music is both beautifully simple and strangely complex, drawing equally on classical modernism, bluegrass, jazz, Jewish and renaissance music. Filled with compositional surprises, mysterious moods, beautiful harmonies and a stunning lyricism, Teresa de Ávila is a must-have for all fans of acoustic guitar music. This is one of the most personal and varied books of music Zorn has yet written—a lovely tribute to the enduring legacy of one of the world’s most beloved spiritual figures. Includes an extended appreciation by renown philosopher Arnold Davidson.
Guitar virtuoso Julian Lage has shared “Boo’s Blues,” the second song from his Blue Note Records debut album, Squint, out June 11. The loping swing feel of “Boo’s Blues” exemplifies Lage’s ability to write with his bandmates in mind while echoing his influences: “I like to imagine this music being played by the tans of bass and drums,” Lage says. “I’m imagining Billy Higgins, I’m imagining Art Taylor, I’m imagining Wilbur Ware, even though I’m writing explicitly for Dave and Jorge.”
Squint is a striking full-length that weds incisive, expressive songwriting with the profound interplay Lage has honed over the past few years with his de trio featuring bassist Jorge Roeder and drummer Dave King (The Bad Plus). The album was heralded last month with the release of the album’s lead single “Saint Rose.” Squint is available now for pre-order on vinyl, CD, or download.
“I absolutely love improvised music, and I’ve always been fascinated by singer-songwriter music,” says Lage. “For me, the jazz that came out of Blue Note always engaged both sides of that. It had incredible improvisational vocabularies and performances, but when I think of albums from Grant Green’s Idle Moments to Joe Henderson’s Inner Urge to McCoy Tyner’s Time for Tyner with Bobby Hutcherson – all these records that I love so much also have such great songs. I felt like this was an opportunity to present new music born out of the Blue Note tradition as I’ve interpreted it.”
Lage was recently featured on the GRAMMY Museum’s COLLECTION:live interview series, watch here. The guitarist will also be continuing his popular series of masterclasses with upcoming sessions on April 11 and April 18. A 30-minute solo performance will follow each class. Tickets are available here.
Our October UPLIFT track supports Lamda Legal and their important work on behalf of LGBTQ legal and civil rights.
We've posted some excerpts and complete tracks on Bandcamp and Soundcloud so you can preview the entire subscribers series featuring Dave Douglas, Joe Lovano, Mary Halvorson, Julian Lage, Bill Laswell and Ian Chang.
Rudy Royston introduces Flatbed Buggy
This special edition of the podcast features Rudy Royston previewing tracks from his upcoming album Flatbed Buggy, discussing the inspirations for his compositions and giving an insider's view on how the record came together.
We've also released the third single from the album, Hourglass, ahead of the release date on October 26. Check it out here.
Guitarist Nels Cline debuts a new band with the April 13 release of Currents, Constellations (Blue Note) featuring The Nels Cline 4, an intrepid unit that builds upon Cline’s acclaimed collaboration with guitarist Julian Lage by adding the fierce and versatile rhythm section of bassist Scott Colley and drummer Tom Rainey. The album’s lead single “Imperfect 10” is available to stream or download today
Guitarist Nels Cline debuts a new band with the April 13 release of Currents, Constellations (Blue Note) featuring The Nels Cline 4, an intrepid unit that builds upon Cline’s acclaimed collaboration with guitarist Julian Lage by adding the fierce and versatile rhythm section of bassist Scott Colley and drummer Tom Rainey. The album’s lead single “Imperfect 10” is available to stream or download today The Nels Cline 4 will celebrate the album’s release with a show at (le) poisson rouge in New York City on April 16. Tickets go on sale here on Friday, March 9 at 12:00pm ET. A European tour will follow, with Cline joined by Lage, Rainey, and bassist Jorge Roeder. Of all the rich and varied projects guitarist Cline has pursued since his emergence as a leader in the late 1980s, his two-guitar duo with Lage, documented on the 2014 Mack Avenue album Room, ranks among the most special. “When Julian and I started playing together it kicked my ass hard,” Cline told JazzTimes around the time of Room’s release. “At the same time it inspired me and refreshed my soul.” Lage, for his part, declared he had “found his people” playing with Cline: “At last I found a scenario where … you could be free and adventurous, you could utilize sound and be extremely melodic and evocative.”
“Even in the earliest days of the duo we used to say, ‘I wonder what we’d do if we ever had a rhythm section,’” Cline recalls. In 2016 he decided to find out by inviting Colley and Rainey to collaborate with he and Lage during a residency at The Stone in New York City. “I brought in a few themes and we just kind of went for it. Everyone was enthusiastic about continuing the work.” Known as the lead guitarist of Wilco since 2004, and one of Rolling Stone’s “100 Greatest Guitarists,” Cline is coming off the success of his 2016 Blue Note debut Lovers, a “quietly ravishing double-album” (NY Times) featuring Cline with a large ensemble conducted and arranged by Michael Leonhart that was “wildly inventive in its watercolored way” (Rolling Stone). On Currents, Constellations Cline embraces a sparser but edgier instrumentation, which serves the adventurous thrust of the music, brimming as it does with raw energy and wild beauty.
1. Furtive (Nels Cline)
2. Swing Ghost '59 (Nels Cline)
3. Imperfect 10 (Nels Cline)
4. As Close As That (Nels Cline)
5. Amenette (Nels Cline)
6. Temporarily (Carla Bley)
7. River Mouth (Parts 1 & 2) (Nels Cline)
8. For Each, A Flower (Nels Cline)
2018 Tour Dates:
April 16 - New York, NY - (le) poisson rouge - ON SALE 3/9
April 20 - Geneva, CH - AMR - Sud des Alpes - TICKETS
April 21 - Oslo, NO - Nasjonal Jazzscene, Victoria - TICKETS
Insurrection is an intense new instrumental project featuring guitar wizards Julian Lage and Matt Hollenberg with the incredible rhythm section of Trevor Dunn and Kenny Grohowski. Inspired by some of the greatest experimental novels of the 20th century the music is incredibly varied, combining rock, funk, blues, jazz, classical and more-often in the same song! Gnarly atonal melodies, bizarre harmonies, astonishing guitar fireworks and telepathic group interaction make this one of Zorn's most scintillating and adventurous new projects.
Everyone is playing at their best here, and you have never heard such sounds! As always Zorn pulls the very best out of the musicians and they play some of the most outrageous solos you have ever heard. Essential! Julian Lage, Matt Hollenberg, Trevor Dunn, Kenny Grohowski.
Modern Lore finds Lage playfully flipping the script he followed on his acclaimed 2016 Mack Avenue debut, Arclight. That album — produced, like Modern Lore, by Lage’s friend and collaborator, the singer-songwriter Jesse Harris — was his first trio set on electric guitar and found Lage inspired by the sounds and the attitude of the freewheeling, pre-bebop jazz era, when, as he puts it, “country music and jazz and swing were in this weird wild-west period.” This time he incorporates the sensibility, if not the outright sound, of early rock and roll, a similarly hybrid form driven by rhythm, personality and a passion for the electric guitar.
For millennia the moon has been a subject of deep fascination— a symbol of love, lust, madness and dreams. More than a passive observer, it is a powerful force whose brilliant luminosity exerts an intoxicating effect upon the winds, the tides, our emotions and more. This dark and moody CD of music inspired by Shakespearian Lunar imagery features ten lyrical compositions evoking the magic of Sister Moon. Stunningly performed by two of the most fabulous new guitarists working today—Julian Lage and Gyan Riley, this is a beautiful and heartfelt program of music for late night contemplation on a romantic midsummer evening.
Featuring Dayna Stephens (tenor & baritone saxophones, EWI, synthesizer, bass-on trk 9), Brad Mehldau (piano, tack piano-trk 4), Julian Lage (guitar), Larry Grenadier (bass) & Eric Harland (drums & cymbals).
Available on Contagious Music on April 7, 2017
“Tenorist Stephens emerges as an artist full of composure and imagination”– DownBeat Magazine
“Within the expanse of the jazz landscape, a limited handful of stunning newcomers emerge as exciting harbingers of the growing edge of jazz.” “Everything flows with unusual fluency and makes you feel rewarded. The aesthetic catalyst is tenor saxophonist Dayna Stephens, an intensely organic player”– Dr. Herb Wong
“He’s a total genius!”– Tom Harrell
“Dayna is one of the people who will move music to a new place. He drives the band as he drives himself. He puts us all to a different level.” – Taylor Eigsti
“A saxophone star ready to go nova”– Jerry Karp (Freelance journalist)
Gratitude, saxophonist/composer/bandleader Dayna Stephens’ eighth album as a leader, is a gift from Stephens to the world, and to himself; simply an album of beautiful music played by a group of master musicians, led by one of the scene’s leading artists, that can be enjoyed by the connoisseur or the casual listener. And, on a deeper level, an expression of gratitude from the saxophonist, for the warmth, love, peace and strong connections he has shared with friends, family and fellow musicians, as he climbed his way back to health after fighting Focal Segmental Glomerulosclerosis (FSG), a rare kidney disease. Stephens elaborates, “one thing that unites every song on this record is they were all at one time or another ear worms that stuck around for a while, and often returned for lengthy stays. Another uniting factor is that they all have to my ear enchanting, beautiful singable melodies, and give me a strong sense of sentiment. When we recorded these songs I was conflictingly full of hope, peace and uncertainty. Hope that my years would be extended, peace that I was lucky to have made it that far with lots a great moments and experiences, despite the circumstances, and yet, uncertainty, because it wasn’t yet clear how the journey was going to continue. Now after receiving so much love and support from so many people in my life, I am saturated with immense gratitude, perhaps completing a circle that started with those ingredients. This collection of songs serves as an expression of that deep-seated gratitude.” Gratitude, featuring Dayna Stephens (tenor & baritone saxophones, EWI, synthesizer, bass-trk 9), Brad Mehldau (piano, tack piano-trk 4), Julian Lage (guitar), Larry Grenadier (bass) and Eric Harland (drums & cymbals), will be released on April 7, 2017 on Stephens’ new label, Contagious Music.
Gratitude was masterfully produced by legendary producer, Matt Pierson, and Stephens and his band were guided by music from a number of incredible composers, such as Aaron Parks, Michelle Amador, Rebecca Martin, Billy Strayhorn, Louis Cole, Massimo Biolcati, Pat Metheny, Olivier Manchon and Julian Lage.
More About The Music on Gratitude With Dayna Stephens: Emilie was introduced to me by violinist/composer Olivier Manchon. He dedicates it to his sister Emilie and its got a nice, simple melody that when combined with the pleasantly unexpected harmony creates a beautiful song to connect with. A dear friend, pianist Aaron Parks, wrote In A Garden. I’ve had the pleasure of playing the composition with him on several occasions and it often paints scenes for me one would find in a fantasy movie. Some of the visuals in the Robin Williams movie, What Dreams May Come, come to mind. Amber Is Falling (Red and Yellow) was written by vocalist/composer Michelle Amador, and has been on my list of favorites since the mid 2000s when we played it in San Francisco with her group, Michelle Amador and the True Believers. The Timbre of Gratitude is the only original song of mine on Gratitude. In a loose way the happy sounding beginnings of each new section represent the many positive moments of encouragement I have received throughout my journey thus far. Don’t Mean a Thing at All is a song written by the wonderful vocalist/songwriter, Rebecca Martin. I first heard her sing it in a duo setting with our bassist, and her husband, Larry Grenadier, and immediately fell in love with its melody and lyric. Woodside Waltz refers to a city in Northern California called Woodside, which has tons of scenic views of the SF Bay through tall redwood trees. While recording it we discovered that the recording studio (The Club House in Rhinebeck, NY) had a tack piano, which was perfect for bringing out the essence of this gem written by our guitarist, Julian Lage. The entire band was even willing to tune down our instruments, a dozen cents flat or so, to match the tuning of the piano, which hadn’t been given any TLC in some time. We Had A Sister is a hauntingly beautiful song by Pat Metheny. I first heard this tune, as a young, fledgling saxophone student, on Joshua Redman’s second release, Wish. Since that time it’s remained a song I’ve wanted to record. Isfahan is one of many masterpieces by the great Billy Strayhorn. I’m reminded of Joe Henderson’s version he recorded on his album, Lush Life-The Music of Billy Strayhorn. I really admire how personal and intimate Henderson’s playing was, which is why I felt it was a good idea to do this one as a trio with Larry and Julian. Clouds is one title for two songs written by two composers, bassist/composer Massimo Biolcati and drummer/producer/composer Louis Cole. Biolcati’s melody, a tune I’ve played many times while we were both in the Monk Institute, is full of nice, intricate surprises. Cole’s version was my introduction to his unique, magical sonic world, which I have since become a huge fan off.
Mount Royal, the second full-length album from virtuosic guitar duo Julian Lage & Chris Eldridge, is a testament to the visceral power of incredible musicianship and true creative collaboration. Produced by Gabe Witcher (one of Eldridge’s fellow Punch Brothers), Mount Royal includes eight originals, several reimagined versions of old bluegrass songs, and a cover of Eddie Vedder’s “Sleeping By Myself” that is as engrossing as it is surprising.
The arrangements on the album’s twelve, mostly instrumental tracks feature complex, rollicking guitar lines one would expect from such technically gifted players, but these moments are allowed to breathe. That is, Lage and Eldridge understand the potency of space in their compositions, and the sonic hills and valleys illustrate that greatness often lies in the unexpected. Lage’s notable jazz background is apparent, yet Mount Royal ventures into old-time, gospel and bluegrass without ever settling into one genre.
The energy between Lage and Eldridge is remarkable, and Mount Royal does not fail in conveying the pair’s mutual passion for the acoustic guitar and respect for collaboration.
