Reflections of a Jazz Theologian

Jazz:  On the Cusp of a Golden Age?

Syncopating, Improvising and Responding to the Call of a Love Supreme (p1)

Strange Fruit used to hang from trees in America.

Col. Charles Lynch was a Justice of the Peace with his own kind of justice in the late 1700's.  He would hold illegal trials and upon convictions, would tie the suspect to a tree and whip them.  By the late 1800's "Lynch Mob" was a part of the American vocabulary.  It was a term to describe the horrific practice of confiscating a "criminal" from the local jail or kidnapping him from his home in front of his family.  Without proper trial they would humiliate, whip with barbed wire, torture, emasculate and hang the strange fruit from a tree.

The crop of strange fruit was counted during the years of 1882-1968.  During that time 4743 people, mostly African-Americans were hung from trees with their bodies mutilated, lacerated, burned and riddled with bullets.  It was a community event.  A lynch mob was more than just the unmasked, yet usually never punished perpetrators.  Pictures show men, women and even children gathered by the thousands to witness the hanging of this strange fruit.  Children were often recruited to assist in the grotesque gathering.  After the hanging people would pose for pictures and even parts of the body would be cut off for memorabilia.

Strange--unnatural--fruit used to hang from trees in America.  Jazz legend Billy Holiday even sang about it...

What's a jazz-shaped faith? (review p2)

There are three fundamentals to jazz and thus a jazz shaped faith.

• Syncopation:  Accenting the offbeat.  This is what allows jazz to swing and when applied to prayer or bible study it brings to light, not hidden meaning but meaning that is often missed.
• Improvisation:  When we are so familiar with the basic groove of God's word and the way of Christ we are in a position to experiment and play a little.  Improvisation is the result of living in community with other practicing Christians who allow us the grace and encouragement to find our own voice..
• Call and Response:  The essence of a jazz-shaped faith is listening.  God calls to his creation on the first page of scripture and continued to call to Adam and Eve as they hid in shame.  When we develop our ear for the voice of God and the needs of others we place ourselves in a position to respond by dawning the towel and basin and serving others as Christ did.

These concepts can be applied to the various aspects of our faith.  For the foreseeable future I'm going to be syncopating, improvising and responding to the call of a love supreme.  That is, I'll be blogging often about the cross of Christ from a jazz-shaped perspective.

What's a jazz-shaped faith? (review p1)

When we realize that jazz is more than music than  whole new way of living the Christian faith emerges.  One that leads to creativity in our walk with God and relationships that resemble an ensemble so that we can find our voice and develop our ear as we pray, read the scriptures and serve Christ.

We do not need to be jazz musicians to practice a jazz-shaped faith.  All we need is to understand the basic concepts of jazz.  Rather, there are basic concepts that are most easily observed in music but are in no way limited to those who play instruments.  Once we are familiar with the basic elements we begin to notice them elsewhere such as art, literature and sports.

(To be continued...)

Strange Fruit by Nina Simone

Strange Fruit is a tough song to listen to.  In clear and measured words it captures what was happening in our country most powerfully.  Lynching was a form of terrorism that went unpunished in this country for too long.  Of all of the versions that I've heard, Nina Simone's is the best.  Just a warning, this is not easy to watch...

Greetings from the Pacific Northwest

At the moment I'm in Tacoma, WA with the wonderful people of Youth For Christ Tacoma/West Puget Sound and Adoption Ministry of YWAM.

Finding The Groove Update

My book is due to hit shelves Feb. 2009--Here's a sneak peek at the cover...

(Design by Kurt at Zondervan)

Strange Fruit by Lady Day

I collect every version of this haunting poem put to music.  Here's Billie Holiday's rendition.

Lord, have mercy...