Can an eight-year-old kid have the blues, asked a 1996 Oscar-nominated documentary. It turned out he could – not only that, he could ‘have’ jazz too and play guitar like a pint-sized Pat Metheny.
The kid was Californian prodigy Julian Lage, who went on to perform at the 2000 Grammy Awards aged 12 and became a faculty member of the Stanford Jazz Workshop when he was just 15.
Thirty years after the documentary Jules At Eight, he is now an acclaimed guitarist with nearly 60 albums under his belt as leader and collaborator.
So you might expect Jules to be a flashy show-off who showers your ears with a thousand notes when two or three would do. But quite the opposite – Scenes From Above reveals him to be a sensitive, sometimes minimalist, player who refuses to grandstand, emphasising feeling and atmosphere over technique.
Lage offers nine self-penned melodies that are mostly music to sit back, relax and drink a negroni to (equal parts gin, Campari and red vermouth. Serve over ice with a slice of orange). Opener Opal kicks off with ghostly percussion and piano notes before embracing a stately, bitter-sweet melody. Solid Air is even slower, gentle and bluesy with swirling organ like the sound of bathwater going down a plughole.
Ocala is a sleepy, slightly Latin ballad with Lage playing exquisite acoustic guitar phrases, while in Something More he offers sombre, bluesy electric guitar notes over restrained piano and a drum pattern that even Nick Mason might consider a little too laidback.
Elsewhere, Lage picks up the pace a bit: Red Elm kicks off with a strumming guitar phrase before swapping it for faster electric licks over cymbal-heavy percussion; Talking Drum is a sprightly, cheeky up-tempo blues; Havens a moody acoustic-led piece with Latin percussion and dramatic organ chords.
All the compositions clock in around the fairly modest four to five minute mark with the exception of the seven and a half minute Night Shade – the slowest track on the album with some simplistic guitar phrases that sometimes suggest an eight-year-old who is NOT a child prodigy has temporarily taken control of Lage’s guitar.
Jules is accompanied by a simple jazz setup of Jorge Roeder on double bass, Kenny Wolleson on drums and John Medeski (from the more avant-garde jazz trio Medeski, Martin & Wood) on Hammond organ and piano. Their support is always tasteful, although Medeski’s organ does inject a certain cheesiness into proceedings.
What they are not is adventurous in any way, except on Storyville, in which everyone gets a chance to stretch out a bit with random improvisations on their respective instruments. How successful you think it is depends on your patience for that kind of ‘freeform’ music – for me, it just about works thanks to some topping and tailing with short, composed sections.
All in all, this is a pleasant album chock-full of pretty melodies but lacking a bit of drama. It certainly doesn’t sound like a work by someone who was once an eight-year-old child prodigy. For that, I recommend Lage’s 2024 offering Speak To Me, which shows him entering much more interesting musical waters.
Scenes From Above is Lage sitting back and taking things easy. With, I hope, a large negroni.
TRACK LISTING
01. Opal (4:09)
02. Red Elm (4:46)
03. Talking Drum (5:06)
04. Havens (4:43)
05. Night Shade (7:24)
06. Solid Air (3:20)
07. Ocala (4:20)
08. Storyville (4:22)
09. Something More (4:02)
Total Time – 42:17
MUSICIANS
Julian Lage – Electric & Acoustic Guitars
John Medeski – Hammond B3 Organ, Piano
Jorge Roeder – Double Bass
Kenny Wolleson – Drums, Percussion
~ With:
Patrick Warren – Dulcitone (3 & 7), Chamberlin Percussion (4 & 7), Piano, Bells (5), Strings (6 & 9)
ADDITIONAL INFO
Record Label: Blue Note Records
Country of Origin: US
Date of Release: 26th January 2026
LINKS
Julian Lage – Website | Facebook | Bandcamp | YouTube | X | Instagram
julianlage.com/
bluenote.com/artist/julian-lage/
youtube.com/watch?v=LCyV5PT-3Zc&list=RDLCyV5PT-3Zc&start_radio=1
