"(Our band) exists to create jazz music that glorifies God, renews the Christian church, and models the integration of faith and the arts". -Pastor Bill Carter, pianist

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What is this bond between the house of prayer and the house of cool?

Early 20th century black musicians weren't allowed to play in the white clubs and concert halls. Church was the favorite place to hold concerts for touring musicians. As Ragtime and African-American spiritual music evolved, jazz was born: inside the church. So when it was reintroduced to the congregations sometime in the 1960's, it was a kind of homecoming. Now its sacred spirit could be reclaimed.

Surprisingly, very little has been written over the past thirty years about jazz and the church. It began with jam sessions on Sunday evening services at churches like St. Peters and St. John the Divine in New York City. There, many of the era's jazz legends would come to perform, and word began to spread about this unique worship service. Jazz pioneer and bandleader Duke Ellington was instrumental in this movement in sacred jazz, and wrote three sacred concerts which are still being performed in churches, cathedrals and synagogues throughout the world. (thanks to: Barry Sames)

JOHN COLTRANE (1926 -1967) Saxophone player, composer, eminent jazz innovator. Coltrane's faith in God was a powerful healing force in his overcoming addiction to heroin. He testifies to God's omnipotence, our need for God, dependence on God and God's power to remake us on his seminal album "Love Supreme", and dedicates his music, saying "Let us sing all songs to God."

DUKE ELLINGTON (1899 -1974) When the Duke presented his "Sacred Concerts" the music world begin to discover the body of music in the Sacred Jazz genre. And when these concerts were first introduced, they stirred a wave of controversy about whether the terms "sacred" and "jazz" should even be used together to describe this genre of music. Many felt uneasy with the term sacred jazz and prefer the phrase, inspirational jazz, but the Duke knew that this special music went beyond being just inspiring, it was reverent in its purpose and that made it sacred. (www.rejoicensemble.com)

VINCE GUARALDI (1928 -1976) Guaraldi's concert of sacred music in 1965 at San Francisco's Grace Cathedral, reissued as The Grace Cathedral Concert, displayed his fine-tuned ear for combining church choral arrangements with his jazz trio, and preceded Duke Ellington's more famous Sacred Concert there by four months. Guaraldi was most famous for recording the music for 15 network "Peanuts" cartoon specials (A Charlie Brown Christmas album was certified platinum for sales of one million units).

DAVE BRUBECK (1920 - ) Dave Brubeck expresses the joy inspired by Christ's Resurrection through a blend of jazz and classical music, sacred text, and Brubeck's signature use of complex rhythms and polytonality. Brubeck says a church theme of Bach's called "Oh sacred head now wounded," was actually a drinking song. "So what is profane and what is sacred? It's in how you do it, how you approach it, and what you bring to it." The First Baptist Church has one of his songs in its hymn book.