McClendon On Church And Jazz

“Some features of jazz wherever it appears correspond closely to African American free-church (i.e., baptist) life. Participation: In Jazz the roles of composer and performer are not sharply distinguished. Some early jazz musicians could not read music – or read at all. The music they learned from others was memorized, and this itself invited variations when memories clashed. Cooperation: polyphonic performance required of each player improvisation that preserved the harmonies and rhythms while allowing, indeed requiring, each to embellish it in line with the uniqueness of his or her instrument and imagination. No two renditions of a piece were identical. The resultant polyphony (call and response, in baptist worship terms) was the cooperative achievement of all players. Suppressed in the swing era, this communal and improvisatory structure has returned, as we will see in today‚Äôs jazz. Recognition: Radio disk jockeys typically announce the name of every performer in a jazz band. This contrasts with the custom in classical (European) music, where players remain anonymous save for a few stars. Equality for all in the church was matched by equality for all in the band. Inclusion: Jazz reached across ethnic, racial, and cultural barriers; it was the product of this cross-ethnic inclusion. It equalized peoples as well as individuals. Here again an original Christian idea stands behind the practice (‚Äúno such thing as Jew and Greek, slave and freeman, male and female: for you are all one [body] in Christ Jesus: – Gal 3:28). Participation, improvisation, cooperation, recognition, inclusion – these are the requirements for Christian worship of the sort commended by Paul in 1 Corinthians 14. They were the features of black baptist church life – which formed many of the early musicians.”

[tags] James Wm McClendon [/tags]