Recording of the Week, Julian Lage, 'View With a Room'

Left to right: David King, Jorge Roeder, Julian Lage

Julian Lage has somehow managed the Herculean feat of becoming the go-to ‘guitarist’s guitarist’ in jazz without sacrificing the ears of his non-musician listeners. He gives us guitarists plenty of dextrous licks to marvel at (Lage was a child prodigy, and his chops were already well-honed at a young age), while his playful sense of melodicism and keen ear for hooky tunes has lent hima accolades from throughout the jazz-listening world. Whether it’s with his quintet the Julian Lage Group, solo acoustic albums like 2015’s World’s Fair, or his more recent trio albums, Lage’s output is consistently top-quality stuff.

Recently signing to Blue Note Records with last year’s excellent Squint, View With a Room looks to cover similar territory. On the surface it’s not a world of difference away from its predecessor; for the most part this is still a trio album, recorded with the same bandmates with bass player Jorge Roeder and drummer David King. Roeder has been in rotation for Lage’s various projects since the guitarist’s 2009 debut Sounding Point, while King, best known as a founding member of The Bad Plus, is a more recent addition to Lage’s trio beginning with 2019’s Love Hurts. Another notable inclusion this time around, however, is the ever-prolific and eccentric axeman Bill Frisell, offering accompanying guitar on a handful of the tracks.

It’s Frisell’s trademark ambient tones you can hear at the very start of the album on opening track ‘Tributary’ – Lage himself doesn’t make a habit of using guitar effects – but that’s not to say Frisell’s contributions are purely textural (check out the trading licks between Frisell and Lage as the penultimate ‘Let Every Room Sing’ reaches its chaotic climax). Even so, there’s a welcome contrast between the two guitarists throughout that never leaves you guessing; at times Frisell’s country-influenced twang matches nicely with Lage’s more traditional, warm sound. Again on the opening track ‘Tributary’, Frisell fills out the space between Lage’s notes with ringing chords and harmonics. Elsewhere they play in different registers entirely, like when Frisell takes up his baritone electric to add some low-end rumble to the shuffling rhythm of ‘Temple Steps’.

King and Roeder play more than just the trio’s rhythm section, offering plenty to chew on throughout the record besides facilitating Lage and Frisell’s soloing. King’s dynamics are diverse, edging into busier territory – it’s his propulsive playing and beat switch-ups that drive the energetic ‘Chavez’ – while also engaging in some tasteful brush-work on the more laid-back tunes. The Lage/Roeder-written ‘Echo’ is another highlight, working in a more subtle noir-ish flavour led by Roeder’s brilliantly melodic bass playing while Frisell, Lage and King all play comparatively sparsely.

Behind the scenes, a similarly crucial member of the team is producer Margaret Glaspy, singer-songwriter and wife to Lage, who also acted as a filter and provided an invaluable second opinion for the trio on each tune, and it seems to have worked its trick – View With a Room is all killer, no filler. Julian Lage was on to something good when he recorded Love Hurts back in 2019; if you’ve enjoyed what his trio records have offered so far, View With a Room makes for a worthy addition to that lineage. While it very much sticks to the formula set down by the two records that came before it (if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it), with its exciting new Lage originals, killer playing and Frisell’s contributions, View With a Room more than satisfies.