Upcoming Jazz Vespers

The service is from 5-6pm in the Upper Hall.

• October 18th - Pete Yellin Quartet
• December 20th - Paul Scheffert Trio
• February 21, 2010 - Bobbe Norris & Larry Lunlap
• April 18, 2010 - Anton Schwartz Quartet
• June 20, 2010 - Mad & Eddie Duran Quartet

About Jazz Vespers

Pastor Keenan Kelsey of Noe Valley Ministry, usually bristles at the phrase "spiritual but not religious." However, when it comes to the new Jazz series that the church is launching, she embraces it!

This contemporary format first appeared when the late Reverend John Garcia Gensel started an evening service at St. Peter's Lutheran Church in NYC in 1961. It was designed for those musicians of a growing night ministry who couldn't make it to Sunday morning service after playing those late Saturday night gigs. He invited them to perform "a worship service by and for jazz musicians; the public is invited."

Since the birthplace of this once marginalized art form was the church, Jazz Vespers brings it full circle. The jazz tradition is about giving voice to a marginalized people. As an exoression of hopes, dreams, frustrations and pain that express cross-cultural human experience, jazz becomes the musical incense that collects and carries the prayers of a people. From Duke Ellington to John Coltrane to the local musicians who line up to participate, numerous jazz composers and interpreters have secured a place for this art form within the living tradition of the church. Jazz music emerges as a balm that has the power to heal and inspire. In Jazz Vespers, it is the worship leader who underscores this, moving the jazz concert from performance to piety, providing a bridge to worship.

Here's how one listener, Rod MacDonald, describes his experience at Jazz Vespers: "The improvisational nature of jazz helps me create a freedom inside my mind. This freedom encourages me to explore thoughts, without the encumbrance of traditional church music structure. Jazz can have repeating themes, but seldom are the notes always played exactly the same. In the same way, jazz at vespers encourages me to take a question, a thought, a sound, and shape it into many different meanings."

And here's what jazz musician Gerry Grosz says: "Jazz Vespers is unique among jazz gigs. It's a meeting in a sacred space where the music and the spirit are honored and celebrated together. Ideally, this combination would not be a singular experience, and I try my best to make each of my gigs a spiritual event. This special setting easily allows me to do just that."