Jazz Vespers Quartet:  Four views of our Jazz Vespers worship services

A member of the Jazz Vespers  Congregation: Marge E. Healy             

Jazz Vespers is a wonderful experience in my life.  It not only combines my love of music and spirituality, it provides a social setting to meet new and interesting people.  The music is always great. I work on Sundays, and Jazz Vespers gives me the strength I need to prepare myself for the week. Thanks for keeping it going.

A Minister: The Rev. Keenan Kelsey

I was on staff when Libby and Ed proposed Jazz Vespers, so from the very first, I have been part of the leadership.  In fact, I think I have only missed two in the series!   I remember when I was first asked to do a service on my own, without co-leading with Tim Hart-Andersen.  I was actually more nervous than leading a Sunday service in my own church at Noe Valley! However, I soon relaxed, and it has been both joy and privilege to lead these services while Old First leadership re-organized.

I think the anxiety arises when I consider the enormity of the opportunity to create worship in an unfamiliar context.  At Jazz Vespers, it is the worship leader who is solely responsible for moving a jazz concert from performance to piety.  Without the leader, there would be no bridges to worship.  The antidote to anxiety, for me, is to "let go and let God."  This is one service I plan carefully, but not rigidly.  It is important for me to respond to the music and the audience, and let the Spirit work.  It is the one service where I actually worship while I lead. 

Across the country, all sorts of alternative worship services are surfacing in an attempt to reach the "unchurched."  JV is one of these, and it is indeed attracting new people.  Even for Old Firsters, it helps expand our definition and experience of worship.  In my mind, Jazz  Vespers is no longer experimental.  It is an established, important, sprit-filled, enticing opportunity for worship.

A Musician: Gerry Grosz

What is jazz? For me, it's a joyous celebration of the spontaneous flow of universal energies, channeled through each performer's instrument, and combined in totally unique ways by the spirit of the moment and the interaction among the players. Does this sound like a spiritual event to you? It sure does to me, yet there are very few places jazz is performed where I get to revel so completely in that spiritual practice.

You may not know it, but jazz is having an identity crisis. It's either lauded as America's classical music in stuffy concert halls, or it's relegated to the dusty corner at the end of the bar in the back of the restaurant where nobody's listening anyway. The sad reality is that the surroundings and demands of most gigs detract from the essence, beauty, and joy of the music.

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.  For this reason, I am especially grateful for the opportunity to perform at Jazz Vespers.

A Member of Old First: Rod MacDonald

I’d like to tell you about the "Inside" of Jazz Vespers -- not to be confused with the inside details that Ed Klitsch does so well organizing the talent. I'm talking about what happens "inside me" 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.  For example: the sound of cymbals being tapped or brushed allows my mind to think about the pleasure of the moment; the influence of music and cultures of centuries past; what music sounded like in biblical times; and how pleased God must be there is jazz at Old First.