Two Superb Guitar Duos, Live and on Disc

Two Superb Guitar Duos, Live and on Disc

New CDs from Eric Johnson and Mike Stern and from Nels Cline and Julian Lage are only the beginning of the guitarists’ improvisational journeys.

By Jim Fusilli in the Wall Street Journal

New York

The unexpected pairings of Eric Johnson and Mike Stern on “Eclectic” (Heads Up) and of Nels Cline and Julian Lage on “Room” (Mack Avenue) produced superb recordings of improvisational music. But when these two guitar duos each performed onstage here recently in support of their albums, they went well beyond what they played in the studio. In both cases, the result was somewhere between rewarding and remarkable.

These new albums are aptly titled: On “Eclectic,” Mr. Johnson, a rock musician, and Mr. Stern, a jazz artist who played with Miles Davis late in the trumpeter’s career, take on a range of charged blues and fusion tunes powered by drummer Anton Fig and bassist Chris Maresh. “Room” is intimate, but no less dazzling, as Mr. Cline, an experimentalist perhaps best known for his work with Wilco, and Mr. Lage, who at age 26 has fulfilled his promise as a onetime child prodigy, deliver complex, thoughtful and occasionally abstract music.

Technical merit and high spirits reside in tandem on “Eclectic.” On a cover of “Dry Ice,” which Mr. Johnson first recorded almost 40 years ago as a member of the Electromagnets, the quartet muscles up to excel. Mr. Stern revived several of his compositions for the outing. These include “You Never Know,” which allows Mr. Johnson ample room to flourish in a tense environment, and “Remember,” a Coltrane-meets-Santana workout in which the duo races along with style. Mr. Stern’s beautiful ballad “Wherever You Go” flows into a beefy reading of Jimi Hendrix ’s “Red House.”

At the cavernous Webster Hall early last month, the Johnson-Stern duo leaned heavily on ’70s-style electric funk and fusion, a decision that allowed Mr. Stern to prosper. Mr. Johnson’s speed and elasticity were on display, and his light touch added sweetness to his composition “Manhattan” and to Mr. Stern’s “Wishing Well.” But for the most part it was Mr. Stern’s night, beginning with the opener, his darting “Out of the Blue” from his 2012 solo disc, “All Over the Place.” After the duo played the be-boppy intro to “Benny Man’s Blues” from the new album, Mr. Stern took over with power and grace. His mop of hair swaying like a hula skirt, he was animated throughout the evening, cheering on Mr. Johnson during his solos and chatting with the guitar fanatics crammed against the stage as he exuded the sense that the concert was everything he hoped it might be.

As for Messrs. Cline and Lage, “Room” has its own kind of fire, albeit subtle and artfully applied, as befits two musicians who were introduced to each other by the guitarist Jim Hall (who, incidentally, is memorialized on the recently released “Charlie Haden-Jim Hall,” a live set recorded in 1990). It is a sophisticated dialogue between masters—with Mr. Cline casting aside his arsenal of effects for the warm tone of a big-bodied electric guitar while Mr. Lage plays his signature archtop that has the best properties of a vintage acoustic guitar and a hollow-bodied electric. Both instruments invite the listener to draw near.

“Room” moves along with wit and virtuosity: The duo prizes friskiness as well as expertise, and the knottier the tune, the more likely they are to play their unison lines to perfection and then toss in the odd boing or careening run. Which isn’t to say there aren’t moments of unmitigated beauty, as in “The Scent of Light” and “Whispers From Eve,” both Cline compositions.

Last week at SubCulture, an intimate venue that seats about 150 patrons, the duo allowed the audience to eavesdrop on its musical conversation. Seated across from one another, each guitarist seemed to marvel at what his partner was playing: Mr. Cline closed his eyes and swayed when Mr. Lage soloed; Mr. Lage dropped his hands to his thighs and watched as if a student. They deviated from the “Room”-dominated set list with Jimmy Giuffre ’s airy and gorgeous “Brief Hesitation.” Mr. Cline switched to a 12-string electric guitar for his “Rosemary,” which provided a ringing platform for Mr. Lage’s tender performance. In “Calder,” a Lage composition from “Room,” Mr. Cline played a lovely, unorthodox solo to conclude the program.

As the Johnson-Stern duo had done in an entirely different environment, Messrs. Cline and Lage demonstrated that a studio recording of improvisational music is only the beginning of the musicians’ journey.

Mr. Fusilli is the Journal’s rock and pop music critic. Email him at jfusilli@wsj.com and follow him on Twitter @wsjrock.