About

Acts 2:1-13, “God’s Sound”

St. Mark AME, Milwaukee, 2019

Julian Davis Reid (M.Div., Candler School of Theology) is an artist-theologian from Chicago who uses words and music to invite us into the restful lives we were created to live. A musician, speaker, and writer, Julian is the founder of the ministry Notes of Rest®, which invites the weary to practice God’s gifts of rest played through the Bible and Black music. Julian also has musical numerous releases out with several projects, including his own ensemble Circle of Trust, his jazz-electronic fusion group The JuJu Exchange (with Nico Segal & Nova Zaii), and his collaborative work with saxophonist Isaiah Collier. His most recent release is his EP entitled Candid, which narrates from the piano his coming-of-age as a solo artist. Julian has performed at the Montreal Jazz Fest, The Cleveland Orchestra’s Severance Hall, Lollapalooza, and the Berlin Jazz Fest, and he has worked or performed with Chance the Rapper, Jamila Woods, Tank and the Bangas, Derrick Hodge, Andrew Bird, and Jennifer Hudson. He is a Fellow of Theological Education Between the Times and consults with the boutique consultancy Fearless Dialogues. Julian writes about faith, music, Blackness, and rest on his Substack “The Notes of Rest Fellowship,” and his work has been covered in Forbes, Sojourners, Billboard, and Downbeat. He and his wife Carmen live in Chicago with their daughter Lydia.

Hailing from the Southwest side of Chicago, Julian grew up playing classical, gospel, and jazz piano. He is a proud alum of Whitney Young High School and Merit School of Music, and sat under excellent private instructors, including Willie Pickens, Pharez Whitted, Steve Million, Kevin O’Connell, Ann Birman, Lucius Bell and Rev. Jim Bryson. He was confirmed in the St. Mark United Methodist Church.

Julian attended Yale College, where he earned his B.A. in philosophy (2013) and took classes in music theory. He served as keyboardist and musical director of Black Church at Yale for all four years and also led his own working jazz trio. His thesis explored the political lessons learned from being a member of a jazz quartet. After graduating, he served Yale as a campus minister through InterVarsity Christian Fellowship and as a non-denominational pastor for Black Church at Yale. He remained active on the New Haven jazz scene, mentored by bassist Jeff Fuller.

Julian married his college sweetheart, Carmen, and together they moved to Atlanta for graduate school. Julian matriculated into Candler School of Theology at Emory University as a Woodruff Scholar, where he earned a Master of Divinity with a focus in Scripture, Theology and the Arts (2019). For his work in biblical studies, he won the Chad Davis Memorial Award, awarded to a student who has shown particular skill in biblical scholarship. He worked with Drs. James Abbington, Don Saliers, Dwight Andrews, Greg Ellison, Ted Smith, Joel LeMon, Noel Erskine, Nichole Phillips, and Kwok Pui-Lan. His master’s thesis was on the theological implications of wordless improvisation. He has taught and lectured at Candler, Garrett Evangelical-Theological Seminary, Yale Divinity School, Duke Divinity School, Columbia Theological Seminary, Morehouse College, City Seminary of New York, and the American Academy of Religion. He continues to collaborate with Dr. Ted Smith on Theological Education Between the Times, a project funded by the Lilly Endowment to help theological educators navigate the shifting terrain of North American theological education in the 21st century. Through this collaboration he’s worked with Drs. Willie Jennings, Maria Liu Wong, Keri Day, and Mark Jordan.

While in seminary, Julian co-founded the band The JuJu Exchange. The other members are his blood brother Nova Zaii (also known as Everett Reid) and musical brother Nico Segal (fka Donnie Trumpet). The JuJu Exchange is an instrumental group that blends acoustic and digital music to cultivate wonder and trust. Their first release, Exchange (2017), debuted at #1 on iTunes Jazz Charts. In 2018, Julian led the effort to write a commissioned oratorio for Fulcrum Point New Music entitled Price of Peace, which addresses Chicago’s complex racial and geographic past in order to ask the listener: “Do we really want to pay the price for peace?” The band’s most recent release is The Eternal Boombox EP (2020), which is a musical accompaniment to the stages of grief. It emerged from the band’s navigation of the pandemic along with the rest of us. The JuJu Exchange has performed across the country at various jazz festivals, has conducted master classes at the Apple Store and for the Jazz Institute of Chicago, and has been featured in TEDxChicago and Chicago Ideas Week.

Along with The JuJu Exchange, Julian leads contemplative retreats called Notes of Rest, where he places meditations from a Bible passage or piece of Black writing on a bed of music for the sake of promoting rest, contemplation, and creativity amongst communities. This ministry emerged out of his growing sense that the Global North needs to rediscover the liberating possibilities of stillness.

Julian is thankful to be back serving the local church in Chicago. He has continually played in church throughout his life, and has directed for a wide array of congregations, from non-denominational to Roman Catholic. Now he serves in the music ministries at Renewal Church of Chicago and First United Methodist Church of Oak Park.

Julian has been blessed to collaborate or share the stage with many artists spanning various literary and musical genres, from jazz to classical to hip-hop to gospel. This list includes Chance the Rapper, Jennifer Hudson, Derrick Hodge, Vic Mensa, Peter CottonTale, Tank and the Bangas, Jamila Woods, Dixson, Abiodun Oyewole of The Last Poets, the Clark Atlanta University Philharmonic Society, Rev. Dr. Dwight Andrews, Tiff Joy, Dr. Jimmie Abbington, Dr. Alysia Nicole Harris, Zora Howard, Josephine Lee and Chicago Children’s Choir and Andrew Bird.

Reid, Julian CV

Photo by René Marban