Summer Jazz Mass Sunday Evenings

Summer Jazz Mass Returns and Continues through August
From June 10 through August 26 weekend, we return to a worship schedule that includes evening Jazz Mass in the Michaux House.

Every Sunday at 5:30 p.m. through August 26, our clergy lead Richmond’s finest jazz players along with cantors from our choir and congregants through a specially designed liturgy that is open to the improvisation that is the heart of jazz music.

Readings may be from Scripture, thoughtful theologians, poetry, novels, really anything that reaches for the sacred and calls for our response. We gather around a table set with the kinds of food our Lord and his disciples might have brought for an evening meal. Sharing bread and wine and fellowship, we will invite the presence of the Holy Spirit in our Eucharistic feast.

This is a service that makes its foundation on our traditions and derives its energy from jazz. It is just the way you would want to conclude your Sunday and a perfect place to invite your friends and family to join in. Great music, great liturgy, great spirit and great goodness abound. Please come often.

 Complete list of players (as of June 10, 2018)

Date	Band (leader*)	Picture	From the artist
June 10	Jason Jenkins, bass*		I have been blessed over my musical journey to play with many wonderful musicians in many wonderful settings. For me, A Jazz Mass is very unique because I get to express myself in the music which I love, play with musician friends who I love, all in the house of the Lord who makes ALL thing possible.
June 17	Brian Jones, drums*		I have always believed that cultural critic Albert Murray was on to something when he equated the “Saturday Night Function” with the “Sunday Morning Service.”  Bridging the chasm of affect between solemnity and joy, jazz performance serves as a location of deep affect, emotional solace, and infectious celebration.  From Duke Ellington’s Sacred Concerts to John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme to Mary Lou Williams’  Black Christ of the Andes to Alice Coltrane’s Journey in Satchidananda, jazz culture has consistently provided potent examples of how the jazz ethos navigates and replenishes the vagaries of Alan Parker, guitar Randall Pharr, Bass Emre Kartari, drums the human spirit.
June 24	Taylor Barnett, trumpet* Alan Parker, guitar Randall Pharr, Bass Emre Kartari, drums		The Jazz Mass at St. James’s Episcopal is a unique opportunity for the musicians, the congregation, and the clergy to collaborate, for the glory of God, in a creative environment that only jazz music can provide. The service is at times reflective, and at other times jubilant. We wail on the blues; we sing of God’s mercy; and there is space for everyone involved to be fully themselves.
July 1	Victor Haskins, trumpet* Randall Pharr–bass Tony Martucci–drums
July 8	Roger Carroll, saxophone*		Making music for me, under any circumstance is a spiritual endeavor. Performing in clubs you are already dealing with a lot of energy so I think like a sculptor who is chipping away at the energy to create a soundscape of that moment in time. Performing in a concert sitting I think like a painter with a blank canvas to create that moment in time. In either circumstance, we the performers are only the messenger.
July 15	Anthony Dowd, piano* Alan Parker – guitar Andrew Randazzo – bass Aaron Binder – drums		There is a natural calm that comes over me as soon as the first tune starts on any gig. I’ve been fortunate in that I’ve been associated with “church music”, for most of my life. Singing in the school choir in the ’60’s, playing guitar for the folk mass at St. Bridget’s in the ’70’s, to playing at my parent’s church, St. Paul’s. There is also a calm that comes from spiritual music, so getting to put all these moments in one space gives me a “centeredness” that is unique.
July 22	Jason Jenkins, bass*
July 29	Daniel Clarke, piano*
August 5	Victor Haskins, trumpet*
August 12	Roger Carroll, saxophone*
August 19	Taylor Barnett, trumpet*
August 26	John Winn, saxophone*