#vanishing points

one potato and also two potato a love story or manifestations of my familiar

Song Review: Julian Lage - “Vanishing Points” (Live, Jan. 20, 2024)

Chaos and calm contrast on “Vanishing Points,” a scant-of-melody number with a rhythm section, but no describable rhythm.

In their place, guitarist and composer Julian Lage and his band - bassist Jorge Roeder, drummer Dave King, saxophonist Levon Henry and Patrick Warren and Kris Davis, on keys and piano, respectively - mix improv with charts; consonance with dissonance; clattering sound with near silence; and hand a relaxed solo to Roeder while leaving what melody there is to Davis.

This is Lage diving deeply into his jazz pool, as captured on video Jan. 20 in San Francisco. The performances are pristine; however, a fondness - or at the very least tolerance - for the genre’s formlessness is essential to securing enjoyment.

Grade card: Julian Lage - “Vanishing Points” (Live - 1/20/24) - B

nah! vanishing points is our post-apocalyptic road trip story. levan’s hand hanging out of the car window, kairo driving eyes straight ahead while static plays on the radio. levan is california sun and shine & has sunglasses and a hawaiian shirt and the cat named rabbit that he rescued from his neighbor’s house and drives a purple convertible that’s not fuel efficient in the least, but hey! it’s the end of the world, and who cares about fuel efficiency when there’s gas stations at every corner with no one left to pump them? he packs light and loots his supplies whenever he stops and he finds kairo after weeks of traveling, sitting in a pew of an empty church in west virginia, with a cargo truck full of supplies and a rifle slung across his back.

Toyin Odutola in 'Vanishing Points' at James Cohan Gallery