Wolleson has written of the importance of the drummer bringing her/his sense of structure and placement to music, and the way he consistently helps to shape its flow is ever-present, whether he is contributing to an irresistibly strong groove, as on “Talking Drum”, making a pulse-less texture shimmer, as in moments of “Solid Air”, or just helping the music to shift and evolve.
Lage has described this new quartet as “an egalitarian thing” rather than having the guitarist as hero or main protagonist. He had a compositional "writing sprint" prior to this band taking on a residency at SF Jazz. The compositions were written so that the four should have “something to talk about once we’re together.” In his notes about the album, Lage cites the track “Storyville” as a prime example of that, where Lage’s ever-present bassist, the magnificent Jorge Roeder is first to have the invitation to step forward, but a climate of mutual respect prevails and is to be treasured throughout the album, and whets the appetite to hear this quartet live. Jorge Roeder also brings some wonderfully solid, time-lordish definition to bass on “Opal”. Lage also says that among his fascinations at the time of writing the tunes was Jorge Roeder’s compatriot from Peru, Susana Baca, and “Ocala” captures the elegance and beauty of the singer’s “Negra Presentuosa”.
The involvement of John Medeski on piano and organ is also a win-win. The slow-tempo “Night Shade” is seven and a half minutes of quite extraordinarily peace and solace – longer than the norm here – with Medeski starting as the provider of the calmest of backdrops, then growing into a masterfully sustained, shaped and crafted solo, then retreating back behind Lage. Medeski has also been balanced into the mix brilliantly as a “tinkling piano in the next apartment" in “Red Elm”.
The strength of Scenes From Above is that every track develops and really goes somewhere, in a way that the previous Blue Note album, the bitty Speak to Me, also produced by Joe Henry, essentially lacked. And don't be put off by the new album's inexplicably gloomy cover.
Lage was born on Christmas Day, he was "spotted" by Gary Burton when he was just 12 years old; it has never been any kind of secret that he is very special. But the listening ethos, the teamwork and the flow of Scenes From Above hopefully show him entering a new phase. It is a very classy album indeed.
- Scenes from Above is released on Blue Note on 23 January. The Julian Lage Quartet will be at the Royal Festival Hall on 15 May 2026
- More New Music reviews on theartsdesk
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