Jazz: Prayers From The People
By Brian Nixon, Special to ASSIST News Service
ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO (ANS – July 26, 2016)
-- As a music history minor, I remember sitting in my jazz history
courses in college listening to the amazing recordings of various
musicians. I was captivated by the sounds of pure energy. And though I
appreciated jazz before college, it was during college that I became a
jazz fan, taking in concerts and seeking out the best records.
And
to this day when people ask me to name my top jazz artists (which just
happened this past week), I always reply with the same names: Thelonious
Monk, John Coltrane, Eric Dolphy, Miles Davis, and Dave Brubeck. Why I
choose these five, I’m not totally sure. It was probably a particular
tune they wrote or the way they handled their respected instruments that
caught my attention. And 20 plus years after college, I’m still a huge
fan of all five.
All
this came back to me as I sat and watched the kick-off of the New
Mexico Jazz Festival in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Though the day was hot,
I listened in rapt attention as the Django Festival All-Stars
performed. These Frenchman kicked up a storm. And though all the
musicians were amazing (two guitarist, violin, bass, and accordion), it
was the accordionist, Ludovic Beier, which caught my attention. He was a
master on the instrument.
As
the Django Festival All-Stars played in unison, then independently,
then took improvisational solos (if you know jazz, you know what I’m
talking about), it came to my attention that jazz is a lot like prayer, a
give and take between God and a person.
In
prayer, there are moments when we’re talking to God individually, a
one-way conversation, letting Him know of our concerns, dreams, and
desires. This would be likened to a solo in jazz -- an independent
instrument saying something the best it can.
Then
there’s God talking back (largely through Scripture), leading us
according to His will. Again, this is like a solo break in a jazz
number. God is speaking melody into our life.
Then
there’s the moment when there’s a give and take in prayer, a
combination of being in sync and accord with the Lord, of listening and
speaking, of groaning and pondering, of hearing and saying. And like any
good jazz performance, you’ll see the blending of sound -- an
improvisation of wills -- working in harmony, sequence, rests, and
silences, as a means of bringing together the whole composition, a
conversation between the Player and the instrument. And when you add in
the prayers of the people, congregational praying, you have the “band”
playing in unison, in synchronization.
Writer, Bob Hostetler, writes concerning the similarity between jazz and prayer as follows:
“I often ‘pray like jazz.’
“For
example, I regularly pray the Lord’s Prayer. Sometimes, I pray it just
as it appears in the Bible. Other times, however, I pray like jazz.
“I
might begin, “Our Father in heaven, may Your name be kept holy, may It
be honored in my family, in my church, in my community. May my conduct
today be a credit to Your Holy Name. May everything I do and say reflect
Your Holiness rather than my frailty.” And so on.
“In
my daily confession, I often begin with the familiar words, “Almighty
God, my Father, I confess that I have sinned against You through my own
fault, in thought, word, and deed.”
“And
then I usually have plenty of cause to do some free-styling by
specifying things like, “In my thoughts, I have hated and cussed and
lusted; with my words I have lied and deflected and exaggerated; in deed
I have been a lazy and careless and a lawbreaker.” And so on.
“Or
I might sing or say a hymn in my evening prayers, such as, “I Need
Thee,” and after the first few words (‘I need Thee every hour, most
gracious Lord; No tender voice like Thine can peace afford’), I might
improvise, “I need Your healing touch, to comfort and renew, and give me
back the joy that comes only from You.”
“Or I may depart entirely from the meter and rhyme scheme and sing or speak whatever my heart longs to express in that moment.
“Praying
like jazz gives me the blessing of praying scripture and liturgy and
other writers’ prayers without limiting my expression or blunting my
intimacy with God” [1].
I like Hostetler’s analogy.
Likewise,
theologian, James McClendon, likens jazz to the Christian life,
summarizing the similarities as “participation,” “cooperation,”
“recognition,” and “inclusion [2].”
In
prayer there is participation, two or more people talking together.
There’s cooperation, a convergence of communication. There’s also
recognition: the person recognizing God, and God recognizing the person.
And of course, inclusion: all people can pray, all people are welcome
in a conversation with God.
No wonder writer, K. Shakelford, said that jazz has a “spiritually anodynic or healing power” [3].
Like
prayer, jazz can sooth and settle, challenge or contour our presence,
call out or cuddle us in mediation. And though music is not exactly the
same as prayer, it may be the closest thing we have to it. For in the
end, it’s as John Coltrane states, “Music is the spiritual expression of
what I am – my faith, my knowledge, my being … When you begin to see
the possibilities of music, you desire to do something really good for
people, to help humanity free itself from its hang-ups … I want to speak
to their souls.”
2) Systematic Theology: Witness, Volume 3. Page 173
Photo captions: 1) Django Festival All-Stars. 2) John Coltrane. 3) Thelonious Monk. 4) Dave Brubeck. 5) Brian Nixon.
About
the writer: Brian Nixon is a writer, musician, and minister. He's a
graduate of California State University, Stanislaus (BA) and is a Fellow
at Oxford Graduate School (D.Phil.). To learn more, click here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Nixon.
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