The Julius Rodriguez Quintet w/ Isabella du Graf

JAZZ@theEDGE Festival! The Julius Rodriguez Quintet w/ Isabella du Graf

Julius Rodriguez (keyboards/composer/drums)
Isabella Du Graf (vocals)
Chris Lewis (saxophone)
Giveton Gelin (trumpet)
Philip Norris (bass)
Tyson Jackson (drums)

At 21, Julius Rodriguez first stepped foot on Black Cat’s stage making his Bay Area debut as a bandleader for an astounding 4-night run of shows.

On the last day of January, 2020, right before the whole world changed, music writer Andrew Gilbert was there to witness the magic.

Read about it here:

https://www.sfcv.org/articles/review/julius-rodriguez-comes-his-own

“Possessed of a lissome sensitivity and grace” — The New York Times

Now 23, Julius Rodriguez (also known as Orange Julius) isn’t just one of the most sought-after young jazz pianists in NYC, he’s also a very-much-in-demand drummer, who just this year signed to Verve Records.

While still a jazz student at Julliard, Julius worked with some of the top artists in music, including Wynton Marsalis, Roy Hargrove, Macy Gray, A$AP Rocky, James Morrison, Abir and many others.

Julius has already been featured at festivals around the globe including the Portland Jazz, Monterey Jazz, DC Jazz, and Northsea Jazz Festivals, among others.  He’s toured extensively in the U.S. and played dates in China, Japan, Russia, Mexico, the Netherlands, and beyond.

He performs regularly as a leader across New York City, and his contributions on piano, drums, synthesizer and electric bass appear on a diverse roster of recordings, including releases from Kassa Overall, Carmen Lundy, Brasstracks, Morgan Guerin, J. D. Walter and Damien Sneed, among other critically acclaimed genre-defiant voices.

Sharp instincts for space and phrasing, and reverence for melody elevate Julius’ expression from virtuoso to true artist. In a few short years, he has garnered peer attention and critical praise from such institutional outlets as JAZZIZ magazine, The New York Times, Paste and Vanity Fair.

Julius’ fascination with music began as a small child in church.  He’d leave church and go home to bang on pots and pans, until his parents bought him a piano. He studied classical music and theory, and was self-taught on drums, studying at the prestigious Manhattan School of Music precollege division, and went on to win numerous national competitions including the Charles Mingus Festival and the national YoungArts Foundation, which he won in both piano and drums.

In continuing to pursue both instruments, composing and leading bands, Julius has always wanted to expand his musical identity, never limiting it.  He strongly embraces the spirit of the constantly evolving nature of jazz as an art form.  “If someone doesn’t like jazz, I play them a song and tell them to keep searching,” he said.  “Because jazz doesn’t end when you last heard it.  Jazz continues to grow and evolve.”

That sense of curiosity, experimentation, and freedom embodies the music of Julius!  He’ll have a band of similarly talented young musicians with him on stage, each of whom is making his own mark on the global stage at an impressively young age.  Don’t miss this incredible artist and group of stellar musicians at Black Cat.

Julius Rodriguez Shares New Singles “Midnight Sun” and the DJ Jazzy Jeff–Featuring “Silver Rain”

Singer Isabella Du Graf is a talent as rare as her record collection, a crate-digger and beatmaker with a degree in jazz performance from the New England Conservatory of Music. Since graduating, she’s been busy honing her chops as a songwriter and producer, releasing a full-length album (“Love, Love? Love”) in 2018 and performing with the likes of Kassa Overall and Julius Rodriguez. She’s currently at work on a new album in that features both acoustic and production-heavy sounds with contributions from Overall, Rodriguez, Mike King, Burniss Travis, and Joe Dyson. A Seattle native, Du Graf is “a spoonful of the outstanding talent coming out of the Pacific Northwest” raved Wynton Marsalis.