Worship Jazz

So, you’ve decided that your worship needs a little changing, a bit of updating, something more contemporary in nature, liturgy with some oomph. You’ve been reading the experts on revitalizing ministry and worship—Brian Mclaren, Cameron Trimble, Molly Baskette and others, so you know there are lots of ideas and models for enhancing your worship life. Perhaps you’ve given thought to your church’s music program and have expressed gratitude for your music ministry leaders but feel there’s a creative energy lacking in the traditional organ-centered music of your congregation. Or your church has started a praise band—plenty of energy but the music seems a bit simplistic and the theology questionable. And now you’ve heard about jazz and wonder if it could be a viable option.

A number of years ago a pastor friend shared with me that he and the church’s worship leaders determined that music was the key element providing the thread to their worship service. They decided they needed to update their church’s music program and began researching various music forms and while they valued traditional hymnody, enjoyed some elements of praise music, and affirmed the meditative quality of Taize, they wanted something with more vitality. They seriously considered creating a service format based in Rock ‘n’ Roll but realized that musical intensity was created by increasing volume. Not desirable. “But then I spoke with a good friend who headed the university department of jazz,” he said. “He explained that jazz musicians did exactly the opposite. To increase intensity they turned inward to explore their inner expression and many times actually played softer, but with such intensity that it was compelling.” Another jazz musician friend of mine calls this “quiet fire.” More on quiet fire in a subsequent blog post.

So, in beginning a jazz ministry it’s important to connect with jazz musicians who understand their musical expression as a manifestation of their interior life. They may not be practicing Christians, but they should be deeply spiritual. Depending on how integrated you want the music to be in the liturgy will determine the number of musicians, the music performed and the extent to which the music inspires and leads the service.

A large New York City church has a weekly Sunday evening jazz vespers service, actually more of a jazz meditation. Some of the biggest names in jazz play the service and it’s truly a spirit-filled and inspiring time. But it’s fairly passive with little or no jazz hymnody. Another church I know has an occasional jazz service where the jazz musicians go the extra step—playing the hymns. But at the service I attended there was no sense of musical leadership to help support the singers, and the music performed wasn’t related thematically to the service. When they finished playing they sat down and nothing was ever mentioned about their presence from the pulpit. It was a sort of jazz plug in service.

So, the first thing to do is to make a choice—do you want the music be more of a jazz meditation (prelude, postlude, offertory, etc.) or do you want the musicians to provide musical continuity by accompanying the congregation in their singing. Both ways are valid, but whichever you choose it’s important to make sure that the music is integrated with the theme and the entire service a coordinated whole.

More next week,

Cliff

“So, how do we do it?”, the church’s minister of music asked. “I don’t know the first thing about jazz. We don’t have any jazz musicians in our church. Our minister wants us to be more contemporary, but the congregation is made up of mostly older members and quite traditional. Where do we begin? In fact, why should we even consider using jazz in the first place?”

Sound familiar? Over the years, I’ve heard variations on this from church musicians and pastors. In the weeks ahead, Tim and I will focus on a variety of “how to” themes for incorporating jazz into worship. Obviously, we can’t address all the issues in a single blog post, but we hope to provide thoughtful commentary from our years of leading jazz worship services. We will aim our thoughts at church leaders who have limited experience with blending jazz into the worship experience.

So, let’s start at the beginning—why should churches consider jazz as a musical form in worship?

Many great jazz musicians grew up in the church and had their first musical experience as part of a faith community. These artists went on to amazing musical careers that rarely, if ever, brought their musical artistry into the church for worship. And yet, their music is deeply spiritual. Yes, Duke Ellington wrote dozens of sacred jazz compositions and Dave Brubeck composed more than fifty works of sacred music blending jazz and classical motifs. Yet, for the most part, jazz and church have remained separate, particularly when it comes to the Sunday experience of worship.

At the heart of “spiritual jazz” is improvisation—taking a melodic statement and exploring its depth through spontaneous creation. Violinist Stephane Grappelli once said, “Improvisation, it is a mystery . . . When I improvise and I’m in good form, I’m like somebody half sleeping. I even forget there are people in front of me. Great improvisers are like priests; they are thinking only of their God.” Charlie Parker, the pioneering bebop saxophonist said it even more succinctly, “I am a devout musician.” [See my blog entry from 8/24/15] about the spirit of improvisation].

As a jazz musician (and a pastor) I can speak from first-hand experience. When jazz musicians play, we perform a sacred rite; we are at prayer. We are never more deeply in communion with the Holy than when we’re improvising—fashioning spontaneous melodies, harmonies and rhythms as an act of giving—a holy offering to God and the listener. Jazz musicians fashion spontaneous musical motifs, but more than that we paint portraits, tell stories, reveal hidden (and not so hidden) truths. When I play I often feel as if I’m preaching more effectively (and passionately!) than I ever did in the pulpit.

If our worship is to be an act of praise to our Creator God, we need to make it the most soulful, creative, inspiring offering possible. And who better to lead such a creative journey of faith than the jazz ensemble. When it comes to worshiping God, as Stephane Grapelli noted, we jazz musicians are like priests—priests inspiring worshipers to journey into the heart of worship.

As the weeks unfold we welcome comments and questions from those who have planned jazz services and those who are eager, but feel they don’t as of yet have the resources to explore jazz worship.

More to come . . .

Cliff

One of the things I miss about living in Ohio is the Cleveland Metro-parks, part of the “emerald necklace” that rings the city and extends down into the Cuyahoga National Park. It’s a great park system, especially for bikers.

The bike path is fairly flat except for one section that has a challenging steep grade. On one particular day I hit the hill; dropped into low gear and, huffing and puffing, was able to pedal to the top. After pumping my fist in the air to celebrate my accomplishment I slowed down. There at the crest was a bench with the inscription: “I like the rhythm of my life.”

What a cool statement, a great way to understand and affirm one’s life. As I caught my breath I thought about mine—my life, that is. And I had to agree: I like the rhythm of my life too. I thought of the hill I just ascended using all my leg power . . . with the assist of 24 available gears. Through decades of life’s ups and downs a self-rhythm has become evident in my life, as consistent as my heartbeat. And the beauty is, as the beat goes on, it takes on a creative rhythmic pulse that mirrors the encounters of every moment regardless of tempo. Even with a constant “thump-a-thump” I can imagine shifting rhythmic patterns (from 4/4 to 3/4, cut time to 6/8 or even 5/4) to accompany just about any melody flowing through me.

As a saxophonist I interpret melody. But I’ve learned that without a rhythmic context improvisational exploration can get pretty bland. And who wants to live on the bland side of things. The exploration of each day is an adventure and, as a friend of mine is fond of saying, “it’s not how much you play your horn, it’s how you live life that makes you a musician.” I suppose you could say the same for religion – it’s not how much you proclaim your faith it’s how you live it. Louis Armstrong was much more elegant. He said, “My whole life, my whole soul, my whole spirit is to blow that horn . . . What we play is life.”

Looking back, I don’t remember who that bench was dedicated to, but I am sure of one thing: he or she was definitely a musician, savoring life’s rhythmic flow, playing life to the fullest.

Rhythmic Blessings,

Cliff

 

A few years back Oîkos was leading an evening jazz vesper service in Claremont California. At the end of worship a young man came up and expressed his excitement about having jazz in worship—something he had never experienced before. Then he told me, “I’m a bassist and I play jazz gigs all over the area. It’s a spiritual thing for me and sometimes the music really feels like prayer.” He went on to say that he was a Christian and attended church regularly, but his church had never asked him to play his bass in worship. “Don’t get me wrong,” he said. “I dig the organ . . . for what it is. But it doesn’t swing!”

The young bassist then said he had seen our flyer about jazz vespers and was intrigued by the concept and just had to come, even though it was a different denomination from his church. He then got to the point. “Man, I was blown away by the service tonight. It opened up a whole new world for me. I never knew jazz was okay in worship . . . at least in my church.” He said he was so inspired that he was thinking about asking his pastor about having his trio play in worship. I encouraged him to follow through and share his music in worship. “Yeah,” he said. “I definitely will.”

We flew home the next day and I never heard from the young bassist again. But I hope he followed through on his mission, because we need more jazz missionaries in church.

Blessings on your mission,

Cliff

So, when was the last time your congregation sang “Good Christian Friends, Rejoice” in 5/4; or “O Come All Ye Faithful” as a jazz waltz; or “Joy to the World” in a funky groove? As Advent and Christmas approach we’re offering new alternatives for churches to explore the spirit of the nativity by taking traditional Christmas carols and putting a contemporary, jazzy spin to them.

For many years I’ve marveled that the majority of folks, regardless of religious background, know the melody and words to the hymns (carols) we sing during the holiday season – well, at least the words to the first verse. In fact, many in our own congregations get lost in the words after the first time through. But that’s another story.

In truth, our culture is permeated with the carols most of us grew up with. And many of our churches have been singing them the same way for the past 50 (100 years?). We’d like to offer some creative alternatives. How about “O Little Town of Bethlehem” with a Latin beat? Or “What Child is This” as a modal arrangement in the style of John Coltrane’s “My Favorite Things?”

The uniqueness of jazz is the ability for musicians to take any piece of music and re-imagine it in new ways – even the ancient 600 hundred-year old melody of “O Come, O Come Emmanuel.” All of the re-imagined arrangements in our volume of Christmas carols are singable in worship, although a few will take some practice with a good song leader. But, as my wife and I used to say when our children were young – practice makes progress! And that’s what our faith is all about isn’t it? Moving forward, striving to grow in the grace-filled love of Jesus Christ.

We hope you have fun with these arrangements. You may need to fasten your seat-belts when you get to the chorus of “We Three Kings” and band breaks into 7/4. But what a ride!

Blessings in 7/4,

Cliff

Somehow, Christmas just seems like a “jazzy” time of year more than any other for me.  Most of my favorite Christmas recordings are jazz, and a good portion of the Christmas music I hear on the radio is jazz-oriented as well.  However, I think the connection between Christmas and jazz goes all the way back to my childhood when learning to play the piano.  I had two favorite Christmas books that I played from every year, and both were set in jazz styles.

Christmas with Style by Jerry Ray was (and still is!) my absolute favorite.  I would just sit at the piano and play straight through the book, from one arrangement to the next.  It is a great book because the piano parts are not difficult to play at all, and yet they offer a rich set of sophisticated harmonies.  I can remember my family telling me how much they enjoyed listening to them when I played them at our house.

The other book that I frequented at Christmas time was Tom Roed’s Advanced Piano Solos: Christmas Edition.  These arrangements were more difficult, and my favorite part was that each piece was treated in a unique way.  Sometimes you get Christmas books where all the songs sound the same, but that was not the case with this one – each arrangement has it’s own individual style, with a creative take on a traditional Christmas tune.

I’m hoping that our latest book, Worship in a New Key – Volume 2, will become for you like these other books have become for me.  We believe that Christmas is the perfect time to introduce jazz music into the church, and we hope that the arrangements in our latest volume will give you the jumpstart that you need to make it happen.  We have tried to come up with an individual, creative take on each tune, and yet we have given you many options for performance so you can best adapt the arrangement for your individual setting.  Our hope is that you can use this book to enhance your worship in the Christmas season through jazz, and that maybe the sound of jazz at Christmas time will become a new tradition at your church.

The great jazz saxophonist John Coltrane once said: “My goal is to live the truly religious life, and express it in my music. If you live it, when you play there’s no problem because the music is part of the whole thing. To be a musician is really something. It goes very, very deep. My music is the spiritual expression of what I am – my faith, my knowledge, my being.”

Trane wasn’t only a fantastically gifted musician, he was a remarkable spiritual individual. All you have to do is listen to his music and it becomes obvious that the depth of his musical ideas came from more than rigorous wood-shedding. At its core, his music was a spiritual soundscape that he invited listeners to explore in their own life’s path. It seems to me there’s a parallel here. Trane couldn’t separate his music from his life. What he played was what he lived and how he lived became a musical expression as well.

Some of the most musical people I know can’t play a note on an instrument. Some of the most spiritual people I know are artists (and other folk) who don’t seem very religious, if you know what I mean. Some of my most inspirational musical moments have come when I’ve seen the light go on in a person’s countenance while I’m playing with Oîkos. A smile erupts, a head nods, a sigh emerges… you can almost hear an amen. To touch another person with the Spirit of your art is a special thing. Trane was right. “To be a musician is really something. It goes very, very deep.”

Expressive blessings,

Cliff

A few years back the Oîkos Ensemble led Sunday morning worship at a church in Cleveland. It was a great jazz service, with musicians and worshipers performing the dance of creative liturgy together. Performing? That’s a presumptuous thing to say when you’re leading worship. The commonly held idea is that we’re not supposed to perform in worship. Performance, when praising God is somehow unseemly, egotistical . . . blasphemous?

I believe the Danish philosopher, Søren Kierkegaard, had the correct assessment of worship as performance. We are not to be passive pew participants seated before our worship leaders—preacher, choir, musicians. Our role as worshipers is to be on center stage to act out our faith and perform for God, who is our ever-present audience. So perform we did with Chris Bakriges on piano, Ricky Exton on drums and Glenn Holmes on bass. And, we had the good fortune to have Angela Lynard as our vocalist to assist worshipers in their performance before God.

At the conclusion of worship I had two powerful conversations. One, with an older woman who reminder me that we led a jazz playshop more than two years earlier that changed her life. I had asked participants to engage in creative punctuation artistry, which enabled her to understand the transitional place her life was in, ultimately helping her to make a decisive change that was transforming. The other, a younger woman, confessed that she had just stumbled into church that morning not expecting much and the music had touched her deeply, lifting her spirits and giving her the courage to face a difficult issue in her life.

Whew! The power of the music is amazing, especially when grounded in the Spirit. It’s a humbling experience doing this thing called Oîkos. Time and time again people express how our music, stories and creativity have awakened them in unexpected ways. I guess that’s why I love doing this ministry. You never know when or where transformation will strike. And whose life will be changed.

Performance blessings,

Cliff

After months of planning, preparation, arranging, website development and promotional design we are about to go live. Volume 1 of Worship in a New Key is now available to for download. Included in this initial volume are 12 popular hymn tunes: Ellacombe, Eventide, Holy Mana, Hyfrydol, Hymn to Joy, Nettleton, New Britain, Nicaea, Puer Nobis Nascitur, Slane, St. Anne. and St. Denio.

These familiar melodies are the basis for at least 40 hymns found in the most common hymnals of today. Each hymn tune has a creative arrangement complete with jazz chord notation for C, Bb, Eb and Bass Clef instrumentation . . . and performance notes providing ideas on how to get the most out of each arrangement. Couple this with the jazz resources on the home page of this website, and church musicians and ministers have the basic ingredients for incorporating jazz into worship. Ordered individually, each hymn tune is just $2.50. The entire collection is only $20, so it’s like getting 4 arrangements free.

We’re excited about sharing these jazz resources and hope that they will deepen your worship as you embrace the spirit of jazz in your congregation. We hope to hear from you as you share your experiences so that we can begin a web conversation about the impact of jazz in your worship.

Also, stay tuned for volume 2. In the next few weeks we’ll be featuring arrangements for 12 Christmas carols to jazz up your holiday worship and seasonal programs.

Jazz Blessings,

Cliff & Tim

“Musicians should never forget that we’re blessed.We have a special gift that people can enjoy through us. We’ve had the good fortune to receive this and pass it along to others.”             —Ed Thigpen

 

Drummer, Ed Thigpen, who died a few years ago, performed with some true jazz greats, particularly pianist’s Billy Taylor and Oscar Peterson. While I never met Ed, or heard him perform in person, I remember listening to him on records as I was growing up. He had a great sense of swing. And, as the above quotes illustrates, a great spirit with a sense of purpose in sharing his music as a blessing.

I’m continuing to review some of my journal entries from several years ago. I thought you might enjoy the following reflection written after performing at a fundraising event in Wilmington, Vermont for an organization called “Twice Blessed.”

It was not the usual Oîkos affair rooted in worship, but the music had a spiritual energy. “Twice Blessed” is a community thrift store that provides goods and services (at low cost) to help those in need. We were playing to raise funds to help the organization continue to provide financial help where it was needed most. The irony of the fundraiser was that it took place at exactly the time when the US banking and financial system seemed in terminal meltdown. (Looking back, who would have guessed the financial turmoil that would ensue?). And, who do you suppose was in the audience? None other than Alan Greenspan (who had recently retired as Chair of the Federal Reserve).

I didn’t know he was in the audience while I was playing and only found out after the gig. So, I never had the chance to get his opinion on the economic catastrophe taking place at that very moment. Not that I would have understood a word he might have said. Economics to me might as well be rocket science. So, a further irony was that on my four-hour drive back to Lake Winnipesauke where I was vacationing, I thought about economy.

The name of my band, Oîkos, is derived from the Greek—literally, a house or abode where one makes a home. It is the root for some very significant words: ecumenism, ecology, and economy. Used in a biblical sense, the “economic” sense of oîkos is most often translated as stewardship—one who manages a household, a steward unto whom much responsibility is entrusted.

So the name of my musical endeavor is, at its very core, an affirmation that the music we create is no mindless, frivolous thing, but a responsibility entrusted by our Muse. The very act of engaging in the creative enterprise of spontaneous composition is not for the faint of heart. It is an act of faith—faith that the music is grounded and supported by the ensemble and has something of value to offer to the listener and, might I add, to God. It is an act of stewardship—nurturing a creative impulse, making oneself completely open to the moment to share a creative vision, which is a deeply spiritual undertaking.

So economics has everything to do with music, a realization that what we play is a gift, an offering of stewardship to the Creator.

 I had heard that Alan Greenspan started off as a music major and played tenor saxophone when he was young, and has picked up his horn again and is jamming in southern Vermont. I doubt whether our paths will cross again, but if so I’d very much like to ask his economic advice regarding the “economy” of improvisation—sharing the gift of our musical blessings.

Wild blessings,

Cliff