The Amazing Julian Lage, Live in LA: “I’ll Be Seeing You”
I believe I’ve posted this video before, but it’s too good to check. It actually started autoplaying on YouTube after another one I was only half-watching, and I suddenly began hearing Julian’s mind-blowing intro again.
There’s a comment at YouTube that has some extra context, and it’s even more incredible than it seems on first listen.
I had a Skype lesson with a Julian today. I saw that he was offering private lessons on his Instagram and jumped on it. Nicest guy ever.
At the end of the lesson I asked about this intro. I asked if it was completely improvised. Really, I knew the answer was yes, bc I’ve seen him do this intro about 5 times and every time it’s completely different. But part of my brain had to believe that some of it was pre written, I just couldn’t believe something that rich and complex could be completely improvised on the spot.
He just laughed and said it was all improvised. He talked about improvising compositions. How he would literally practice improvising like this, just his guitar, no accompaniment, for 40 minutes straight without stopping. He said Keith Jarret did that a lot in concert. Incredible stuff.
