song: The Ramble
artist: Julian Lage
album: Modern Lore (2018)
writer: Julian Lage

electric guitar: Julian Lage
double bass: Scott Colley
(drums: Kenny Wollesen)

"The Ramble" is a fun tune that guarantees an energetic mood when listening to it, and even more so when playing it! Although it is fairly high-paced, the laid-back melody makes it surprisingly easy to play and improvise over. This is also a great exercise in keeping time and track of a fast standard.

Be sure to check out this live version of the Julian Lage [touring] Trio playing a really playful, early version of the tune in 2016.

Finally check out this wonderful instructional clip of Julian Lage discussing the song:

“ As soon as the guitar solo finishes, we do this big strumming thing, and we get to the key of G, just a minor-third up from E. (…) Now, what I think is cool about that – and something I have ‘stolen’ from a lot of my favorite music that does this – is that if you have a song that’s 5 minutes long, if you spend the first 3 minutes in one key, and then at the 2-minute mark you move to a different key, it’s almost a way of resetting the flow. Especially if you’re using the same material, it can be a way to revitalize the song, give you some more life, allow you to go another 6 minutes, another 7 minutes; if you just keep moving it around in a modular way. In the case of the recording of this song on Modern Lore, we get to the key of G, we do the melody, and we end it. That’s like a ‘tease’. One of the reasons for that is that the next song, a song called Atlantic Limited, is a slower version of that riff in the key of G. It’s an evolution. So you can think of it as a two-movement, a one-two-punch. And even if they’re not together, on a record or on a live show, they’re sympathetic pieces to one another. ”