Jazz Imitates God's Creation

On April 6, we will have jazz worship at Southwood. There are many reasons for using jazz in worship. One reason is that Jazz is spontaneous. The essence of jazz is its improvisation. Performing everything as rehearsed is not jazz. With jazz, you are supposed to play it "your own way." When you listen to jazz, you are hearing raw ideas being given substance even as they must adapt to the musical setting. Many musicians describe a sense of ideas flowing through them rather than from them. In this sense, jazz is sacred, as is all of God's work. Jazz imitates God's creation - ever evolving.

Jazz at Southwood evolved when we realized we had several jazz musicians worshiping at Southwood. Among these musicians was Tom Larson, a jazz pianist and teacher at UNL. Tom was approached with the idea to lead a jazz worship at Southwood, and he agreed. He organized a group of musicians from Southwood and the community, and the first jazz worship was planned for the summer of 2005. We have had jazz services several times a year since then under Tom’s leadership. We are thankful for his willingness to arrange all the music for these services. We are also thankful for the musicians who play as part of our ensemble: Rusty White, bass; John Scofield, percussion; Paul Haar, sax; Paul Krueger, trumpet; Bob Krueger, trumpet. Paul Krueger is a music student at UNL (and member at Southwood). He will help arrange one of the hymns for the April jazz service.

I hope you'll enjoy the feeling of the spontaneous, evolving, never-the-same-twice music we'll hear on Sunday. And I hope it will give you a new way of experiencing God moving in our midst.

Denise