This live experience is sublime
On Friday night we slipped into our seats, my jazz-singing friend and I, in a soon-to-be packed Royal Festival Hall, for a much-anticipated performance, less familiar with the music we were about to hear than many of those around us. Earlier in the day, my neighbour had called saying “tune in now”. By the time we’d figured out which station (BBC Radio London Robert Elms show), I’d missed it. But I did find another short spot on BBC Radio 3’s In Tune. What Californian guitarist Julian Lage said on that show, so eloquently and rather humbly, stayed in my mind as I cycled in. I was already a fan. “Playing music, you know, is miraculous. It’s out of your control and has a connection far greater than us.” I am definitely frequently awe-struck enough to see musicians as miracle-makers at times, writes Eleanor Thorn.
Here on stage, was Julian Lage leading on electric guitar, Jorge Roeder on double bass, Kenny Wollesen on drums and John Medeski on Hammond organ and piano. The stage was big, but with just a couple of rugs underfoot, somehow living room-size and even intimate. Not on stage but worth a mention was their sound engineer, Mark Goodell: what a perfect listening experience this was. And as I’ve now caught up on the Robert Elms show, I can quote Lage: live performance, even of recently recorded material, is a “whole different identity”. Certainly hearing this coming together of four musician friends after a long period of twenty years’ acquaintance, feels special.
What I’d heard when first invited to attend, had been mellow, jazzy and gentle. What we got on Friday was at moments supremely funky on a level I hadn’t expected. In the opening piece, classic jazz sounds mixed with something else more experimental without abandoning melody. We are treated to Lage’s electric guitar prowess, nothing show-offy, just focused, unhurried, as well as crescendos of instruments sometimes fading sometimes halting abruptly. Hearing the organ in the incredible hands of Medeski, takes me back to my Starsky and Hutch-watching days, but it is my friend next to me who appropriately mentions the great Jimmy Smith.
At moments Bluesy, with creative cinematic effects and stunning keyboard solos, there is a deep warmth to what we are hearing. Music-making when musicians are engaged, switched on, communicating and looking happy, those are some basic key elements to good sounds and we have it here.
The beauty of music is its ability to take you places in your mind, to conjure up new landscapes… One piece took me vividly to the ocean floor with its amplified underwater organ sounds – I saw scampering crabs on the sand and the glitter of sunlight refracted through water – till Lage’s melody took me on other musical meanderings. Instruments converge but every time return to giving each other space, balance and time.
Lage holds a hand up to his forehead holding it like a keel: like a physical reconnecting. He sees music as a gateway to the whole world and in that gesture I see him becoming that conduit.
Breaks are met with rapturous applause and whistles, the end sees two standing ovations. Lage’s new quartet “Scenes From Above” album would have flown off into different parts of London had they been on sale. This live experience is sublime.
Booking and full tour details: https://www.julianlage.com/tour
