View With A Room

On his second Blue Note release, guitarist Julian Lage expands his trio lineup with bassist Jorge Roeder and drummer Dave King to include the great Bill Frisell on all but three tracks. The instrumentation mirrors that of *Currents, Constellations*, Nels Cline’s 2018 quartet outing (with Lage as a sideman). But *View With A Room* is very different in approach: Lage and Frisell do not square off as soloists. Instead, Frisell keeps mainly to the background, adding chordal detail and general atmosphere on a set of new Lage compositions. Produced by singer-songwriter Margaret Glaspy (Lage’s wife), *View With A Room* also continues Lage’s focus on the raw, twangy tendencies of the solid-body electric guitar. He gets a meaty sound from his Gretsch-style Collings instrument, notably on the grooving “Temple Steps,” which features Frisell on the lower-register baritone guitar. The two plectrists take a more free-form interactive turn on “Let Every Room Sing” and find a consistent textural balance regardless of tempo or mood, from the slow and cinematic “Echo” (co-written by Roeder) to the bright and snappy “Chavez.”

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Julian Lage's sound has the warmth of Joe Pass, the bite of Les Paul, and the dexterity of both, as exemplified by 'View With a Room'.