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This article appeared in the January 2002 issue of
Worship, Music and Ministry. Rowayton, Connecticut, 2001 In New Orleans for Mardi Gras, while standing under the Basin Street and Storyville street signs (having my picture taken...), I marveled at the great journey this jazz music I love has taken — from its origins, up the Mississippi River, and as far East and West as our country stretches. Wherever I travel — anywhere in the world — jazz has already arrived, in some fashion! From rags to respectability, in a way... But, this historical itinerary is complicated and filled with many detours, sad stories, and wonderful moments as many of you may know from the recent PBS television series. Jazz, an American art form which blends Western musical instruments and harmonies with African rhythms and inflections, has blossomed gloriously upon the American musical scene and has somehow infiltrated contemporary worship experience. Bravo! Something happened along the way…those historic yet upsetting American 1960s! In 1966 Duke Ellington wrote “Come Sunday,” now a hymn in the United Methodist Hymnal. John Coltrane’s 1964 recording “A Love Supreme,” (as reviewed by I. S. Hoist) “opened the eyes of the jazz world to a new spiritual potential,” albeit in non-western religious idioms. In traditional Protestant circles, who didn’t sing the rhythmic music of Avery and Marsh, songs protesting social injustice? For many years our choirs and congregations have enjoyed the infectious rhythms of gospel and other church music, both of which have been heavily influenced by jazz and the blues. We have been exposed to and even performed some of this music in our services. The jazz ballad has also lent its warm harmonies and flowing vocal melodies to our worship. This quotation is drawn from the introduction to the Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz: “Jazz has to do with Western man’s fundamental rhythms of life; it has also to do with Western man’s contemporary reassessment of his traditional values and of his own nature; and surely, in view of its origins in black American life, jazz has to do with human survival itself.” In viewing jazz as a reflection of man’s identity and fight for freedom and acceptance, the great wave of jazz worship experiences is understandable. In New York, St. Peter’s Church has its own jazz services and jam sessions, and the organist at St. John the Divine is known for her jazz improvisations. I recently participated in a jazz service at Center Congregational Church in Hartford, CT, where Charles Miller was music director and organist. In this service we performed two of my jazz-influenced choral works, and I played an old New Orleans gospel song as a jazz piano postlude, “Just a Closer Walk with Thee.” Also, Charles turned me loose on the Austin organ for the three hymns; needless to say, they really “swung.” Try www.google.com and enter “jazz and worship services.” Thirteen pages on the Internet! The number of churches of every denomination is truly surprising. I receive bulletins every week from churches in the United States and Europe; my organ pieces are played widely, attesting to a desire for this style of music in an ever more diverse world. The responses we receive are indeed heartening. While in New Orleans, I was the guest musician in the Sunday morning mass at St. Leo’s. Ryan Rhodes, organist and director, had a drum set placed in the balcony next to the organ! When the 14-year-old drummer began to play with the choir, an irrepressible sense of swing took over. We have come some distance from our humble beginnings in Storyville! The question: How does a jazz professional — recitalist, recording artist, and composer — function as a music director/organist in a large New England Congregational church? Especially in a church where the communion service is authentic Paul Revere silver, where an amazing classical musical tradition led by Dr. Louise Miller for some forty-one years blossomed, and where the choral library spans the great sacred literature? It is a church with strong traditions. I select music for services that both respects the variety of those fundamental traditions and adds to it the glorious tradition of new sounds: jazz and quality choral compositions by contemporary composers whose harmonies and melodic contribution support meaningful texts. For service music, I often improvise the prelude, basing it on one or all three of the morning service hymns, sometimes at the organ console, other times on the Steinway. I vary the style from classical to jazz in these improvisations. The postlude, often in a toccata style, is improvised at the organ console. I try to involve youth in the playing of preludes, as solo performers or with me as accompanist. Our children’s choir has sung pieces whose text and tune originate from the musical impulses of the young singers themselves, music I have enjoyed notating and arranging. Parents have proudly listened to their children’s music in the worship service. We have variety in vocal solos, ranging from Fauré to gospel improvisation. At times, I have written anthems for choirs, usually for the Palm Sunday Choral Concert, and make an effort to review and present regularly works by contemporary American composers throughout the church year. When I compose, there are strong influences from my classical training; there are also influences of jazz harmonies and rhythms, as well as gospel sounds. Igor Kipnis described my style as “incredibly varied and his compositions, as well as arrangements, are sophisticated and endlessly inventive.” Sunier, in Audiophile Audition, recently said the works “[bring] together the very best aspects of both creative jazz improvisation and composed works.” ASCAP awards have been granted annually since 1991 for my compositions, performed each year in more than 50 countries. Joe Utterback is the Director of Music and Organist for the historic First Congregational Church of Stratford, Connecticut. He teaches at Sacred Heart University, and conducts the Stratford Sister Cities Chorus. He performs weekly in NYC and in concert throughout the U.S. Copyright ©2002, 2003 by UCCMA, Inc. [You may review and order Joe’s music at www.jazzmuze.com (with sound bytes, sample music pages, and a full download of his organ solo “Little David, Play on Your Harp” from utterbackanalia, a recording of 21 of Joe’s organ solos performed by Andrew Shenton on the four-manual Mander at St. Ignatius Loyola in NYC. Other information about Joe – booking and commissioning procedures – may be located at www.joeutterback.com.]
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