The JuJu Exchange Creates New Work For Peace In Chicago Concert
WDCB’s Gary Zidek catches up with Nico Segal and Julian Reid of The JuJu Exchange to talk about their approach to making music and the new work (PRICE OF PEACE) that will make its world premiere at Fulcrum Point New Music Project’s Peace In Chicago concert.
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“Once you start coming up with labels for stuff and definitions for instrumental music, which is why I keep harping on jazz and classical. Although, I do think this exists in hip-hop very prominently, that people have to make this very boxy definition of this is hip-hop, this is rap, this is trap music, this is drill music, I just hate all that stuff, I just hate it. I think it’s a marketing tool, it’s used to divide people.” - Nico Segal talking about his disdain for labeling music.
Nico Segal
One of the Chicago’s most exciting bands is defying genre labels and rules with a boundary-crossing approach to music creation. The JuJu Exchange (made up of Nico Segal, Lane Beckstrom and brothers, Julian and Everett Reid) released its debut album last year and will participate in the 20th anniversary of Fulcrum Point New Music Project’s Peace in Chicago concert.
WDCB’s Gary Zidek caught up with trumpeter Nico Segal and pianist/composer Julian Reid for a conversation about the band’s approach to creating music.
Segal(formerly known as Donnie Trumpet) has collaborated, produced and toured with some of the most talented hip-hop, pop and jazz artists making music today.
Nico Segal playing in the Social Experiment alongside Chance The Rapper
Segal reconnected with high school friend and bandmate, Julian Reid, and the two formed a new band, the JuJu Exchange. The group’s debut album, THE EXCHANGE, received critical praise in 2017. This year, Fulcrum Point New Music Project founder Stephen Burns reached out to Segal to create a new work for the organization’s 20th annual Peace in Chicago concert. Segal, made it a group project, and Reid composed a three-movement oratorio titled PRICE OF PEACE.
Julian Reid playing piano on the 9th floor of the Fine Arts Building
“What would be sacrificed if we actually were to take the calls to peace seriously? How would economic systems need to change? And people really feel the burden of that, if we were to actually have peace for the people who still live in the shadow of the ‘black belt’, which is the part of the southside where black people were forced to live back during the 20th century.” - Julian Reid talking about the questions he wants to raise in PRICE OF PEACE.
Stephen Burns, the founder and artistic director of Fulcrum Point
