I've heard the word prodigy used TO DESCRIBE you. Do you identify with IT?

No, I try to ignore more of the crazy positive things said about me because I don't want to settle. There's always something better to be, something more to chase, and I don't want to get comfortable where I am or stop working at what I'm trying to do.

You play so many instruments. Do you REGARD them differentLY or is EVERYTHING just music?

It's all music, but they're each playing different roles in the music. If you think about a play, there are a bunch of different characters, and although it's telling the same story, it's what each character contributes to that story or what their part does in the complete story.

what’s your role?

No matter what, my role is to serve the music. Whether I'm the leader composing and directing a band, or a side man accompanying someone else, my role can change. That's what I love about how I do what I do. In my journey so far, I like to be a very versatile person and take on any role I want or need to take on.

which INSTRUMENT is the most direct channel for your composition?

I’d say the piano is easiest for me to get around because I've spent the most time with it, but some songs I write on other instruments. Sometimes I'll write something on the guitar, sometimes the bass. Some start out as a drum groove that I translate to the piano.

What are you lousy at?

Words. I hated writing in school, which is ironic because at this point in my life when I do interviews, my manager always tells me, "Julius, you have the best quotes.” But I feel like I'm not a great speaker or writer. Words have never been my thing. I don't read as much as I'd like to and I feel like I express myself best through the music.

What do you aim to express with music?

With music I wanna express my feelings, the feelings of people who are in unique spaces, the way I am, the way I grew up. But also I wanna express the collective feelings that people from different places can relate to, to realize how similar we really are. I wanna express the feeling of… we’re all here together and we're not as different as we think.

Nina Simone says the role of an artist is to reflect the time in which they exist. What time is it NOW?

I think it's kind of impossible to talk about it as it happens. Maybe 10 years from now I'll be able to articulate what this time is, but being in it, I feel like you have to focus on being in it rather than defining what it is.

What feelings do you have BEING IN IT?

It's very mixed. I'm obviously grateful to be alive and in the health that I am, but there's a lot of disturbing things about this world and this country that we're all dealing with, that I feel like we're expected to just pretend aren't happening. It's hard to do that. And so we do what we can to help each other and soothe each other. I read a quote this week, it said, "Art is meant to comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable."

Which are you?

I’m quite comfortable in being disturbed. I would lean more towards the disturbed side.

How did you connect with Verve?

The internet. I was recording for the album, it was pretty much 80% done before the labels even stepped in. I was doing a recording session and the engineer Daniel Schlett posted a video on Instagram. One of the heads of A&R at Verve, Jamie Krents, saw the video and expressed some interest: "Who is this guy? What is he doing?" The next day my manager got an email from their team. And word travels fast so the day after that, Blue Note sent an email. It was crazy, I never thought I’d be anywhere near signing a record deal at this point in my life and I had the two biggest jazz labels knocking on the door in the midst of a global pandemic, when I wasn't working and nothing was happening in my career.

How'd you connect with Daniel Schlett?

I met him through Kassa Overall, drummer and producer, a rapper and incredible artist that I work with. He has one of the most unique recording processes I've ever been a part of. He took me to Strange Weather, Daniel's studio, to work on his project, which was an EP called "Drake It Till You Make It." We covered Drake songs and I think a Snoop Dog song too, and it's probably one of the proudest recordings I've done. That's where I met Daniel and the studio was beautiful. Daniel and I got along and kept in touch. I actually helped him pick out the piano that's there now.

What are you so proud OF in that recording?

Just felt like I played well. I have a very hard time listening to myself play, and that's one of the recordings where I hear it and I don't feel the urge to turn it off immediately. I feel like I hit all the points I strive for whenever I play, which doesn't always happen in my eyes. It's very rare that I get to that point.

During the concert last night, I felt the spirit of classic bebop alive.

Yeah, I'm always trying to channel that, the spirit of the elders, the ancestors, in new ways. Because here we are in 2022, we can't let that die. It might mean different things to different people, and there are traditionalists who believe things should be done a certain way, but that spirit comes from even before them. The people that we listen to and hold up in this high regard, we’re channeling something from before them. We might not know what it is, we may never find out, but it comes through them and to us now. It's our job as artists in this age to keep that spirit alive and channel it through us to the next generation.

Speaking of spirit, what's your relationship to God?

I do believe in God. I'm a Christian, I grew up Christian. Everyone has their struggles and questions, and I believe what I was raised on. If it's wrong, I'll find out. But I try and find the positive things about it. A lot of people have questions with religion, but for me, if it helps you to be a better person, then that's the takeaway from the human standpoint.

What's your relationship with genius?

I will never believe that I'm a genius. I feel like I've seen it in other people, I've experienced it around me, but I wonder if a genius ever really knows that they're a genius.

I HEARD THAT genius Is the spirit ATTENDANT TO AN artist, BESTOWING THE ACT OF CREATION UPON THEM. in the Renaissance, figures LIKE Leonardo AND MichaelangelO WERE SO POWERFUL that people JOKED, "Oh man, Leonardo is so incredible, It's like he's the genius." And now we call Kurt Cobain or Kanye West or whomever a genius. but that's a complete misnomer.

If the genius is just the spirit that comes through you, then shit, I might have it.

You do. we all do.

Yes, and I'm just grateful that I'm in a position where it can show. I believe that everyone has genius in them but not everyone gets the opportunity to have that genius come out and flourish and show.

When you play, you're comfortable. When you address the audience, you're comfortable. But sometimes what someone feels on the inside is different from what OTHER people experience of them. Are you comfortable?

Playing? Always, yeah. I’ve never gotten nervous to play. Especially at this show, I was with three of my best friends and they know the music and I know they got me and I got them and it's very comfortable up there. With the audience, there's definitely an energy in it. An adrenaline happens when there are people in front of you performing. But I always take it as a positive thing, it's something to add to the performance rather than something to make me feel nervous or scared.

I like to think of music as a conversation between silence and sound. Is that how you feel?

Yeah. People talk about genius and all the stuff I'm able to play, all the harmonies that I can come up with, but at a certain point, I find myself just trying to detract and cut things, figure out what notes I can omit to have the feeling I'm trying to convey be effective.

Kanye called Rick Rubin not a producer, but a reducer.

I heard that. Yeah, it's important to know when to stop, know when you have enough, and know how to subtract in a creative way. I remember one of the first jazz camps I went to, I was 13 or 14, and my instructor was a bass player by the name of Todd Coolman. This is the first time I learned about the use of space. I was playing solo and he stopped me and said, "Okay, we're gonna try this again, but every time I tap your foot, you're gonna take your hands off the piano." That was the first time I realized, "Okay I can play all the stuff that I know, but I don't have to all the time." You can use space to say something. Use silence to talk, if that makes sense.

Who are some of the artists that you MOST look up to?

Thelonious Monk. If I use the word genius, he was definitely one of them. He was not afraid to be himself, no matter how weird it sounded or looked. All these years later, we still talk about him and hold him to a high regard and study him. I wanna have that kind of effect on music. I wanna influence people and be talked about long after I'm gone. He's a big one.

After that, Stevie Wonder, for similar reasons to Monk. Stevie Wonder, for me, creates music that transcends genre. It's like you think about Stevie Wonder and you say Stevie Wonder is a musician and a singer. You don't say the type of music beforehand. You just say Stevie Wonder is an artist, musician, singer. That's been one of my biggest goals, to transcendent genre.

Next is Meshell Ndegeocello, who I've been fortunate enough to get to work with. But just diving into her career, she's been able re-transform herself with every album she's put out and still be herself. It's like every album could be put into a different category, a different genre. But each time you listen, it's still her. She's malleable in a musical sense, in a way that I'd like to be.

And then another big one is Tyler, the Creator. His growth and maturity and evolution as an artist, it's inspiring to see. I hope to grow the same way he has, or a similar way that he has, but for myself.

What energy do you think he has?

I feel like he has – I don't wanna say conflicting energies – but contradicting. He's got a very playful, childish energy. But also, if you really pay attention to the things he says, especially nowadays, he's very mature and wise. You can tell he's lived through a lot and studied a lot and paid attention to all the things around him. Although he doesn't project everything that he knows and is aware of, he chooses to be himself. No one will probably ever say this, but Tyler, the Creator is parallel to Thelonious Monk.

I've heard stories about Monk where they'll say, "Oh, he was a fantastic pianist. He could play classical music perfectly. He played WC and Chopin and could run circles around the piano, but he chose to play in a way that was sort of angular and dissonant." And that's how I feel about Tyler. From what I've heard in interviews and notice of his music, he's aware of all of the music that's come before him. He loves the old school R&B and everything around it, but the music he's chosen to make is a very specific vibe. Hearing it at first, you wouldn't think that he's even aware of some of the other music that he has been said to like and enjoy and study.

He's someone who loves dissonance and angularity. What do you think it is that artists express with these qualities?

With angularity and dissonance, I think they're expressing the necessity of kinda down moments and rain. And let's say there's no sunshine without rain. You can't have flowers without rainy days and things like that. Resolution is important but resolution has to come from somewhere. So that's what I think the purpose of expressing dissonance is. It's not always just to shake people up, to jar them, but to help them realize what the resolve moments are.

Do you think YOU CAN express something that you don't know, or are we, by necessity, a vessel for the feelings we have?

I think you can try to express things you don't know but they won't reach people in the most genuine way if they’re not something you’ve lived yourself. That's something I got from Amy Winehouse. I've been a huge fan of her music. I don't know what it was about it, but it always hit me when she sang. I remember hearing her say she doesn't sing anything she hasn't lived. So that's why she writes her songs, and the songs she sings are about things she's personally gone through. That's why she's able to convey that emotion that touches me in the way it does.

What life experiences do you think are coming through your music? Have you lived dissonance?

Oh yeah. [chuckle] Maybe not to the extent of some people who have lived longer than me but I definitely have. It's funny 'cause I can talk about whatever struggles or things I've gone through, but they'll all just be personal to me. But with feelings, if I'm able to get them across in the right way, if anyone else has felt anything similar to that, then they'll see it and pick it up and feel it.

I know it's hard to project but where do you see yourself in two years?

In two years, hopefully I will have made another album or two. It's been a goal of mine to score movies, maybe something like that will happen. It's hard to project but I like to be open to all the possibilities. Two years ago I never would've thought I'd be in the place I'm in now, and two years before that, same thing.

Kanye said, "Name one genius who ain't crazy.” Have you ever felt mad?

Yes. I feel crazy a lot of the time, but it's also because I'm the only person who hears 100% of my thoughts. So I feel like no one's ever gonna find me completely sane because they're not gonna understand everything up here. I barely understand everything up here so. [chuckle] But I think that's the point, that's what makes us all unique, we all have different ways of thinking about things that no other person will completely understand.

Do you believe in your fate?

Yes. I believe that whatever's going to happen is going to happen. And you may get feelings about what's going to happen, or see things however it is that the energy comes to you. It does come and you can choose to acknowledge it or not. And if you choose to acknowledge it, you feel like you've seen the future or you've predicted something. And if you don't acknowledge it properly, then it's the universe giving you a sign. Or a surprise happening. It’s not that you can predict everything that happens, but I do believe that you can sense when something's gonna happen, whether it be good or bad, or manifest things in a way.

Do you try to manifest?

Not as much as I want to. I feel like I'm too busy to think about things in that way, but I'd like to sometimes detach from the busy work of being in the world and step away and be with myself more.

If you were to manifest, what would you intend?

Permanent place to live. [laughter] Fact is, I'm still not exactly sure what I'm doing with my life. People tell me I'm crazy when I say that, but my goals aren’t something that I plan to see in my lifetime, so I can only hope to do the best I can while I'm here and achieve those things after I'm gone.

Why after you're gone?

Because that's when the work is done. Like I said, I never really paid attention to praise, because there's always something better to be chasing. You can always get better at doing what you're doing and that can only go as long as your life is.

Do you believe that after your life is over it takes on a life of its own?

Yeah. If you've done it, if you've worked at your life in a meaningful way, when you're gone, your work will take on a life of its own, I believe.

how would you want people to describe yours 50 years later?

For me I wanna see people describe me as someone who opened doors and created new pathways for artists to come after me, to follow. I think that there are still new ways to be creative, to be an artist in this day and age, and I wanna open those doors, especially for instrumentalists.

What’s happening when you sit down to perform?

That's a good question. You sit down and there is a beginning and an end – we have the beginning of the show and the end of the show. And there are a bunch of different ways to get there. We all know how to get to this point on our own, but we have three other people on the stage and however many people in the audience to account for. So we start in one direction, cognizant of what's going on with the people around us, and we continue to go through the journey together.

Is there a kind of sub-textual communication going on? You guys aren't talking but there ARE A LOT OF LOOKS.

Definitely, we communicate with looks a lot. I love to try and communicate things through the music too, which is an overlooked skill that some people have more than others, I guess. Being able to play and queue things through the notes and intensity in volume and the rhythm that you play, it’s something I value a lot.

you're digging in sometimes to get attention, you're laying off to give someone space to take that solo.

Yeah, or even to change the chorus or change the direction of a song. It helps having a band of people that I'm friends with and know well off the bandstand. I believe you can hear personalities through the music.

How would you define your role in thIS band?

I feel like I've grown into my role in that band because of the amount of time we’ve spent together, planning and preparing this music. In the early days of me leading the band, I feel like I was very – I don't wanna say controlling – but I definitely had a specific way I wanted things to go. And naturally, I kinda ended up unlearning my tendencies to micromanage and control the way the music went. So my role in the band is the leader who gets people together and tells them where we're all going but doesn't tell them how we're getting there. If we're all gonna figure this out, we're probably gonna figure it out together. Because sometimes I don't know where that ending point is gonna be. And I don't need to, because I have people I trust to help us all get there.

What is the melody? The harmony? The rhythm?

Everyone assumes those roles at some point in the band if we're doing it right. So the rhythm is obviously the beat that we're feeling. And it's most obviously provided by the drums because they play a rhythmic instrument. But sometimes [the bassist] can beat in the way he's playing, the way he's walking the bass line. Or when he has a solo, he's playing the melody. And sometimes he's in control of the harmony, deciding where things go. He plays a specific note that dresses the melody in a certain way or dresses the harmony in a certain way that changes the chord. Piano is most obviously responsible for the harmony but sometimes I play melodies too.

One of my favorite things to do with the band is change the whole tempo of a song. You know, it's not something you expect a piano to do but like I said, everyone is responsible for every part of it. That's the thing I like to do too. Even just to have command of the rhythmic aspect of the band. The same thing is true of the horn, whoever is playing the melody, per se, they can direct the harmony in a certain way by the notes they choose. They can direct the rhythm in a certain way with how they phrase.

And the one that's not talked about enough, in my opinion is melody and harmony within the drums. There is melodic content in the drum solo. If you're listening to their motifs, you can pick it out. Even when we're all playing together, they can help to mark forms and mark harmony. If we all get lost in a song, you know, the way they play the downbeat helps us all to know where we are or how to move forward from wherever we were lost.

What is tension and release for you?

Anytime there's a juxtaposition between something happening and not happening. So there could be a lot of notes or a lot of very fast rhythm and that's the tension. And when it stops, that's the release.

Let’s talk about this idea of separating the man from the artist. I feel like the man is the human and the artist is the channel from God. How do you relate to yourself as a person versus as aN ARTIST, THE vehicle for something beyond you?

We talked earlier about the quote of art, the comfortable and the disturbed, of how I identify more as a disturbed. But my music doesn't exactly portray that. And so, if I look at myself as the artist versus the person, the artist is making music to help comfort the disturbed person that I am.

My favorite artists had different periods. We think of Miles Davis, Picasso. ThEIR periods haD names like THE blue period. Radiohead went through eras TOO. What have you exPERIENCED and what do you think you mAY touch upon STILL?

I definitely went through a traditionalist period in my life. [laughter] And thinking back now, I feel like every time I enter a new period, I look at the previous place I was in and say, "Wow, I was a traditionalist." Sort of really stuck in the past. And I got to a point where I discovered something new, whether it was in music or culture or within myself, and I was just like, “why didn't I realize this before? This is taking me to new heights of what I'm able to do and think about.” So there are definitely periods where, each time I enter a new one, I think back and look at myself as not thinking as open-mindedly. I hope that with each period my mind opens even more.

Is there aN influence that you wish to inCLUDE with your jazz in the future?

Oh yeah. And you notice a little bit in the show, but, dance music, electronic music. That whole world. I'd love to incorporate it into the jazz I do – or whatever it is – the music that I do, whatever you wanna call it. Because before all the electronics and everything, jazz was dance music. But now the way people dance is different, the way people listen to music and create music is different. So why can't we update the instrumental and acoustic music that we've been making up with the rest of the updates in our world and culture and technology? I wanna find a way to incorporate those rhythms and even just the energy of electronic music into what I do.

What is the energy of electronic music?

The energy of electronic music is... it’s being present. We live in the digital age, and the energy of electronic music is taking advantage of that. Nowadays people meet each other through the internet, spend all day talking and interacting with each other on our phones. For better, for worse, it’s a thing that happens, and I feel like it should be acknowledged and taken advantage of in music. You can use it to get to certain places musically and spiritually and use it to help us convey what we're trying to convey through the music.

How do you reconcile that idea of a digitally-based world with a traditionalist form like jazz?

I feel like if the traditionalists stop running away from the digital world and technology, we could have a better control of it. And not lose our sense of self, our sense of spirit and soul in it. Because when we leave it all to itself, it only has itself to build upon. It will lose all the human elements.

Who’s an artist you think DOES a really good job of absorbing zeitgeist in something that retains the natural, the spiritual, the forever?

There's so many that you wouldn't even think about. Stevie Wonder for one, the way he was using electronic instruments to create an orchestra. Think about the albums in his golden period, he was playing all the instruments himself. He played drums, he played electric piano, but because he didn't play electric bass, he used a synthesizer bass. He didn't play a horn or a violin, so he used synthesizer sounds to – not even mimic those – but to create new sounds. They didn't sound quite like an oboe or a French horn, or even something in between. It was a new sound. And although it was created with an electronic instrument, it still sounded very organic and human.

That's one big example. Herbie Hancock, as well, was always on top of his technology. James Blake, if you listen to his music, it’s robotic and human at the same time. I don't even know how to describe it, it's just that.

J Dilla is another one, great hip hop producer. He had the MPC machine that people used to make beats and he would turn off the feature on there that corrects everything you play into a grid. It was not on when he was making his beat. So everything sounds human and jarred, sounds like a mistake. But because it's in a loop, it still had a groove to it. He was able to use the machine to his advantage and get a human feel out of it.

How do you bring that into your music?

I try and paint pictures with the electronics I use. First off, accompanying myself with synthesizers is a big deal for me. You notice in the music that I put out, we have acoustic piano but we play with a lot of effects on it. Same thing with drums, we play with a lot of effects on the drums. There's a track from the record "Two Way Street", where about 85% of it is the sax and drums duo, but the sax and drums are getting crazy and the effects on both of us are getting crazier and crazier. There are moments where the drums will filter out and dip off and let the saxophone kinda shine for a moment. Or the sax has a filter going in and out that follows the notes he's playing and the harmony and the intensity he's playing with. I can get nerdy about it but it's all different ways to address what's happening organically and creatively, just diving deeper into the impact those sounds can have and how we can augment those ideas sonically.