Julian Lage is a ceaselessly inventive composer and one of the best guitarists playing today. On Scenes from Above, produced by Joe Henry, he joins forces with keyboardist John Medeski, bassist Jorge Roeder, and drummer Kenny Wollesen in a new quartet to deliver stunning new tunes that move among blues, jazz, and soul.
The album opens with “Opal,” a slowly unfurling meditation on beauty that features Lage’s resonant notes and chords unfolding in conversation with Medeski’s shimmering organ. Bassist Roeder introduces “Red Elm,” a freewheeling jam that moves among highly crafted dissonance and sparks of melody; organ, guitar, brushes, and bass follow their own paths even as they keep in sight the melodic line snaking through the piece.
