Thriving on a Riff: Jazz and the Spiritual Life

Presbyterian pastor and jazz pianist Carter (The Pilgrim Road: Reflections on the Songs of Ascent in the Psalms for Lent and Easter) offers a long meditation on the spiritual poetry and drive of American jazz. He reflects upon the work of jazz greats such as Charles Mingus, Billie Holiday, Dave Brubeck, and many others. He presumes readers have more than a passing knowledge of these works. For example, meditating on chanting the psalms puts Carter in mind of John Coltrane, whose signature album A Love Supreme he christens “a recitative of his poem of praise.” He prefaces each chapter with a poem that intends to set the mood for what follows. For instance, there’s Mary Lou Williams and her jazz mass for St. Martin de Porres, Black Christ of the Andes, and he asserts that Duke Ellington created Christian jazz music in 1965. Carter celebrates the unabashed joy and freedom of jazz, gently eliding over pointedly racist reactions to it and to its historical relationship with its gospel and blues roots.