Isaiah J. Thompson didn’t take the usual route to his latest album, The Book of Isaiah: Modern Jazz Ministry. This isn’t a collection of jazzed-up hymns born from a childhood steeped in Sunday morning choirs. In fact, Thompson’s spiritual awakening came much later, shaped by struggle, self-discovery, and a name he couldn’t ignore.

The pianist and composer, already a star in jazz circles thanks to collaborations with Wynton Marsalis, Christian McBride, and John Pizzarelli, hit a breaking point. Years of overcommitting to the instrument led to tendonitis in both arms, forcing a painful question: "If I can’t play, who am I?"

That crisis opened a door. Thompson turned inward, confronting not just his identity as a musician but as a person. His search led him back to his namesake - the prophet Isaiah - and into a deeper study of faith, culminating in his baptism in 2022.

The Book of Isaiah: Modern Jazz Ministry chronicles this journey. Rooted in swing and blues, it draws from the sacred jazz traditions of Ellington, Mary Lou Williams, Coltrane, and Mingus, yet Thompson’s take is refreshingly personal. He’s not interested in mimicking gospel jazz tropes. Instead, he reframes jazz itself as a spiritual language.

“People assume I grew up playing gospel piano in church,” Thompson says. “But that’s just not my story. I’m a jazz musician—and there are so many ways to acknowledge the Lord.”

With trusted collaborators like tenor saxophonist Julian Lee, bassist Marty Jaffe, drummer Miguel Russell, and New Orleans percussion legend Herlin Riley, Thompson breathes life into eight compositions that explore the intersection of faith and sound. Vocalist Vuyo Sotashe lends his voice to a swinging take on the Lord’s Prayer, while Thompson’s wife, Kaitlin Obien-Thompson, contributes backing vocals on the album’s closer, “The Prophet.”

Tracks like “The Feeling of Freedom” resonate with echoes of Marsalis’ The Abyssinian Mass and Ellington’s Black, Brown and Beige, while pieces like “In the Temple (Spiritual Warfare)” channel McCoy Tyner’s spiritual intensity. Yet, at its core, this is Thompson’s story, one where the blues is not just musical phrases but metaphors for the daily push and pull of faith.

“The blues is balance,” Thompson explains. “Faith isn’t just about joy and exaltation—it’s a struggle, a fight to choose love over anger, light over dark. That’s the blues. That’s what I live.”

Make no mistake about it, Isaiah J. Thompson's The Book of Isaiah: Modern Jazz Ministry is not a sermon. It’s not a Sunday service. It’s a conversation between a young artist, his craft, and his Creator. And like the best jazz, it’s honest, searching, and alive.