Julian Lage Trio @ Cheltenham - April 30

Julian Lage (guitar); Jorge Roeder (bass); Dave King (drums)

Despite there being a page on his website about the Collings Julian Lage Signature Guitars the stage at the Jazz Arena features only a beaten up Fender Telecaster leaning against a small amp. Similarly, Dave King’s drum kit is the stripped down back-to-basics model seen in many a jazz club. But it’s enough.

Half the eleven song set is drawn from last year’s Blue Note album View With a Room whilst this year’s ‘companion piece’ to Room… The Layers doesn’t get a look in.

Lage impresses from the first note combining complex runs of notes with moments of swing. He seems to tie himself up in notes, then, with one bound he is free. The camaraderie in the band is clear to see with lots of smiles and nods between them. It’s all good-natured, optimistic music but there’s nothing smooth or easy listening about it. There are echoes of the jazz guitar ancestors like Kenny Burrell, Grant Green, Montgomery and Metheny but it’s more ravelled.

Castle Park features a drum solo from King who shows how to do more with less, whilst Northern Shuffle is an old fashioned train blues that breaks down into a multi-rhythmic maelstrom which can’t be easy with only three players on stage. It features frantic bass playing and cymbal work behind churning guitar. Word For Word opens with a thunder heavy drum solo, the rapid fire drumming is matched by Lage spitting out sparks on guitar.

At times it sounds like Lage can insert a complete complex run of notes in between each note of a melody and he can cut from a delicate filigree of notes to occasional power chords and back again. He’s a very fine guitarist, but there is the issue that insufficient variety in the programming slightly weakens the set and reduces the entertainment. Having said that, I’d definitely go and see him again.

Unfortunately parts of the second half of the set suffered from indistinct booms from the Big Top next door. This is something that the organisers really should have sorted out by now. Dave Sayer