Listen to Isaiah J. Thompson’s “VIII. The Prophet”

“My wife and I have been praying over this recording for a year now and I am so excited to be releasing the first single from my suite, The Book of Isaiah,” says Thompson “‘The Prophet’ is a modern day blues and chant inspired by composers like Charles Mingus and Cannonball Adderley. This song is the final movement of the suite and the composition elicits the feeling of the African-American’s struggle for freedom to symbolize the adversity that the believer will face in becoming truly free through faith. I was named after the prophet Isaiah and he spoke of the coming of Jesus. Even when I wasn’t following God, the prophet’s name was always with me and I’ve come to realize and so was God.”

Thompson is one of the most acclaimed young pianists of his generation, having earned a slew of high-profile awards, two degrees from The Juilliard School, and work with renowned artists including Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, Christian McBride and John Pizzarelli, whose trio, an institution in small-group swing, Thompson joined in 2019. NPR’s Jazz Night In America praised him as “a young musician and composer with a mature touch and rare combination of talent, creativity, humility and honesty.”

Despite all of his accomplishments, something was missing for Thompson. To start, he was placing far too much of his self-worth on being a celebrated musician. An overcommitment to the piano resulted in a surplus of practice that ended up putting his career at risk. “I got tendonitis in both arms, and that’s a condition you continue to have,” he says. Since then, Thompson has been diligent in his rehabilitation, which has opened up new pathways in his musicianship.

Even so, the injury was devastating and led Thompson to a crossroads. “It forced me to think about what is actually important in life,” he says. “If I can’t play, then who am I? What is my existence? What does it actually mean?” As he continued to wrestle with these profound questions, the pianist was reminded of his spiritual deficiency every time he heard his first name. Although he did spend some time in the church with his family as a child, he was primarily living a secular life.

“I was walking around with this name that I hadn’t studied,” Isaiah explains. So he began to discover his namesake and his faith in earnest. He dug deep into the Book of Isaiah, one of the Bible’s most challenging books. Eventually, independent study wasn’t enough, and Thompson pursued his spiritual education in seminary. He and his wife, a ministry director and noted worship singer with several generations of ministry in her family, eventually chose a congregation where the message of Jesus and salvation felt pure and right.

When it came time to unpack his faith musically on The Book of Isaiah: Modern Jazz Ministry, Thompson tapped trusted collaborators including tenor saxophonist Julian Lee, bassist Marty Jaffe, drummer Miguel Russell, and pianist Cyrus Chestnut, who co-produced the project. New Orleans percussion great Herlin Riley contributes tambourine and vocals on select songs, vocal star Vuyo Sotashe sings on three tracks, and Thompson’s wife, Kaitlin Obien-Thompson adds backing vocals to the album-closing “VIII. The Prophet.”

A devoted student of jazz history, Thompson wrote the album under the sway of jazz icons who crafted paeans to the Creator without explicitly chasing a “gospel-jazz” fusion. The spiritual works of Duke Ellington, Mary Lou Williams and Wynton Marsalis became major touchstones, as well as the transcendent recordings of John Coltrane and the churchly textures of Charles Mingus. Throughout these eight tracks, Thompson probes his devotional life without fear, underscoring simple but too-often overlooked truths about our relationship with God.

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