New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Today, Julius Rodriguez - multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer and 'rising jazz phenom' (NPR) - releases a new single "Where
Grace Abounds" accompanied by a stunning music video. The song is a gospel-infused, vibing meditation about self-acceptance and gratitude, and the music video stars Julius and dancer Joyce Edwards in a minimalist and moving metaphor exploring those themes. This is the third single from the debut album from Julius Rodriguez Let Sound Tell All set for release June 10 on the legendary
Verve Records/ Universal Music.
Rodriguez also previously announced a new show date in NYC on June 15 at the Sultan Room to celebrate the release of the album. Today, he performs live on the Relix Twitch Channel at 2pm EST.
The vibing gospel meditation "Where
Grace Abounds" shows Rodriguez's profound spiritual side. The self-reflective composition is, according to Julius, "a song I wrote at a time where I felt like I wasn't being the best version of myself yet, and still a lot of great things were happening to me. So it's me being grateful for being in the situation I'm in, even though I felt like I didn't deserve it."
It begins as a duet between Rodriguez on piano and Hammond B-3 organ, speaking to himself through these two instruments and showing the profound compositional understanding and restraint. Eventually, Giveton Gelin's trumpet and Hakim's voice arrive as late-in-the-song punctuations, providing an ethereal and echoing chamber of reflection. Drew ofthe Drew and Jon Castelli mix it into a ghostly, gospel-like wonder.
Julius continues, "'Where
Grace Abounds' has always been a special song because it really is more of a meditation that sticks out in a comforting way. Live, it has always evoked a certain atmosphere in the room, and in the process of capturing that atmosphere on record, all of the pieces very easily fell into place."
The accompanying video is a minimalist metaphor masterpiece, featuring dancer Joyce Edwards and directed by Haley Anderson. It's an interplay between Julius and his inner self, and at the end, a poignant moment of self-love and acceptance transpires when the dancer hugs Julius.
On his debut album Let Sound Tell All, 23 year old musician Julius Rodriguez stirs a cauldron of gospel, jazz, classical, R&B, hip-hop, experimentation, production and sheer technical wizardry to create a stunning debut that commands attention. As an 11 year old kid, Rodriguez honed his jazz chops at Smalls Jazz Club, wowing audiences with his rendition of his favourite Ellington tune "Take the A Train." Fast forward to 2018 when he dropped out of Juilliard, shimmying off the rigid curriculum to tour with A$AP Rocky. Now, in 2022, Rodriguez is on the cusp of a stellar release that weaves his life and influences - from Monk, Coltrane, Solange,
James Blake, Sampha and more. This music is as much at home in Smalls Jazz Club as it is at Gov Ball.
Let Sound Tell All is a complex combination of live improvisation weaved with high-level production. A song may start out in a well-oiled, Coltrane classic quartet energy and fed through distortion pedals to culminate in an exhilarating trippy meltdown of sheer sonic genius.
Call him Gen-Z jazz, but when you hear Julius Rodriguez play "the music," as he calls it, it's a modern Sound, as fluent in history as it is aware of its contemporary context. His music dares to imagine a future of new standards and musical trailblazing. This vanguard was raised in an atmosphere where pop and hip-hop and dance influenced their approaches to melody and harmony and rhythm, so of course it is part of their improvisational DNA. And that's what Julius Rodriguez's Sound tells to whoever will choose to listen.
