It all started with a self-imposed time limit. Julian Lage, who at the relatively young age of 38 already stands near the pinnacle of artistry in jazz guitar, was preparing to enter the recording studio with producer Joe Henry and a formidable quartet of musicians: acoustic bassist Jorge Roeder, drummer Kenny Wollesen, and keyboardists John Medeski and Patrick Warren. He needed new original material for their two-day springtime session at Sear Sound in New York City, so he set a timer for 20 minutes and let his fingers do the fretboard walking, in concert with prompts from his personal spontaneous creative muse. When the timer beeped, the composition was done, for better or worse. Lage recorded a quick demo of what he came up with over the past third of an hour. Then he reset the timer and repeated the process again.

And again.