Beyond 400: Baptists, Jazz and Faithful Improvization

I came across these couple of paragraphs, and thought they were helpful in articulating something of what we are trying to do as BUGB Baptists as we seek ways forward.

Think about the logic of jazz. Jazz emerges from the interplay of structure and improvization, collectivity and individuality, tradition and innovation.What goes on when jazz is performed? Jazz is not completely free form. There are standards, songs that can be played again and again. The score of jazz ranges from a chord progression and melody, or a full orchestration with openings for improvization. From that core the players innovate and improvize, modifying the chords and melodies and rhythm.The pleasure and energy of jazz comes from hearing both a familiar chord progression and melody and the new possibilities, what can be done from that structure. The ability to improvize is fuelled both by individual effort, creativity and technique and group synergy: the technical skill and creativity of each player is as foundational as is the spark that comes from playing off of each other.

So, what does it take to improvize? A key element is respect for the tradition, learning from it without merely repeating it. This respect is expressed by Miles Davis: ’I played 'My Funny Valentine' for a long time - and didn’t like it - and all of a sudden it meant something’ (Walser 1995, p. 165). Another essential element in jazz is respect for other players. As James Collier emphasizes, the worst that can be said of a jazz player is that he or she doesn’t listen (Collier 1993). A third element in jazz is openness to learning something new from an old piece and from other players, working with difference and novelty. Amiri Baraka highlights this aspect of jazz in his description of the playing of Chico Freeman: ’... he can unleash all the fire and mystery and otherness of the outside, but within the unifying and compelling vision of the carefully made. And this is what we look for, what we listen for, in any genre or style, the care and attention of the skilled craftsman along with the fire and passion of the exquisitely sensitive’ (Baraka, 248). And what is evoked by the performance of jazz? joy, energy and intellectual challenge for both players and listeners. Eric Lott sees this dimension of jazz in the playing of Charlie Parker- ’jazz was a struggle which pitted mind against the perversity of circumstance, and ... in this struggle blinding virtuosity was the best weapon’(Lott 1995). A final dimension of good jazz is that, when all of these components come together, it swings.

(Sharon Welch, 'Communitarian Ethics After Hauerwas', Studies in Christian Ethics 10.1 (1997))

Comments

[Glen]

I like this a lot. The other thing that's worth taking seriously about the Jazz analogy is that most of the energy of Jazz music came from a minority community that embraced it's minority status and found its own distinctive (and at the same time richly eclectic) voice, a voice that made a significant contribution to breaking down prejudice and discrimination.

[Craig]

This is what i was trying to say in the Whitely long time ago! ... and i still think its right but we cannot get excited by the metaphor if we are not first prepared to give ourselves with the same dedication as musicians give to learning to play (in the lonely practice rooms of life) and rehearsing with others too, before we ever perform the faith.