The Lobero Theatre has had a long-standing tradition of hosting some of jazz’s prime contenders in the guitar field, including Pat Metheny (who cites the Lobero as one of his favorite venues in the world), Bill Frisell, John Scofield, and John McLaughlin. As of two weeks ago, the gallery of greats list just gained another notable name: Julian Lage.
Which is not to say that the appearance of Lage, who showed up with his stellar current quartet, marked the guitarist’s first visit to this stage. That moment came way back in 2011, when he was a bright and bushy tailed 23-year-old getting his first break with the Gary Burton Group, and later lending his personal and lyrical musicality to local legend Charles Lloyd. But the recent Lobero show marked the occasion of his first here as a leader in his own right (and, incidentally, the first show actually booked by current program director Peter Williams). Since his salad days as the new kid in Burton’s band, Lage has established himself as a quietly commanding kind of jazz guitar hero, now with several interesting albums out on the Blue Note Records label.
As a sideman, he pops up in unusual places, from playing with avant-garde avatar John Zorn and, surprise surprise, subbing for a suddenly departed guitarist in Bob Dylan’s band at the Santa Barbara Bowl this season. Dylan may have wanted him to hang around, but his own pressing career prevailed: Bob’s loss, our gain.
Lage’s solo career has found him working through different phases and groupings. At present, the main focus is on this rich and easy-to-love quartet, featuring organist-pianist John Medeski — of Medeski, Martin and Wood fame, and more — captured on the new album Scenes from Above. His contributions to the sound, in both lyrical and groove-lined modes, provide a perfect foil for the guitarist-leader’s various impulses of mood and mode. Impeccable team and individual play also come from bassist Jorge Roeder and drummer Kenny Wollesen (who we’ve heard at the Lobero with Frisell), who mostly kept in a supportive role until a surprise moment of drum soloistic extroversion to close out the set, on the squirrely number “Speak to Me.”
Melody comes naturally to Lage, as player and composer, from the opening low-slow graces of “Opal” to the following antic shuffling of “Aberdeen.” An insistent rhythmic tug keeps “Haven” in motion, but of a deceptive and sidling kind, and hints of New Orleans-ian spirits show up elsewhere, aided by Medeski’s B-3 textural sauce. Another song of interest in the set, from outside Lage’s discography, was “The Builders,” dedicated to the influential African-American “dynamic cubist” painter Jacob Lawrence and his series of paintings in tribute to workers.
With his almost-clean tone, honed through his Fender Telecaster custom-outfitted with double humbucker pickups to fatten up the sound, Lage has a default playing mode of erring on the side of subtlety and taste, and mostly avoiding “look at me” excesses. But he is capable of technical feats and sleights of hand as a player, as he revealed in sparing doses through the night, including one ecstatic passage of rapid stair-stepping patterns around the fretboard late in the set. Lage also has some qualities and tendencies, of string bending and open string-leaning, reminiscent of the ’60s-era guitarist Gabor Szabo, whose playing on such early Lloyd albums as Of Course, Of Course, make Lage a compatible match for the veteran saxist.
Ending the night in a full circling moment of mellow grace, Lage pulled out another of his lyrical ballads — a specialty of his, as also heard through the opening “Opal.” He shifted from fast breezing across the fretboard to the delicate man-of-few-but-well-chosen-notes notes, with musical wisdom in focus.
It’s official: The era of Lage as Lobero headliner has been launched.
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