Julian Lage

An American virtuoso guitarist and composer, Julian Lage has worked in many genres, including jazz, folk and bluegrass. Born in Santa Rosa, California, on December 25, 1987, he learned the rudiments of the guitar at the age of five, and soon began performing with professional musicians including Carlo Santana, Pat Metheny, Kenny Werner and Martin Taylor. Considered a guitar prodigy, he was the subject of the Oscar-nominated documentary Jules at Eight (1996), and went on to record the album Dawg Duos (1999) with David Grisman. Years of study at Stanford University, the San Farncisco Conservatory and Boston's Berklee College of Music, from which he graduated in 2008, preceded the release of his first solo album Sounding Point (2009), followed by Gladwell (2011), credited to the Julian Lage Group. A versatile musician, he tackles a variety of musical styles: jazz on Free Flying with Fred Hersch (2013), country and traditional folk on Avalon with Chris Eldridge (2014) and, as an acoustic and electric duo with Nels Cline, jazz and rock on Room (2014). In 2016, the electric album Arclight saw him collaborate with Scott Colley and Kenny Wollesen, between two acoustic sessions: solo on World's Fair (2015) and a new duet with Chris Eldridge for Mount Royal (2017), awarded the Grammy Award for Best Independent Instrumental Album. The guitarist, who has also taken part in sessions with Gary Burton, John Zorn (the group Insurrection), Eric Harland, Charles Lloyd and Yoko Ono, then recorded the personal album Modern Lore (2018), followed by Love Hurts (2019), consisting mostly of covers. In 2021, he inaugurates his contract with the Blue Note label with the trio album Squint. Julian Lage then collaborated with folk guitarist Gyan Riley, notably on Virtue (2020) with Bill Frisell and Quatrain (2023), between the albums View with a Room (2022) and Speak to Me (2024), with his new trio featuring Jorge Roeder and Dave King. In 2026, the intimate album Scenes from Above brought together John Medeski at the organ, Jorge Roeder and Kenny Wollesen.