[Dixielandjazz] Jazz and religion (was Review-Spirits Rejoice)

[Charles Suhor]

I read the first 8 pages of the book via the “Look Inside” option on amazon.com. Rough going. Without having read further, I suspect I’d agree with Bivens that playing and hearing jazz can be related to religious experience (though I’d say “spiritual expereinces” to avoid implying that religious denominations or theology are a necessary link). 
But I don’t privilege jazz, or even music, as gateways to a sense of the transcendent. There are other means—deeply felt aesthetic expereinces in all of the arts, and in human contacts, communing with nature, athletes in a “zone,” meditation, ritual, and more. Even simple appreciations and observations can be spiritually rich. As Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote, “There lives the dearest freshness deep down things.” Blake wrote, “To see eternity in a grain of sand….” In my teen years jazz was an early entrance into the spaciousness that religionists have called Christ-consciousness, Buddha-mind, and other terms that try to "supernaturalize"  our finest natural states. Spiritual highs don’t show up on call for me, but I believe that openness to the Divine in jazz, being with my grandkids, and carrying water/chopping wood, is a sensitivity worth cultivating.

Charlie

On Jun 18, 2015, at 8:26 PM, Norman Vickers wrote:

> To: DJML;  Musicians and Jazzfans list
> 
> From: Norman Vickers, Jazz Society of Pensacola
> 
> 
> 
> This book review will be posted on the website of the Jazz Society of
> Pensacola www.jazzpensacola.com.  Reading is optional, as always.  It's not
> an easy book to read as jazz is difficult to define and religion and
> spirituality are, perhaps, even moreso.  Author Jason Bivins has feet in
> both camps as he's a professor of religious studies and a jazz guitarist.  I
> pass along for interest and possible comment.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> BOOK REVIEW
> 
> By
> 
> F. Norman Vickers
> 
> June 22 2015
> 
> 
> 
> SPIRITS REJOICE!; Jazz and American Religion
> 
> Jason C. Bivins; Oxford University Press
> 
> pp. 369 with bibliography and index C2015
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> There's a story, likely apocryphal , that a rural preacher started his
> sermon with these words:
> 
> "Today I will attempt to explain the unexplainable and unscrew the
> unscrewtable!"  In some ways trying to explain jazz-those of us who are
> heavily involved still struggle with a precise definition-and then trying to
> explain religion,  in all its myriad forms, is a formidable task.
> 
> 
> 
> James C. Bivins, the author, has unique qualifications in that he is an
> accomplished jazz guitarist and professor of religious studies at North
> Carolina State University.
> 
> 
> 
> The first portion of the book gives some views on jazz and its relationship
> to religion.  This was the most difficult portion of the book for me, and I
> suspect for most general readers.  Later he discusses religious concepts and
> spiritual attitudes of individual artists including John and Alice Coltrane,
> Mary Lou Williams and Ornette Coleman, plus many others.  Many of the
> musicians discussed came from religious-many from Pentecostal-backgrounds.
> Some contemporary musicians he interviewed directly, some over a period of
> several years. There are many direct quotes from the musicians as they
> attempt to explain their inspiration, especially improvisation.
> Spirituality and religion take many forms for these musicians from
> Christianity, Muslimism to Sufism and Baha'i, Dizzy Gillespie's choice.
> There's even mention of Scientology.
> 
> 
> 
> The book is well edited and the index and bibliography are both extensive.
> The book should appeal to those, like the author, with interest both in
> jazz, religion and/or spirituality.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> --End--
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> To unsubscribe or change your e-mail preferences for the Dixieland Jazz Mailing list, or to find the online archives, please visit:
> 
> http://ml.islandnet.com/mailman/listinfo/dixielandjazz
> 
> 
> 
> Dixielandjazz mailing list
> Dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com