“My aim was to write a body of songs that bridged the gap between guitar studies and songs, drawing from the sonic fingerprint of early radio recordings mixed with the short form structures of some of my favorite classical and folk music.”
That's Julian Lage's own description of the thinking behind World’s Fair. Solo guitar jazz albums don’t often find a way-in. Was Pat Metheny’s One Quiet Night, largely done on a baritone guitar more than a decade ago the pick of recent years?
Like Metheny Lage isn’t taking the easy option and World’s Fair might be the exception that proves the rule that solo guitar albums are strictly for the specialists.
Listen and find out for yourself as the album is now streaming on Bandcamp and released on 3 February. Recorded on a Vintage Martin Lage found inspiration in the orchestral approach to the guitar of Andrés Segovia and in early 20th century music joining the dots as far up chronologically as 70s singer-songwriters.
Best known for his work with Gary Burton in the New Quartet and Grammy-nominated for Sounding Point six years ago Lage’s duo album Room with Wilco’s Nels Cline was released last year. Stephen Graham