Label: Blue Note Records, 2021

Personnel - Julian lage: electric guitar; Jorge Roeder: double bass; Dave King: drums.

It’s frequent to find a variety of styles - jazz, folk, blues, country - in the music of virtuosic 33-year-old guitarist Julian Lage, who makes his debut as a leader on the Blue Note label with Squint. The album - whose program includes nine Lage originals, one jazz standard (the gracefully waltzing Mandel/Mercer's “Emily”) and one classic country song (Billy Hill’s “Call of the Canyon”) - was built with his current working trio, featuring bassist Jorge Roeder and the former-The Bad Plus drummer Dave King. It’s the long-waited follow-up to Love Hurts (Mack Avenue, 2019), whose rich repertoire included tunes by Keith Jarrett, Ornette Coleman, Ivers/Lynch, Roy Orbison and Jimmy Giuffre.

According to the bandleader, his tactic for this album was to make positive, beautiful music, and he succeeded with cohesiveness and an authentic trio sound that, happy to note, is never too polished.

“Etude” is a relaxing solo guitar introduction to the album, instantly drawing us in, but without disclosing what the rest of the record entails. Its discreetly brilliant melodic impressions lie on folk and contemporary classical elements.

The blues style is very present throughout, and if “Boo’s Blues” is a mature, easy listening tune with chordal mastery (momentarily presented like a progression of evolving chromaticism) and a swinging Kenny Burrell-delivery, then the following piece, “Squint”, adds a hooky Led Zeppelin-like rock twist to the genre.

Lage's beautiful composition “Day and Age”, retrieved from his first solo album, World’s Fair (2015), is equally bluesy, stirred by a country jazz undercurrent where the smooth texture and fascinating melody become one. This is breezy, amiable stuff that extends to “Quiet Like a Fuse”, which places a delicious guitar riff at the center with sparse bass accompaniment and subdued drums in the background. There's also the Scofield-esque “Twilight Surfer”, in which a rockabilly vibe stumbles on smooth jazz funk.

The casual pop groove with bluesy melodic accents of “Saint Rose” has Lage raising his hat to Wilco’s frontman Jeff Tweedy at the same time that alludes to his Californian hometown, Santa Rosa. But there’s another dedication on the album - “Familiar Flower” borrows the sophistication of saxophonist Charles Lloyd, with whom Lage has been playing in recent years. Sinuous guitar discourses flow comfortably on top of persistent bass pedals and clattering drums.

The arresting and eclectic Squint was crafted with nuance, clarity and precision, and the results are sophisticated and vibrant.