Guitarist

Julian Lage has long been considered one of the most creative guitarists in jazz, bringing together seemingly incompatible sounds: the cool, crisp world of Wes Montgomery, the skronk of downtown New York experimentalist John Zorn, and basically everything in between. On his latest album, Scenes from Above, he joins with bassist Jorge Roeder, drummer Kenny Wollesen, and vaunted keyboardist John Medeski for a set that takes inspiration from folkloric music like early calypso, American blues, and the Romanian and Hungarian tunes Béla Bartók worked into his own music. Together with his ensemble, he presents a night of improv, melody, and soul.

Julian Lage featuring John Medeski, Jorge Roeder, Kenny Wollesen

The Ford

In late 2024, prolific guitarist Julian Lage embarked on an intense writing sprint that led to Scenes from Above, a new project forged for a special quartet featuring steadfast bassist Jorge Roeder, dynamic drummer Kenny Wollesen, and vaunted keyboardist John Medeski — close collaborators who had never before recorded together. The music emphasizes interaction, restraint, and real-time discovery over virtuoso display.

Produced by Joe Henry, the album marks a shift from Lage’s large-ensemble ambitions toward a deeply egalitarian band dynamic, drawing inspiration from folkloric traditions, blues, and global song forms. The result is an intimate, vivid listening experience: four dazzling musicians sharing space, listening closely, and shaping music that feels both spontaneous and purposefully alive.

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Julian Lage Quartet

Lobero Theatre

“One of jazz’s breezier virtuosos, possessed of an unflappable technical facility and a seemingly boundless curiosity” (The New York Times), guitarist and former SFJAZZ Resident Artistic Director Julian Lage returns with original music from his newest Blue Note album Scenes from Above with his superlative quartet including organ star John Medeski, bassist Jorge Roeder and drummer Kenny Wollesen. The acclaimed Mexican singer and composer Laura Itandehui opens the show.

Davies Symphony Hall

Santa Rosa-born guitarist Julian Lage has emerged as a stunningly accomplished creative force in modern music. He was the subject of the Oscar-nominated documentary film Jules at Eight, a Grammy Award performer at 13, and achieved faculty status at the Stanford Jazz Workshop at 15. Lage joined the vibraphone innovator Gary Burton’s star-making quartet in 2004 at age 16, and has embraced jazz, pop, country, bluegrass, and acoustic folk with equal élan. He’s recorded 15 albums as a leader and lent his singular virtuosity to work with Charles Lloyd, Eric Harland, John Zorn, Terri Lyne Carrington, Fred Hersch, and Nels Cline. Lage is joined by longtime bassist Jorge Roeder, drummer Kenny Wollesen, and keyboard master John Medeski, best known as one third of the jazz-funk trio Medeski Martin & Wood.

Julian Lage Quartet Ft. John Medeski, Jorge Roeder, Kenny Wollesen

Trustees' Garden

»World’s Fair« war 2015 das erste Soloalbum von Julian Lage, einem lange als Gitarrenwunderkind gehandeltem Jungen aus der San Francisco Bay Area. Eine melancholische, intime Aufnahme, die klingt, als würde der Musiker in sein Wohnzimmer marschieren, sich eine Gitarre schnappen und loslegen. Bei seinem Solokonzert in der Elbphilharmonie präsentiert Julian Lage die zeitlose Musik zwischen Jazz, Klassik und Folk nun in einem etwas größeren Wohnzimmer.

Julian Lage

Elbphilharmonie Hamburg

Julian Lage is a world-class guitar virtuoso and composer, hailed as one of his generation's greatest talents by critics and colleagues alike. Born in California and currently based in New York City, Lage began his musical career at a very young age, and has charted a colorful, ever changing, and ever innovative path since, one that has, so far, earned him five GRAMMY nominations, one Independent Music Award and countless invitations to collaborate with the best and brightest working in music today.

The Grand Presents Julian Lage World’s Fair 10-year Anniversary Tour

The Grand Opera House

Hailed by The New York Times as “one of the greatest musicians in jazz history,” GRAMMY® Award-winning saxophone titan Joe Lovano has distinguished himself as a prescient and pathfinding force in the arena of creative music. Joe Lovano and virtuoso guitarist Julian Lage have enjoyed a long journey of mutual artistic admiration. They are joined by longtime Lovano collaborator Santi Debriano on bass and drummer Will Calhoun (of Living Colour fame). The Paramount Quartet promises a evening of exquisite jazz stylings.

Paramount Quartet

The Baker-Baum Concert Hall

Hailed as one of the most prodigious guitarists of his generation and “highest category of improvising musicians" (New Yorker), Julian Lage has spent more than a decade searching through the myriad strains of American musical history via impeccable technique, free association and a spirit of infinite possibility.

Alluvion Jazz Series: Julian Lage - TWO SHOW EVENING

Commongrounds

Lage's final night as Resident Artistic Director pairs him with the iconoclastic guitar genius Marc Ribot, who returns following his 70th Birthday celebration in September of 2024.

A singular instrumentalist, Ribot follows his muse wherever it leads, resulting in a career path that has ranged across free jazz and no wave, rock, film music, and Cuban rumba. Beyond his wildly eclectic output as a leader, which has veered from the rollicking Los Cubanos Postizos project and the avant-rock Ceramic Dog to a solo guitar score to Charlie Chaplin’s 1921 silent classic The Kid, Ribot is best known as a key collaborator with Tom Waits, Elvis Costello, John Zorn, the Lounge Lizards, Diana Krall, and Robert Plant and Alison Krauss (contributing to their 2007 hit album Raising Sand).

Julian Lage DUET FOR GUITARS

SFJAZZ Center

Julian Lage brings a program of music including material from his new Blue Note album Speak To Me with his current working trio including longtime bassist Jorge Roeder and drummer Dave King of The Bad Plus fame. For this special night, the band is joined by keyboard master John Medeski

Hailed as one of the most prodigious guitarists of his generation and “highest category of improvising musicians" (New Yorker), Julian Lage has spent more than a decade searching through the myriad strains of American musical history via impeccable technique, free association and a spirit of infinite possibility. The California-born, New York-based musician boasts a prolific resume on his own accord in addition to collaborating with Gary Burton and John Zorn, as well as duo projects with Nels Cline, Chris Eldridge and Fred Hersch, among others.

New Century

Led by 2023 Grammy-winning pianist/composer Kris Davis, this special concert is named for Davis’s 2019 breakthrough album, which was awarded “Jazz Album of the Year” by both The New York Times and NPR. “Bringing together wildly diverse musicians in tangled unity,” Davis often sets her improvisations to “grooves played with prismatic nuance” (The New York Times) by drummer Terri Lyne Carrington—a four-time Grammy winner and NEA Jazz Master herself. Turntablist and electronic musician Val Jeanty, bassist Trevor Dunn, and guitarist Julian Lage add layers of sonic texture for a thrilling and unexpected sound.

Kris Davis Diatom Ribbons

College of Charleston

The Carnegie Mellon Guitar Ensemble presents creatively expressive performances of duos, trios, quartets, and larger ensemble music from every major Western music style period.

Carnegie Mellon Guitar Ensemble

Carnegie Mellon University

Resident Artistic Director Julian Lage begins his week with a solo recital, showcasing the breadth of his guitar mastery in the most revealing setting — one in which his peerless musicianship is presented without restrictions, undiluted and unadorned.

Julian Lage, SOLO GUITAR

Lage’s final night of residency is a celebration of the late guitar legend Jim Hall, a lasting influence on and mentor to Lage, featuring an all-star quartet with deep ties to the 2004 NEA Jazz Master who passed away in 2013.

The masterful rhythm section of veterans Scott Colley and Joey Baron performed widely in Hall’s trio during his last years, with Lage joining during a memorable week at New York’s Blue Note in 2012. Of Lage, Hall said, “Incredible player. Julian Lage is the new jazz guard.”

Julian Lage Quartet: Jim Hall Tribute

Lage honors the legacy and enduring influence of piano icon Keith Jarrett with his current trio, plus a special guest pianist to-be-named soon. Lage acknowledged Jarrett’s fertile 1970s compositional period with a pair of tracks on his 2019 Mack Avenue trio date Love Hurts with Roeder and King, tackling Jarrett’s serpentine and ebullient “The Windup” from his 1974 ECM masterpiece Belonging and “Encore (A)” from the 1979 session Eyes of the Heart featuring the pianist’s vaunted American quartet. Lage keeps the flame burning for the sidelined Jarrett, whose performing career has now tragically come to an end.

Julian Lage Quartet: Music of Keith Jarrett

Night two brings a special night with Lage’s working trio featuring bassist Jorge Roeder and Dave King on drums, joined by the acclaimed singer and songwriter Margaret Glaspy for her collaborative project with Lage, Rude Ruth. Formed a decade ago by the now husband-and-wife team of Lage and Glaspy and originally performing as a duo, Rude Ruth re-imagines Glaspy’s folk-rock compositions concerning romantic conflict with the improvisational depth of Lage’s band, adding unexpected new dimensions to the singer’s work with an unusually empathetic backing.

Julian Lage: Rude Ruth

Resident Artistic Director Julian Lage begins his week with a solo recital, showcasing the breadth of his guitar mastery in the most revealing setting — one in which his peerless musicianship is presented without restrictions, undiluted and unadorned.


The evening harkens back to Lage’s landmark 2015 Modern Lore release World’s Fair, a solo guitar session of original compositions focused on the exploration of the song styles that shaped his own aesthetic, inspired by the work of a formative influence, classical guitar genius Andrés Segovia.

Julian Lage, Solo Guitar

Jazz guitarist Julian Lage expands his horizons on View With A Room, a collection of 10 compelling original compositions that marks his second release for Blue Note Records. Having established a home base with his brilliant and deeply attuned trio of bassist Jorge Roeder and drummer Dave King—most recently heard on the guitarist’s acclaimed 2021 Blue Note debut Squint—Lage casts his gaze outward to discover new orchestrational possibilities with the addition of six-string icon Bill Frisell, who adds his inimitable voice to this absolutely stunning album.

Groton Hill Music Center

Three-time Grammy nominee Julian Lage has been named among the “highest category of improvising musicians” by The New Yorker and has played his guitar with everyone from John Zorn to Nels Cline. While always evolving and hungry for the unexpected, his music is tuneful, rich, and soulful, as he shows on his recent debut for Blue Note records, Squint, which Downbeat called “a singularly modern take on Blue Note tradition.”

Julian Lage and The Bad Plus

Walt Disney Concert Hall

Julian Lage’s vivid, wondrously textured new album Speak To Me offers a series of dispatches from his ongoing search for narrative beyond words. Intimate in tone and capacious in intention, the album represents some of the most ambitious music Lage has documented to date. Its originals travel a wide range of American music, and delight in the deliberate crossing of wires between gospel hymn and rural blues, California singer-songwriter sunshine and skronky jazz.

The Sheldon

An artist The Boston Globe accurately describes as “jazz royalty,” GRAMMY-winning saxophonist Joe Lovano showcases his latest ensemble for the second two nights of his 2026-27 Season residency — a masterful assemblage of virtuosos including guitar great Julian Lage, esteemed bassist Asante Santi Debriano, and Living Colour drummer Will Calhoun — performing music from Lovano’s new ECM Records release Paramount Quartet.

Guitarist

Julian Lage

Events

Upcoming events

Apr 16, 2027

Julian Lage · The Sheldon

24 - 25 Apr, 2027

Joe Lovano: Paramount Quartet · San Francisco Jazz

Past events

Oct 23, 2026

Julian Lage featuring John Medeski, Jorge Roeder, Kenny Wollesen · The Ford

Oct 22, 2026

Julian Lage Quartet · Lobero Theatre

About

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