<p>The US jazz man on early heroes, leaps of faith and why his genre isn&rsquo;t as elitist as you think&hellip;</p>

- Henry Yates

Now that he is the grand old age of 29, Julian Lage is relieved to no longer qualify as a prodigy. The term, after all, has dogged the US jazz guitarist ever since he came to public attention on the 1997 documentary Jules At Eight. It followed him through teenage collaborations with jazz greats Jim Hall and Gary Burton, and past the release of his Grammy-nominated debut solo album, 2009’s Sounding Point. Thankfully, with the success of last year’s acclaimed Arclight – both his first album in a trio format and armed with a Telecaster – Lage has emphatically stepped up to the genre’s top table and confirmed his place among the jazz men.

Live Is The New Studio

“I’ve spent so much more time playing live than I have making records. You make records way less than you play concerts, but it’s funny, because you’re often judged based on your recordings. I do notice that I’m probably more at ease in a live setting. You get the personal aspect and the interaction of the musicians. I often hear myself back on record and think, ‘Oh God, I’d love to try that again…’”

It’s Okay To Buck The Trend

“When I was a kid, I started on solid-bodied guitars. But when you study jazz, it’s pretty natural to play an archtop. For a while, I plugged the archtop into an amp and had a microphone, too, and blended both. It can be cool, but it just felt like a lot of work. Three years ago, I kinda made the leap of

This story is from the February 2017 edition of Guitarist.

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