For those not in the know, pianist-composer Julian Davis Reid and Circle of Trust creates music on Mercy We Need that is spiritual, soulful, and inventive jazz. The quintet performs thought-provoking music that is soothing yet passionate.

Julian Davis Reid is a pianist, composer, speaker, writer, and the founder of the ministry Notes of Rest®, On Mercy We Need, the second recording with his ensemble Circle of Trust, his group also includes alto saxophonist Lenard Simpson, bassist Ethan Philion, drummer James Russell Sims, and vocalist Tramaine Parker. They perform a set of stirring music that is described as “cinematically exploring the mercies we know we need and those we can’t name yet need nonetheless.”

Once again based in Chicago, as a leader Julian Davis Reid has recorded Rest Assured (2021), Candid EP (2023), the solo piano album Beside Still Waters (2024), When Souls Cry Out (a duo project with Tramaine Parker from 2025), and the Circle of Trust’s first full-length album Vocation (2025).

1. Not Yet Home [6:09]
2. Her Care A Gift [5:55]
3. Farewell, Hello Again [8:27]
4. Moan [6:13]
5. Mercy We Need [6:15]
6. It’s Time, My Friend [8:06]
7. What’s Going On / Everybody Wants to Rule The World [9:53]
8. Memory [4:32]

Born and raised in Chicago where he grew up playing classical, gospel and jazz piano, Julian opens on the expansively sweepingly Not Yet Home and the emotively sung Her Care A Gift, and then we are gifted the shimmeringly sprightly Farewell, Hello Again and an engagingly impassioned Moan.

Along next is the softly comforting title track Mercy We Need and that is in turn backed seamlessly by the upright bass-fed, musical brilliance of It’s Time, My Friend, the set rounding out on a resonant What’s Going On; that is itself sewn together with a resoundingly opulent Everybody Wants to Rule The World, the set coming to a close on the softly appealing beauty of Memory.

PLAYERS, INSTRUMENT:
Julian Davis Reid (piano)
Tramaine Parker (vocals)
Lenard Simpson (alto sax)
Ethan Philion(bass)
James Russell Sims (drums)

Official Spotify Purchase Link

www.juliandavisreid.com