108: Lage Lund
What is there to say about guitarist Lage Lund that hasn’t already been said? Not much. And plenty.
Lage has been a fixture on the New York jazz scene since moving here in the early 2000s as a “skinny kid from Norway with dreads”. The dreads are long gone, and there is very little about him today to indicate that he grew up in a small Norwegian city (Skien) where he had to take a three hour train ride to Oslo to buy the latest jazz albums, and that before he was one of the most creative and virtuosic guitarists of his generation, he was a frustrated skateboarder with no place to skate “vert”.
Taking the first place at the 2005 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition made people outside of New York take notice of him, and with a couple of records in the works this trend will hopefully continue. Acclaimed as one of the finest guitarists in jazz, Lund has performed and recorded with artists like Ron Carter, Mulgrew Miller, Wynton Marsalis, Maria Schneider, Carmen Lundy, David Sanchez, Seamus Blake and many others.
He also records and performs as a band leader, as well as with his project Owl Trio along with saxophonist Will Vincent and bassist Orlando le Fleming. His latest album Idlewild was released earlier this year.
This Episode also features an extensive introduction by my guest co-host for the week, singer/ songwriter Joy Dragland. Joy also happens to be married to Lage.
This week’s playlist features music related to our conversation.
With Lage Lund (after two bottles of wine), Brooklyn, June 2018
We talked for a long time. I’ve posted a series of excerpts and fragments of the conversation that didn’t make it into the final edit for patrons on Patreon, in which we talk about why young musicians should transcribe Coleman Hawkins instead of him, what is Wikipedia, chefs knives, how to get the gig, finding cheap rent, who is Joel Frahm, and why the future of the business is unknown.