Scenes From Above Julian Lage, Feat. John Medeski, Jorge Roeder, Kenny Wollesen

• 1 Opal 04:09
• 2 Red Elm 04:46
• 3 Talking Drum 05:06
• 4 Havens 04:43
• 5 Night Shade 07:24
• 6 Solid Air 03:20
• 7 Ocala 04:20
• 8 Storyville 04:22
• 9 Something More 04:02
• Total Runtime 42:12

Info for Scenes From Above

Auf seinem fünften Blue-Note-Album, Nachfolger des GRAMMY-nominierten “Speak To Me”, erneut produziert von Joe Henry, ist Gitarrenvirtuose Julian Lage als Frontman einer neuen Band mit John Medeski (organ & piano), Jorge Roeder (bass) und Kenny Wollesen (drums) zu hören. Sein einzigartiger Sound verschmilzt hier mit dem klassischer Gitarre/Orgel-Sessions aus den großen Blue-Note-Jahren.

Während Julian Lages 2024 für den GRAMMY nominiertes Album „Speak to Me“ sein großes Statement als improvisierender Bandleader war, der ein Ensemble durch ein vielfältiges Repertoire führte, geht es auf seinem neuen Album „Scenes from Above“ darum, selbst Bandmitglied zu sein. Es geht darum, wie Lage die von ihm geschriebenen Stücke mit einer Band erkundet, die er genau zu diesem Zweck zusammengestellt hat. Die neun Tracks bieten ein brillant offenes Hörerlebnis, bei dem vier herausragende Musiker sich gleichermaßen Raum geben und nehmen, während sie die Songs gemeinsam und in Echtzeit erkunden.

„Ich wollte das Ganze als gleichberechtigtes Projekt präsentieren, nicht als etwas, bei dem ich der Anführer bin und etwas um mich herum aufbaue“, sagt Lage. „Diese Musik ist mit unserem individuellen Wachstum und unserer Entwicklung sowie unseren Beziehungen zueinander verbunden, ohne dass irgendjemand irgendwelche Erwartungen hat.“

Die neun Kompositionen des Albums entstanden in einem, wie Lage es nennt, regelrechten Schreibsprint im Vorfeld eines Engagements beim SFJAZZ, das das Live-Debüt der Band markierte. Während er über die Qualitäten jedes einzelnen Musikers nachdachte und sich überlegte, wie sie miteinander interagieren könnten, stellte er einen Timer auf 20 Minuten, schrieb ein Stück, nahm es einmal auf und begann dann von Neuem. „Mein Traum beim Komponieren ist es, etwas zu haben, worüber wir sprechen können, wenn wir zusammen spielen“, sagt er. „Es ist nicht das Wichtigste im Leben.“

„Julian denkt wirklich über die Dinge nach, er hat eine klare Intention“, sagt John Medeski. „Aber es ist eine wunderbare Kombination aus dem Interesse am Konzept und der Richtung und der Freiheit, im Moment zu leben.“ „Scenes from Above“ strahlt beide Qualitäten gleichzeitig aus, und genau das macht das Album so ergreifend und zeitgemäß. Julian Lage hat außerdem eine bevorstehende Tournee angekündigt, darunter eine Tournee durch Japan, einen Auftritt beim Big Ears Festival und ein Konzert in der Royal Festival Hall in London. Weitere Tourneen werden in Kürze bekannt gegeben.

Julian Lage hat außerdem eine bevorstehende Tournee angekündigt, die eine Japan-Tournee, einen Auftritt beim Big Ears Festival und ein Konzert in der Royal Festival Hall in London umfasst. Weitere Tourneen werden in Kürze bekannt gegeben.

Julian Lage, Gitarre
John Medeski, Keyboards, Hammond Orgel
Jorge Roeder, Kontrabass
Kenny Wollesen, Schlagzeug

Zur Info: wir bieten dieses Album in der nativen Abtastrate von 48kHz, 24-Bit an. Die uns zur Verfügung gestellte 96kHz-Version wurde hochgerechnet und bietet keinen hörbaren Mehrwert!

Julian Lage
Award-winning guitarist Julian Lage has been widely acclaimed as one of the most prodigious guitarists of his generation. The New York-based musician boasts a long resumé as a desired sideman with artists as diverse as Gary Burton, Taylor Eigsti, John Zorn, Nels Cline, Chris Eldridge, Eric Harland, and Fred Hersch, to name just a few. Equally important is his reputation as a soloist and bandleader. He is equally versed in jazz, classical, pop, and show tunes, and has spent more than a decade searching through the myriad strains of American musical history via an impeccable technique and a gift for freely associating between styles, tempos, keys, and textures that adds to his limitless improvisational spirit. Sounding Point, his 2009 debut album for Emarcy, featuring Bela Fleck and Chris Thile among his sidemen, was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Jazz Album. For Room, his Mack Avenue debut in 2014, he recorded as a duo with Cline, revealing the depth of their respect and camaraderie. It proved so successful that Lage joined Cline’s group for the landmark Lovers in 2016, the same year his own Arclight was released. On the latter, Lage played a Telecaster — a guitar not normally associated with jazz — in a program of modern originals and pre-bop covers with bassist Scott Colley and drummer Kenny Wollesen. He brought the lineup back together for 2018’s acclaimed Modern Lore, the same year he worked with Cline’s quartet for the Grammy-nominated Currents, Constellations.

Lage was a child prodigy — playing his instrument at the age of five and performing in public a year later. Shortly thereafter, Lage began playing with such renowned artists as Carlos Santana (when he was only eight years old!), Pat Metheny, Kenny Werner, Toots Thielemans, Martin Taylor, and David Grisman, among others, resulting in Lage being the subject of the Academy Award-nominated 1996 documentary film Jules at Eight. In addition to performing, Lage recorded as a duo with Grisman (the 1999 release Dawg Duos), and contributed a fine cover of “In a Sentimental Mood” with Martin Taylor and David Grisman to the 2000 compilation Acoustic Disc: 100% Handmade Music, Vol. 5. Lage also appeared at numerous jazz concerts/festivals and performed at the 2000 Grammy Awards.

In 2009, Lage released his debut solo album, Sounding Point, on Emarcy. The album was widely celebrated as the arrival of a new and authoritative voice on the instrument. This was followed by the concept album Gladwell in 2011. He fronted a quintet that featured bassist Jorge Roeder, tenor saxophonist Dan Blake, cellist Aristides Rivas, and drummer/percussionist Tupac Mantilla. The guitarist switched labels for 2013’s Free Flying. Issued on Palmetto Records, it was recorded in duet with pianist Fred Hersch.

The duo format apparently agreed with Lage, though its focus shifted a bit. In 2014, he issued two such albums. The first was Avalon with guitarist Chris Eldridge. Produced by the Milk Carton Kids’ Kenneth Pattengale, it contained bluegrass, folk, jazz, and classic pop standards; the pair called it a “love letter to the acoustic guitar.” Lage’s second 2014 album, Room, with fellow jazz guitarist Nels Cline, appeared on Mack Avenue. It focused on a range of material, from intricately composed and complex works to free and spontaneous improvisations.

In 2016, Lage released the trio album Arclight with bassist Scott Colley and drummer Kenny Wollesen. Produced by Grammy-winning guitarist/songwriter Jesse Harris (Norah Jones, Madeleine Peyroux), the album featured the single “Nocturne.” A five-song EP, Live in Los Angeles, followed later that year, documenting concert versions of songs from Arclight. In early 2017, Lage reunited with Chris Eldridge for Mount Royal, a second volume of acoustic guitar duets. Later that year, he paired with Gyan Riley for Midsummer Moons, a duet album of ten John Zorn compositions. The following year Lage reassembled his trio with Colley and Wollesen for Modern Lore. Produced by Harris, this set flipped the script on Arclight. Where the previous set — his first electric guitar trio date — found the artist inspired by freewheeling, pre-bop jazz, the latter recording incorporated the rhythmic sensibility and persona of early rock & roll in improvisational settings.

After tours with his own and Cline’s groups, Lage formed a new trio with bassist Jorge Roeder and drummer Dave King (Bad Plus) to cut his third Mack Avenue offering, Love Hurts. Whereas Arclight explored the pre-bop and country swing eras and Modern Lore surveyed first wave rock & roll, Love Hurts found the guitarist searching through the music of the late 1960s and early to mid-’70s in various genres for a series of covers — including songs by Roy Orbison, Ornette Coleman, Jimmy Giuffre, and Peter Ivers — in a jazz fusion of his own design. It was released in February 2019.

John Medeski
Equally comfortable behind a Steinway grand piano, Hammond organ or any number of vintage keyboards, Medeski is a highly sought after improviser and band leader whose projects range from work with John Zorn, The Word (Robert Randolph, North Mississippi Allstars), Phil Lesh, Don Was, John Scofield, Coheed & Cambria, Susana Baca, Sean Lennon, Marc Ribot, Irma Thomas, Blind Boys of Alabama, Dirty Dozen Brass Band and many more. Classically trained, Medeski grew up in Ft.Lauderdale, FL where as a teenager he played with Jaco Pastorius before heading north to attend the New England Conservatory. He released his first solo piano record, A Different Time, on Sony’s Okeh Records in 2013, and current projects include a new album in the works with his band MadSkillet (Terrence Higgins, Kirk Joseph, Will Bernard), and HUDSON (a collaboration with Jack DeJohnette, John Scofield & Larry Grenadier), plus a documentary on Medeski Martin & Wood.

Jorge Roeder
Bassist Jorge Roeder is originally from Lima, Peru and is now based in New York City. The biography on his website really encapsulates his work: “Combining a symphonic imagination with the intimate lyricism of a folk musician, the aggressive energy of a raw rocker with the buoyant rhythmic sensibilities of his Afro-Peruvian roots, Roeder conveys a wide spectrum of influences within a resolute foundation.”

Roeder is involved in projects with Sofia Rei, Shai Maestro and Ryan Keberle (he plays on all of Ryan’s Catharsis records!) and has performed with jazz heavyweights Gary Burton, Nels Cline, Kenny Werner and John Zorn. He was the winner of the 2007 International Society of Bassists Jazz Competition, a semi-finalist in the 2009 Thelonious Monk Bass Competition, and he received a Grammy nomination in 2018 for his playing on Julian Lage’s album Modern Lore.

Kenny Wollesen
Percussionist Kenny Wollesen performed on over 30 recordings during the 1990s and, as the decade progressed, gained increasing renown as a musician of astonishing versatility, skill, and ingenuity. He has recorded and toured with all kinds of musicians, from Tom Waits (Wollesen performs on Waits' 1993 collaboration with William S. Burroughs, Black Rider), to Sean Lennon, to Ron Sexsmith (Wollesen performs on his second album, Other Songs). A founding member of the New Klezmer Trio, Wollesen is also all over N.Y.C.'s downtown jazz and avant-garde musicians' recordings, and has been so active as to tour with Bill Frisell and Myra Melford in the same month.

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