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Listening to the Voices of Today
A series of presentations, Lent 2006
Jazz - the Bishop
Return to Lent talks index page.
Bishop Peter Price, Bishop of Bath and Wells, spoke on his passion for jazz and on his attitude to life and faith, and how these informed each other.
He began by playing a piece that meant much to him, a Swedish hymn version by Jan Johansen. This was given to him as a vinyl record at a difficult period in his life. Another gift then was a Bible verse, Zechariah 13.6:
If someone asks him, 'What are these wounds on your body?' he will answer, 'The wounds I was given at the house of my friends.'
He said that jazz taught him to find a way of enjoying all that is good and simple, in a hopeful way. He has written two books on jazz, Undersong: Listening to the Soul (2002) and Playing the Blue Note: Journeying into Hope (2003). His spiritual director had asked him, while he was writing the first book, "What is the Undersong while you are writing?"
She was referring to this, by Emmerson (or Thoreau):
‘The undersong is the emotional current that carries us along through the very life of the inner world.’
Most people have a sense of the 'other' or the numinous, or God. We may consciously start on a journey, for example at the beginning of Lent, then forget it or lose our way, and later find ourselves at a different place and, looking back, realise that we have been led on a different journey: that is the undersong.
Jazz is a recent form of music, a fusion of black slave music with white rhythm. In the late 19th century American slaves made music on Sunday afternoons, their only leisure time. The music fell into two kinds, Blues and Gospel. Rhythm was at its heart. Then came Louis Armstrong with his horn, and transformed it, discovering new patterns; he was 'the engine room of contemporary jazz.' With Duke Ellington and Charlie Parker, Louis formed the 'trinity' of jazz.
Armstrong's playing has been described as "unhurried ease among the most turbulent arrangements." Today we live under many pressures, and we need to discover "unhurried ease".
Bishop Peter played a song by Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald, "Can't we be friends?"
I thought I’d found the man of my dreams.
Now it seems, this is how the story ends:
He’s goin’ to turn me down and say,
Can’t we be friends?
I thought for once it couldn’t go wrong.
Not for long! I can se the way this ends:
Cnever again! through with love,
Through with men!
They play their game without shame, and who’s to blame?
I thought I’d found a man I could trust.
What a bust! this is how the story ends:
He’s goin’ to turn me down and say,
Can’t we be friends?
Bishop Peter distinguished between Spirituals and The Blues. James F. Cone wrote of Spirituals that those songs which we interpret as a longing for heaven were in fact a longing for escape from slavery. The 'gospel train' was a secret escape route from the slave-owning South to the northern states of America.
Spirituals were full of hope. By contrast, The Blues are without hope. Their philosophy is: The world is a mess. Don't trust God: trust yourself and make the best of the mess we are in. This included taking the women you wanted.
The 2000 Joel Coen film O Brother Where Art Thou? shows three white escaped convicts meeting a black boy who says, "I sold my soul to the devil." He means that he plays the Blues, rather than Spirituals. A Blues singer, Henry Townsend, on the other hand, asks "If I sing the Blues and tell the truth, what evil have I done?" People of faith should face the feeling of life without hope, as expressed in the Blues.
Jazz always creates the possibility of chaos. Individual musicians improvising can, if they get it wrong, mess things up for everyone else. The different egos together, keeping inside the beat, working together to make some sort of tune, are reminiscent of the Church! But, as Nietsche wrote, "Chaos gives birth to a dancing star."
The next record was Oscar Peterson playing Hymn to Freedom (sample here) from the album Night Train. The Bishop felt a kinship with this pianist, who suffered a stroke at the same time that the Bishop suffered a heart attack, and who went on to play wonderful and inventive music for a decade. He called Oscar Peterson's records an 'incredible pieces of genius', and pointed out that in this track the simple tune is almost lost in the middle, but emerges again by the end. Even the quiet notes are exciting. (This listener was thrilled by an almost miraculous tremolo.)
The Bishop linked this music with our longing for peace, which is often frustrated for long periods, as in Northern Ireland, but which may come in the very long run.
In his book, "Playing the Blue Note", the Bishop wrote of discussions he had with Northern Ireland leaders of all shades, including Sinn Fein. The breakthrough that they hoped for so often descended into chaos again.
The Bishop's wife came from Omagh, and when the bomb outrage happened there was an anxious time until they found that his wife's mother was safe. The week after the bomb, a memorial service was held in Omagh. People from both Roman Catholic and Protestant communities joined in the service, meeting each other for the first time. Leaders of all parties attended. One group asked 'What is Gerry Adams doing here?' and another group asked 'What is David Trimble doing here?'
Ian Paisley visited the Bishop's Palace garden last year, and was invited to tea by the Bishop. During conversation he emerged as a much more human person than his public image suggests.
Introducing the fourth record, the Blind Boys of Alabama singing "I wish I could hear my mother pray again," the Bishop told how he looks for and finds God in unusual places. He told of his meeting on a train with a young woman who wore rings all over her body, who was reading Proust, and who turned out to be passionate about the environment, and was part of a group monitoring all the US government statements about a possible war with Iraq. (This was soon after Nine Eleven.)
After the interval, during which some gentle jazz was played, Bishop Peter spoke about American store-front churches, small places with hundreds of different names. One claimed:
Our going to church on Sunday is like placing one's ear to another's chest to hear the unquenchable murmur of the heart.
Church should be a place where we can explore ourselves and where we are. We share best in conversation, when people tell us how it is for them, and give us the chance to tell them how it is for us.
Returning to the film "O Brother, where art thou?" the Bishop set the scene for the next record. The three white escaped convicts are in a wood when they hear music, and see a group dressed in white, swaying to the music. It is a baptism. One of the convicts demands to be baptised, and tells his fellows that he is saved and will go to heaven. They remind him that he is still a hunted criminal.
From the sound-track of this film the Bishop played a most attractive song in Gospel style, "Down to the river to pray".
People are searching and desiring to find out what it is to be human, and to find out the truth about God. It is the Church's task to let people know that we are all made in God's image, and to learn how to live in the world in such a way that all creatures may 'grow into full humanity.'
The next record was Dave Brubeck's famous 'Take Five.' The Bishop said he related to Brubeck as someone described thus:
Brubeck often lacked the technique to carry out his ideas. In later years he showed greater relaxation and brought greater ease to his execution.
We are under pressure to achieve, and achievement is good; but we are called to discover our centre. Who we are is more important than what we do.
Bishop Peter recalled a time after his heart bypass spent at his spiritual director's retreat centre. She encouraged him to play, something which he initially found very difficult but which he feels he has learned to do. She told him: "You have to find out who you are."
The brilliant trumpeter Winton Marsalis says:
Jazz is about projecting yourself, but also expressing yourself as members of a group.
In the Body of Christ we find out who we are, in the context of other Christians and of the world. Winton Marsalis says that to play jazz we need to our eyes open, keep our minds open, and listen to others.
The Bishop admires Jools Holland, and played his song Tuxedo Junction. He told how he followed Jools at the Glastonbury Festival in 2005, and later met him at the Wells palace. The Bishop's 3-minute message at the Festival is well received. Our faith is wanted out there. What is often not wanted is what happens in church buildings.
Madeleine Peyroux made one album, Dreamland, and was unable for a long time to cope with the fame it brought her. She has now, after eight years, come back to make a second album, Careless Love. We heard the track from her first album, 'A Prayer', which the Bishop said expressed the faith he hoped he would have at the end of his life.
Lord
I must be strong now
I don't belong now
In this world anymore
I'll say a final prayer for
Those I care for
Who've kept my company
My need is clear
I'm dying to have you near
To me
Lord
I don't belong now
If you are waiting
I am not afraid to die
I'm prepared to go
Divide my body and soul
Won't you
Lord
I don't belong now
If you are waiting
I am not afraid to die
Have mercy
Lord, I'm told it's paradise
To have and to hold you
Lord
I must be strong now
I don't belong now
In this world anymore
Lord
I won't be long now
If you are waiting
I am not afraid to die
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Thursday 28th of August 2008
