Under contract to Verve for the album Evergreen (2024), having already filmed his Tiny Desk on NPR, Julius Rodriguez did what he had to do at Studio TD on a Wednesday, July 2, 2025: set the place alight.
Back in Montreal, the 26-year-old is one of those virtuoso keyboardists (especially of the right hand) who emerged with the jazz resurgence of the previous decade. We can’t yet assume a widespread presence, but these new formations are swarming the free FIJM stages and suggest that the wave has gained in intensity and coolness.
One thing’s for sure, Julius Rodriguez is one of the key players. The American keyboardist and composer (of Haitian origin) is nothing less than an ace groover! A multi-instrumentalist to boot, he throws us a drum solo interspersed with his sampled keyboard improvisations. Capable of anything!
It’s worth pointing out that the twenty-something has perfectly assimilated his classics. Without a hitch, he appropriates Herbie Hancock’s Butterfly, making it an emblematic piece of his repertoire and accelerating the tempo just a tad in a quartet format (trumpet, bass, drums, keyboards). Very good.
Granted, the musician’s original compositions have nothing to destabilize music lovers of groove jazz or jazz at all, but there’s a freshness and an aspiration to go even further than what we heard Wednesday night in the Studio TD.
Take this improvised conversation between Rodriguez, with his keyboard slung over his shoulder, and the excellent trumpeter Alonzo Demetrius. This beautiful exuberance is enough to rekindle the jazz flame in anyone who witnesses such an exchange in real time.
In fact, these young musicians are all at the level of the world’s elite, and it’s easy to predict that the best is yet to come. And it’s all the more gratifying to see music lovers of their generation embracing this high acumen and fervor of playing.
