Every day, the Rev. Amy Cox lamented, the news seems to get worse. Every day, another story about racism, environmental degradation, sexual assault, other random outrages.
“The list is long and depressing,” Cox said, but you still can’t bury your head like an ostrich. “As a Christian, I am called to heal this world.”
But there’s nothing wrong with recharging your batteries with some prayerful beauty, she said — and so much the better if it swings.
“We need the beautiful sounds of these people,” she said as the band took a break. “We need these sounds to fill us back up. I’m starting to fill up. That’s why we go to Jazz Vespers.”
IF YOU GO
What: Jazz Vespers, featuring Mike Horsfall Trio with special guests.
When: 6 p.m. April 6, with Paul Mazzio, trumpet.
Where: St. Luke’s/San Lucas Episcopal Church, 426 E. Fourth Plain Blvd., Vancouver.
Jazz Vespers at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church is “one of Vancouver’s best kept secrets,” said Kathleen Brown, a member of the congregation, but that may be changing now. Last month, the group at the core of Jazz Vespers, the Mike Horsfall Trio, released a new CD featuring some of the Portland area’s top jazz talents as special guests. One of those guests joined the trio for a powerful and moving performance Feb. 2 at St. Luke’s.
Singer Marilyn Keller delivered soulful renditions of jazz standards and gospel singalongs like “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” known as the black national anthem; she even sang a thoughtful pop classic from 1986 about social ills and prejudice, Bruce Hornsby’s “The Way It is,” with its exhortation: “Some things don’t ever change? … Don’t you believe it.”
“These are your marching orders,” Keller said. “When you feel overwhelmed, remember what your source is. There’s no way I could stand here and deliver this music without connecting upwards with my God.” Then she raised her eyes to church roof and led the group through “Keep Your Eyes on the Prize.”
New tradition
What is Vespers? “It’s an alternative service, a contemplative evening service” that’s focused on music, said Tim Nickel, the music director at St. Luke’s. Vespers goes all the way back to the beginning of the Christian church, he said, and consists of psalms, prayers and canticles (songs taken directly from scripture). Congregational participation, singing along and call-and-response are important parts of the service.
And, in Jazz Vespers, it all begins and ends with swinging, thematically related standards performed by the band. Nickel launched Jazz Vespers at St. Luke’s in 2012, he said, after realizing that the joy and complexity of jazz still fit the faith mission “with real integrity.”
“I actually composed most of the music for the liturgy under the pseudonym Margarite Luc, the middle names of my two children, and directed from the piano,” Nickel said. “I like to fly under the radar.”
The group singing along Feb. 2 at St. Luke’s was obviously practiced at taking direction while feeling the spirit. One of the pieces in the liturgy, “Hymn of Light,” featured thousand-year-old words set to odd, artsy, assymetical music by “Margarite Luc”; the congregation took on the challenge of irregular beats per measure like a well-rehearsed jazz choir.
“There’s a famous phrase, ‘One who sings, prays twice,'” Nickel said. “The psalms were meant to be sung. Music has always been part of the religious tradition.” And when jazz, a unique new sound, emerged from the American melting pot of African- and European-influenced musical styles like blues, gospel, marches and ragtime, many of its purveyors were people of faith. Duke Ellington and Dave Brubeck both composed “sacred” works for jazz combo and choir; John Coltrane’s acknowledged masterpiece is his statement of faith, the album “A Love Supreme.”
“I’ve always felt that music is my church,” said pianist and vibraphonist Mike Horsfall, who leads the trio that anchors Jazz Vespers at St. Luke’s. “When I play Jazz Vespers, a very special feeling develops in the middle of it all. There is so much energy coming back from the congregation.”
Big day
Last year, Horsfall said, that energy came back at him in the form of a request. Why didn’t he and his tremendous jazz trio (featuring Brent Follis on drums and Laurent Nickel, Tim’s son, on bass) and their special guests record an album of their Jazz Vespers favorites?
They made it happen on one magical and exhausting day last year — June 18 — at a studio in Sellwood, Southeast Portland.
Over the course of that day, Horfall said, a parade of jazz talents came through the studio to special-guest with the trio — among them singer Marilyn Keller, saxophonist Devin Phillips, guitarist Chistopher Woitach, flautist Cheryl Alex and trombonist John Moak. There was little time for multiple takes or overdubs; everything was live and everyone’s talent was on the line.
The result is a fresh, robust CD called “Come Sunday,” featuring 16 songs across 71 minutes of music — a remarkable output for a single-day session. The recording includes classics like “Seven Steps to Heaven,” “Body and Soul” and “My One and Only Love” along with several original tunes by Horsfall and one by “Marguerite Luc,” that is, Tim Nickel.
The disc also features trumpeter Paul Mazzio, who will be the special guest at the next Jazz Vespers event in Vancouver, set for 6 p.m. April 6 at St. Luke’s. You can buy the disc at the church whenever it’s open, according to self-appointed publicist Sandy Geer, a member of the congregation.
“The music is so powerful and we have this beautiful venue with fabulous acoustics,” Geer said. “I’m a recent returnee to church and I’m not the really an overt Christian. I love the mingling of the secular and the spiritual. I love the fact that it’s a jazz concert where you get a little spirituality, too.”
