Meet… Isaiah J. Thompson
Isaiah J. Thompson by Evelyn Freja
Growing up in West Orange, Isaiah J. Thompson studied piano so hard that he contracted tendonitis in both arms. “It forced me to think about what is actually important in life,” he says today as he awaits the June 6 release of his Mack Avenue Records album, The Book of Isaiah: Modern Jazz Ministry. The CD is inspired by the work of Mary Lou Williams, Duke Ellington and John Coltrane. It swings. It inspires. It’s based on his strong sense of faith. Plus, the practice ultimately paid off. Dude has two degrees from Julliard; Wynton Marsalis tapped him for the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra; and he completes an all-Jersey trio with Christian McBride (Montclair) and John Pizzarelli (Paterson).
It took some strenuous rehabilitation for Thompson to make his way back to health. As he says, “if I can’t play, then who am I? What is my existence? What does it actually mean?” His questions led him to the Bible. “I was walking around with this name that I hadn’t studied.”
So he did.
The more Thompson read the Book of Isaiah from the Bible, the more it spoke to him, so much so that he felt he was living a life of spiritual deficiency. His secular life became less important to him. That’s when he entered the seminary. Now he’s married to a ministry director and noted worship singer with several generations of ministry in her family, Kaitlin Obien-Thompson.
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