Regarded as one of the torchbearers of modern jazz guitar, New York based musician Julian Lage has developed a malleable approach to the instrument. While being firmly rooted in the jazz oeuvre, he has throughout his career turned heads with his ability to lean into everything from country to blues, rock and more – filtering it all through his singular approach.

We spoke as he was having some rare downtime amid his ongoing tour in support of his critically lauded 2024 album “Speak to Me” – a record that has cemented his reputation as one of the essential contemporary guitar players of any genre, not just in jazz.

With “Speak to Me”, Lage expanded from his usual trio to a sextet formation and challenged himself to switch up his creative processes for the album – “The biggest difference was collaborating with the producer Joe Henry” he says.

Where he would normally enter the studio, knowing clearly what he wanted to produce, Henry encouraged him to embrace the unknown and lean into the creative impulses of his collaborators. “Joe said to me, I want you to come in and play each song by yourself for the whole ensemble and then organically we’ll see who wants to be on it. It’s like picking a basketball team”. This was new territory for Lage, placing his trust in his producer and allowing his band to bounce off his creative input and direct the pieces where they saw fit.

The free-flowing approach taken by Lage and his fellow collaborators runs right through the final product, creating moments of interplay between the instruments that wouldn’t otherwise have been possible. When contemplating the role of Joe Henry on the record, he states: “He has an open mind to material that was ambiguous in terms of orchestration.”

Lage was notably considered a child prodigy achieving dizzying levels of virtuosity at a young age, appearing on stage with Carlos Santana as a nine-year-old and performing at the Grammys in the year 2000, then aged 15. His broad-based exploration of the instrument his led him to a singular view of its role in jazz. “I think the guitar is inherently an instrument that is plugged into all styles all the time. There are techniques that are universal for country, blues, jazz and improvised music.” He adds that “regardless of the content, these are just ways of touching the instrument that are connected to other genres.”

As an instrument, the guitar has a less clearly defined role in jazz than the piano or the trumpet. Its ability to offer counterpoint to other players or take the lead, to be a gentle dulcet tone in a composition or to provide stomping overdriven bluesy riffs is clearly something that appeals to Lage and drives him as a creative. “I think it’s one of the superpowers of the guitar that it is a world instrument. It contains every movement of expression within it. It’s remarkable that the guitar can do this.”


Through this album cycle and his tour to promote it, Lage has leant into different aspects of his musical persona. He’s played the compositions with his sextet, arranged them for a trio and now stripped things back as far as they can go with his solo guitar shows.

Discussing solo performance, he states that “it can be counterintuitive thinking, oh, this is going to be a simplification of the music. I think you end up interfacing a lot more with the room.” He adds that “this is a guitar in a space with an audience. There can be a richness and an intimacy that are simultaneous; that’s my experience with solo guitar. It’s challenging, but it’s marvellous.”

For now, Lage is enjoying the moment. He has built a strong following over the course of many releases and with “Speak to Me”, he has reached a level of acclaim that has allowed him to play bigger venues while also being able to strip things right back and view both his output and role in contemporary jazz from different angles.

On what is coming next, he says: “I’m working on new material and we’re recording in May. It’s an evolution of what I’ve been doing, but it will lean more into improvised music.” However, his next record ends up sounding, it’s clear that Lage will keep relishing the shape-shifting potential of the guitar and continue to evolve his distinct approach, which is rooted in multiple traditions but simultaneously entirely his own.

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Andrew Taylor-Dawson is an Essex based writer and marketer. His music writing has been featured in UK Jazz News, The Quietus and Songlines. Outside music, he has written for The Ecologist, Byline Times and more.

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_{Header image: Julian Lage. Photo: Alysse Gafkjen.}