25-year-old Julius Rodriguez dares to imagine a future of new standards and sonic excitement, which has earned him a reputation of an “interesting, fresh sound” (NPR Music). His versatility as an artist has led to a variety of unique projects: he played organ for Me’shell Ndegeocello and the hip-hop production duo Brasstracks; played piano on Carmen Lundy’s Grammy-nominated vocals album, Modern Ancestors; contributed to recordings for artists such as Morgan Guerin & friend of the proGram Kassa Overall; and led his own jazz group in clubs around New York. Having studied jazz since childhood, attending its prominent youth programs & learning institutions while developing a playing dexterity and a composer’s ear for its blues/spirituals, and ballad-related cornerstones, Julius recognizes jazz’s cultural value and the processes that further its prestige as America’s classical music. His music dares to imagine a future of new standards & sonic excitement. This vanguard was raised in an atmosphere where pop & hip-hop & dance influenced their approaches to melody & harmony & rhythm, so no doubt it is part of their improvisational DNA. Alongside jazz, Stevie Wonder and the Beatles were always around the Rodriguez family stereo; and as Julius devoured the Internet for musical discoveries, he heard jazz pianists like Jacky Terrason & The Bad Plus’ Ethan Iverson spin their own version of contemporary repertoire, pop & otherwise. He started listening to James Blake, Sampha & Solange; and at the Masters School, began participating in an annual concert students would produce by recreating a classic album, learning everything about Michael Jackson’s Thriller & U2’s Joshua Tree. His jazz professors also encouraged him to keep stretching out, as that was when he was introduced to Shuggie Otis. Rodriguez was always playing with singer-songwriters and other musicians outside his youth jazz circles. When he got to Juilliard, he began playing with music students from other New York universities; and with his old friend Isaiah Barr’s Onyx Collective, whose Lower East Side reputation as a young group equally comfortable with indie-rock and hip-hop, with standards & rare grooves, made fans of downtown jazzers like Roy Nathanson & Marc Ribot, but also A$AP Rocky. (The platinum rapper hired them as his band on a 2018 tour, which made Julius take a semester off of Juilliard and precipitated his leaving school). By early 2019, the breadth of Julius’ work pointed towards eclecticism: he played organ for Me’shell Ndegeocello and the hip-hop production duo Brasstracks; piano on Carmen Lundy’s Grammy-nominated vocals album, Modern Ancestors; contributed to recordings by other top of the line non-traditionalists; and led his own jazz group in clubs around town. Additionally, his working musician acumen was getting sharper. Even within the jazz community, he’d recognize how clubs and their patrons differentiated the music. Everything kept growing in the way he thought of, and made music.
I had the honor of catching up with multi-instrumentalist and mulit-genrelist, Julius Rodriguez (Orange Julius) ahead of the March 14the event in Madison at the Wisconsin Union Theater’s Play Circle. Orange Julius helps me to put words into what could be going on on the stage with and for us doing this event. It is a wide array of everything form both what he will be playing for instruments but also stylist, where the music will be taking us along for the journey. He mentions how the big part of that shared energy of a crowd is really important to him and how they band works the room. We talk about how he developed such an eclectic spirit and how he uses technology to help create albums that show off the ‘what’ that can happen with the tools we are lucky to have. It’s not only the music, but it is the people he gets to associate with and create together with. We talk about the track ‘Gift Of The Moon’ in both senses of a visual experience and a sonic exploration. But the best time for me is when we talk about where he is at as he gets deep into a tune, or a moment and that went well with our discussion about working with Kassa Overall. Before we let him go, Orange Julius builds a setlist and once again, he would be given the keys to the kingdom and well enjoyed by the listeners.
