JUliAN lAge
Modern lore 8/10
California guitarist surfs the line between jazz and rock
Julian Lage is quietly becoming one of the most inventive and prolific guitarists around. Barely a year after recording an acoustic album with the Punch Brothers’ Chris Eldridge, he returns with a slightly more raucous, groovebased album with the crack rhythm section of drummer Kenny Wollesen and double bassist Scott Colley. Lage switches to electric on Modern Lore, playing in a style that’s acrobatic but never ostentatious as he mixes rangy jazz with early rock’n’roll. Opener “The Ramble” and “Roger The Dodger” recall the rumblings of Link Wray and Duane Eddy before Lage casually and deftly takes those rock riffs apart.