PDX Jazz presents: Julian Lage Quartet featuring John Medeski, Jorge Roeder and Kenny Wollesen

In the waning days of 2024, Julian Lage began what he calls a writing sprint as he prepared for a four-day residency at SFJAZZ and the premiere of a new quartet of old collaborators and friends: Lage with bassist Jorge Roeder, drummer Kenny Wollesen, and keyboardist John Medeski. As he thought about their qualities as players and how they might interact, he set a timer for 20 minutes, wrote a tune, recorded it once, and then began again.
That is the spirit of Scenes from Above, Lage’s second full-length album with producer Joe Henry and his first with this quartet. Its nine tracks frame a brilliantly open experience, with four players giving and taking space in equal measure as they explore these songs in one space, in real time. By the end of “Something More,” the quartet has instantly found its rapport — a sad and sweet, four-part prayer and shared wish for better days ahead — four dazzling instrumentalists in a room, talking to one another but never actually over one another.