Who is the new jazz guitarist who joined Bob Dylan's band without any explanation?
When His Bobness took the stage at the Santa Barbara Bowl in California last June 17th, guitarist Doug Lancio, who joined the band permanently five years ago, was not at his side. In his place was Julian Lage, 38 years old, a former guitar prodigy, little known in rock but well established in the jazz scene. Teacher at the School of Jazz and Contemporary Music in New York, he has collaborations with a lot of people in his CV, from Nels Cline of Wilco to Yoko Ono, passing through John Zorn and Bill Frisell, but seeing him alongside Dylan is quite strange.
Obviously the change to the guitar was not announced, nor explained by Dylan who does not talk about his activity on social media, but prefers to push his Patreon which revolves around invented letters never sent between historical figures.
The good thing is that Lage didn't replace Lancio for just one evening, but has so far done six concerts with Dylan. Since Dylan doesn't want videos to be made of his concerts, there isn't much evidence of how he's playing and interacting with the other guitarist in the group, Bob Britt. However, there is always someone who secretly films or records something.
It is true that Dylan is someone who changes the members of his group more easily than other colleagues, but usually the changes take place between leg and the other of tours.
Tonight Dylan will play in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He's expected in Austin on Monday, but Lage is expected to be in Brooklyn that same evening for a live performance and conversation about his album Scenes from Above released by Blue Note. What will happen? Lage will arrive in Italy on August 8th for the Jacob Collier's Hideaway at Ciocco, in Tuscany, a sort of four-day campus organized by Collier with people like Chris Thile and Larry Goldings open to musicians and enthusiasts of all ages and levels.
Whatever happens, Julian Lage will have a great story to tell… NDAs permitting.
