My recent visit to New Orleans to do Hurricane Katrina reconstruction and repair work wasn't all work and no play; I also took time to visit some of the sights -- something that locals encouraged us to do. New Orleans may face many challenges as it seeks to recover from the devastating storm, but residents boast a keen pride in their city and want the world to know that disaster isn't the only thing that defines their community.
One thing they take particular pride in is their distinctive jazz sound. One of the best places to hear it is at Preservation Hall, founded in 1961 to preserve and promote New Orleans jazz. The hall was standing-room only the night I was there to hear the New Birth Brass Band.
Jazz has deep spiritual roots in the experience of African-Americans in the U.S., so it isn't surprising that a growing number of churches are using it in worship services. One popular use is through jazz vespers, where jazz musicians lead an evening service of scripture, prayers and music.
The jazz vespers tradition was started in 1961 at St. Peters Lutheran Church in New York City by Reverend John Garcia Gensel, who noticed that jazz musicians who played late-night gigs on Saturdays had trouble making it to church on Sunday mornings. Over time his church became home for many jazz musicians, including Duke Ellington, who called Gensel "the shepherd who watches over the night flock." Ellington wrote a tune titled Shepherd of the Night Flock in his honour.
The first church in Canada to offer weekly jazz vespers is Vancouver's St. Andrew's-Wesley United Church, which started offering the service in 1992. One of the key people in helping start it was B.C. pianist and composer Peter Dent, who grew up in the United Church, but drifted away from faith as an adult. Later, as a member of Vancouver's well-known Bach Choir, he sang many of the old hymns and found them speaking to him in a new way.
"I began to hear all sorts of ways to take many of these marvellous old melodies and dress them up in a fresh way," he says, adding that through the process he found himself "reconnecting to the spiritual life which I had as a youth, and which I have rediscovered."
Dent has released three CDs of Christian jazz -- An Old Fashioned Hymn Swing, Swing Unto the Lord and Heaven and Nature Swing -- giving the old tunes a jazz, gospel or swing feel.
"Many of the old hymn tunes are great melodies and deserve to be heard," he says. "My goal at all times is to respect the original tunes, both the melodic integrity and the underlying sentiment of the pieces."
Dent is especially interested in helping mainline churches get their groove back.
"A lot of mainline Protestants were brought up to believe church was supposed to be no fun, that they weren't supposed to feel joy or show emotion in services," he says.
"They were taught to believe God was always serious. But now more and more people are realizing rhythm can get you to a spiritual place."
Dent says a good worship service should engage the mind, soul and body. Jazz can aid this effort since it not only appeals to the mind, but "moves other parts of our body ... I don't believe in a polite God who shows no emotion. I think churches can be a place where Christians can feel good about spontaneity -- feeling the rhythms of God."
Here in Winnipeg, several churches offer jazz vespers, including St. Benedict's Table, Transcona Memorial United Church and St. Mary Magdalene. Pastor Jamie Howison of St. Benedict's Table loves jazz, but admits that some people aren't sure what to think of a jazz vespers service -- is it really worship?
For Howison, the answer is yes. The challenge for worshippers, he writes on his church's website, "is to be still and attentive, listening not simply to the music, but to the voice of the Spirit of God that is always present in every moment of our lives, but often overlooked because we're so busy talking and making noise."
In the attentive listening to the music played by the jazz musicians, he adds, worshippers can hear "the voice of the Spirit, 'interceding for us in sighs to deep for words.'"
For more information about Peter Dent, visit www.peterdent.com.
You can read an essay about jazz and worship by Jamie Howison titled Jazz and The Holy at http://www.jazzmuseuminharlem.org/holy.html.
jdl562000@yahoo.com
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