Julian Davis Reid (Interview)
Today we’re listening to , an American pianist, composer, and minister from Chicago. He started playing piano at age three, studying classical, sacred music, and jazz. At Yale he studied philosophy and played in a jazz trio, and then went on to earn a masters in divinity at Emory. He just yesterday put out an LP, Beside Still Waters, a collection of a dozen solo piano performances interpreting phrases from Psalm 23. We’re playing that record as well as the genre-mixing 2023 record JazzRx from his trio The JuJu Exchange, which he formed while in seminary. Reid has his own newsletter called where he shares more about his musical and spiritual journeys. A conversation with Julian follows the streaming links.
Beside Still Waters: A Notes of Rest Offering - Julian Davis Reid (24m, no vocals)
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube Music / Amazon Music / Tidal
JazzRx - The JuJu Exchange (48m, occasional vocals)
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube Music / Amazon Music / Bandcamp / Tidal
What's your earliest memory of music?
My earliest memory of music was my music appreciation class at two years old, which was almost certainly experienced with my Ma, who was a semi-professional harpist at the time. Shortly thereafter I remember teaching myself a bit down at the Chicago Park District with a book I had from a group piano class that I had been in. We didn't have a piano, and my parents weren't convinced I was serious about the craft until I kept asking to go down to the park district to continue learning from the book. After I did that for six months they decided to find me a private classical instructor.
Tell us about your history with piano – when'd you start playing, how, on what instrument, what your breakthrough pieces been so to speak.
I started playing at age three in group piano class, and remember learning a lot from my Ma who knew a bit of piano having been a musician herself. When at four years old my parents got me a private instructor, they got a little spinet piano that got me started. I couldn't be more thankful for how immersed my four siblings and I were in music as a child.
My breakout pieces were “Rustles of Spring” by Christian Sinding and Rachmaninoff's “Prelude in C# Minor.” Those pieces were so captivating, as was all of the Chopin that I played.
How'd you get into ministry and how does that inform your music?
I was born with a Bible in one hand and a keyboard in the other. My parents were always involved in formal and informal Christian ministry, and by the time I got to college, my mother was an ordained full-time pastor. I always played sacred music alongside classical. (And of course, much of what we now consider classical was theologically oriented in nature when written, such as Bach's corpus.) Also, having grown up in Black faith contexts with the rich musical traditions that suffuse Black Christian traditions, I was always embodying faith-filled music. But it wasn't until seminary years later where I fused music and faith, in both my jazz and gospel settings. There I learned that music was a means of working out my worship of God in a unique way, inviting others to praise, pray, lament, and protest with me, all of which are holy actions directed towards God. Music was and remains a way of holding memory and aspiration together, and in religious contexts it is always capable of fashioning collective identity. This is true in both private religious spaces such as churches where I still play and worship as well as in so-called secular contexts like Taylor Swift concerts or Chicago Cubs games. Music fashions communal gathering that occasions religious identity in that religion is all about binding together. We are formed (together) by what we sing and what we play. That communal formation is always at stake for me at my shows and in the music I make. I want my music to extend winsome, subtle invitations to be formed by Jesus. Not coercive like the caricatured Bible thumpers depict, but the invitation from a bandmate looking to try out a new song with you.
Which pianists working today do you most admire?
Herbie Hancock and Robert Glasper hands down – those brothas have given me so much in my journey of transformation through music. They have really drawn me into deeper reverence for God. On the Gospel side, my deepest thanks goes to the great Richard Smallwood.
Beside Still Waters is based on Psalm 23. How'd you choose that chapter, and what was the process of translating the message into solo piano like?
I wanted to take a text that was very familiar to both church-rooted and church-adjacent folk. Psalm 23 is one of the most famous passages of Scripture in Western Christendom, where God is presented as a shepherd and host to the author/singer of the text. Given the turmoil of the election and the deep evil and uncertainty afoot these days, I wanted to find a text to center myself and others that would readily read as calming.
How did The JuJu Exchange form, and what were the main artists/albums that influenced the trio's work?
The JuJu Exchange formed during seminary, funnily enough. Concurrent to my matriculation into ministry school at Emory in Atlanta, I reconnected with a dear old friend from Chicago, Nico Segal (fka Donnie Trumpet who's collaborated with Chance), and we decided to make tunes together. That decision turned into a whole band, The JuJu Exchange, that keeps a foot in jazz and a foot in everything else. (The trio now includes my brother, drummer-inventor extraordinaire Nova Zaii.) I'm thankful for that experimental work that's been influenced by the far-ranging worlds of hip-hop production (think Kanye West and 9th wonder), electronic music (think Prefuse 73 and Björk), and alternative and straight-ahead jazz (think Herbie Hancock, Miles Davis, Hiatus Kaiyote, Thundercat, Robert Glasper).
Name an underrated artist from the past 50 years.
Excellent question, and it's hard to answer because as a jazz cat I would say most jazz artists are underrated lol. It's really a shame that the artists are even called jazz artists to begin with, because it pigeonholes these (typically Black) artists in a niche market as opposed to having more crossover appeal. To that end, I want more people to listen intently to piano players like Hank Jones, Mary Lou Williams, Wynton Kelly, and Hampton Hawes. From another angle altogether, I love this composer Will Todd who did this incredible album with Tenebrae the English choral called The Call of Wisdom. It's known somewhat in the choral world but not much elsewhere, and he doesn't have a huge following at all. Last, I want everyone to know The Fairfield Four. Barbershop quartet singing is so vital to our American musical traditions.
What are you working on next?
The JuJu Exchange is finishing up our album called Behold, my ensemble Circle of Trust is fixing to record Vocation, my first full-length album under my own name, and I am excited to have scored the hefty podcast called The Last Days of Cabrini Green, set to release next week on Audible.
Really needed this today! Thanks for continually introducing me to great music.