Hello:

To get you started may I suggest HOW SWEET THE SOUND, SATB,  a jazz samba by Mark Hayes...with rhythm section & a very essential alto sax solo, this is a real winner! Have done it many times. Lorenz Publishing.  You can probably still hear this on the Lorenz website.

 

For jazz accomp. to hymns get a copy of the book SWING A NEW SONG TO THE LORD, ed. by Rev. Bill Carter. A very necessary book for the serious jazz-for-worship musician.  Also some jazz anthems in this book...including a tune by Dave Brubeck, who was a close friend of Carter.  Bill is a great jazz pianist, and, by the way, also pastor of First Presby. in Clarks Summit, PA. Buy online at www.presbybop.com

 

this'll get you started...good luck.

                                        t

 

 

 

 

 

Not strictly jazz perhaps, with with some tasty chords: Bobby McFerrin's 23rd Psalm. Written with female pronouns, but I just switch to male in more conservative churches

Deanna Witkowski has good service music (Kyrie, introit, etc).  Not sure if it is SATB, but it is very good and you can buy it on her website.  Definitely take a look.  http://deannawitkowski.com/

 

Patti Mangis

Director of Music

Presbyterian Church of Western Springs

We really enjoyed "Jubilate (Jazz Motet)" by German composer Johannes Matthias Michel.  It is unaccompanied and a LOT of fun to sing-- SATB with a little soprano solo at the end.  It is my understanding he has a set of these unaccompanied, Latin texts, motets in different styles---I believe there is a bossa nova motet as well. Different from the usual. I think the USA publisher is Augsburg Press...well worth the look.

 

Marie Grass Amenta, founder and music director

the Midwest Motet Society

Greetings,

 

If you are interested, I have an SSAA a cappella arrangement of Duke Ellington's ballad "Come Sunday" I did for the Boston Childen's Chorus. They performed it for the televised tribute to Martin Luther King, Jr. "Raising the Roof" in New England Conservatory's Jordan Hall in January 2009 (or 2010, I forget).  It is probably 4 minutes in all, but I think for television, they had to cut it to 3 minutes.

 

Just let me know if you are interested in a perusal and in viewing the video.

 

Thanks and best wishes,

Mitos Andaya 

I have a contemporary mass for SATB, rhythm section, and soloists. It covers several genres that are jazz related. Let me know if you are interested and I will send music and audio files.

Hello Adam -

 

You may wish to check out "Peace Prayer", a setting of the St. Francis Prayer I wrote. It won the Diane Loomer Award and was premiered by Canada's National Youth Choir in May 2012. It's an SATB jazz-blues setting, with an Alleluia section in the middle. Piano accompaniment. It's available through Cypress Choral Music, and a chord symbol chart is also available upon request for rhythm section. You can hear it and check out a score at http://cypresschoral.com/Canada/Composers/Letourneau.html

 

I have an additional selection of jazz choral works, including a piece on a Rumi text with a group scat, a jazz communion setting, and a bossa nova. Let me know if you'd like more info on these.

 

All the best -

Elise Letourneau

 

Hi Adam:

 

Here's a little jazz choral piece for choir, and the best part is it's free to look at and make as many copies

as you need.  It's scored for SATB choir and Bass.  You can omit the aleatory measure if you like.

 

 

Thanks for looking,

Tom Council

 

www.tomcouncil.com

The same Rev Bill Carter that Thomas H. Shellenberger mentioned as the leader of the Presbybop Quartet did some work several years ago helping to catalog Dave Brubeck's sacred literature, including the sacred choral literature.  There is a movement of the Cantata "A Light in the Wilderness" on the Beatitudes that has been used as a stand alone special music for baritone and piano.  It would be worth pursuing.  Jim

Dave Brubeck also wrote La Fiesta de la Posada, (all the text is in English) which is musically delightful, mildly challenging, fun, and meaningful.  (Might have to wait till Advent season. ) Some of the movements might be a tad daunting for the less-experienced- chords a little complex, and double-choir style divisi.  But the "Gloria" (movement 5 - inlucludes short soprano solo passages) ) and "God's Love Made Visible" (movement 14) are not at all difficult - would even be accessible by an intermediate H. S. choir.  (Movement 14 includes a verse-passage for children's choir - alternately,  a group of trebles/teens . and a solo quartet (which generally doubles the choir part).

I believe I can connect you with up to 100 copies for a very low rate - probably similar to a deposit-rental fee.  I can also recommend some soprano solists.  (If you only do the 2 movements I mentioned, then a competent soprano from your section, or a local college-level voice major would suffice quite nicely.)  If you do the whole work, I'd recommend procuring a professional with at least some experience singing both classic and jazz.

 

I'd also recommend exploring Duke Ellington's Sacred Works.  He conducted his cantatas at at Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York - may have been on staff there..?

 

 Curtis Bryant, a fine and active composer in Atlanta, has composed pieces with jazz movements.  You can contact him and listen to his compositions at  www.curtisbryantmusic.com

Adam,

 

Dave Brubeck has a lot more music than what was mentioned. Look at All My Hope and Pange Lingua Variations. They can be done with different combinations of instruments. The Saratoga Choral Festival is doing them on July 28th as a memorial concert for Dave with a string orchestra and a jazz trio. Cool stuff!

 

Andrea Goodman

www.saratogachoralfest.org

-- 

I highly recommend the work of Deanna Witkowski (http://www.deannajazz.com), who serves as an Artist-in-Residence here at Park Avenue Christian Church in NYC. We use her music regularly in our services and her trio also plays in worship several times a year. Deanna has written a considerable amount of sacred jazz including mass settings, service responses, original instrumental and vocal pieces, Psalm settings, and hymn reharmonizations that work excellently within services. She's a fantastic jazz pianist with serious classical chops, too.

 

Her music is well-written and harmonically sophisticated and I find it engaging to choirs and congregations without being excessively difficult. As a bonus, she provides well-edited charts for the band as well as choral/congregational scores. For example, if you'd like to print music for the congregation, she sends a hymnal-style insert while the band members and choir get a lead sheet or more fully realized parts. She makes it easy to use what she's written, which is key to introducing new material.

 

As for other sacred jazz that works well in worship, you must check out the sacred music of Mary Lou Williams. Her Music for Peace (also known as Mass for Peace) is a incredible compendium of jazz styles. I believe she wrote two other masses, including one for the Lenten season. There is some beautiful and challenging choral music including St. Martin of Porres (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNd-X2uMM1k). You can contact Fr. Peter O'Brien at the Mary Lou Williams Foundation for more information or to see sample scores (http://www.marylouwilliams.org/marylou.htm). Mary Lou's sacred music was written specifically for a liturgical context. She was raised Baptist and then a convert to the Catholic Church in the 1960's. She played an important part in the musical/liturgical creativity that flowered after the Second Vatican Council. We featured Mary Lou's music in a concert this past February and it was an eye-opening and musically rewarding experience for me as a choral conductor. (http://www.artsatthepark.org/?page_id=181)

 

Duke Ellington also wrote his "Sacred Concerts" but they are definitely concert works. Black, Brown and Beige is a sort of sacred cantata and "Come Sunday" is one of the better-known pieces from it. Alice Parker has a gorgeous arrangement of that piece and several other pieces movements from Ellington's works (http://www.musicroom.com/se/id_no/022234/details.html).

 

Dave Brubeck has some great sacred jazz for choirs. This Is the Day and I Dream a World are two chorale-type pieces with rich harmony. His larger works are interesting but depending on the context can be a bit unwieldy. La Fiesta de la Posada is a fun and largely accessible piece for the Advent/Christmas season.

 

Bill Carter is also excellent (http://www.presbybop.com/home.html). He has written hymn reharmonizations and music for his ensemble, The Presbybop Quartet. He's a great jazz pianist and a pastor and speaks thoughtfully about the spirituality of jazz and how jazz can invite us into new ways of being church. His CD "Faith in A New Key" is a great example of his work though I know there are more recent recordings, too.

 

Good luck in your planning. It has been a real gift to see our congregation sing and appreciate sacred jazz regularly. It has expanded our musical horizons and helped us to offer our praise and prayer in a wonderful, new way.

 

Paul Vasile

Minister of Music

Park Avenue Christian Church

pvasile(a)parkavenuechristian.com

"Veni Creator Spiritus" set by Ed Bolduc is a short jazzy-sounding a capella piece that has worked well for our choirs.  It can be sung as a four-part ostinato, layeing each voice, or as a canon.  WLP publishes it.  They have an audio clip here: http://www.wlp.jspaluch.com/10450.htm

 

A couple of composers come to mind...

 

Heinz Werner Zimmerman ( here are three of his psalm settings and there are more in his liturgical work... http://store.augsburgfortress.org/store/contributor/1062/Heinz+Werner+Zimmermann).  Google his name for lots more.

 

Eddie V. Bonnemere.  The Jazz Ministry at St. Peter Lutheran Church in New York City will be a good resource for leads.  For many years musician Edward (Eddie) V. Bonnemere was central to this vital ministry.  Eddie wrote settings of the Roman and Lutheran liturgies and songs/hymns.  A Google search on his name will turn up some pointers to Eddie's work including some material archived at Tulane. http://www.amistadresearchcenter.org/archon/?p=accessions/accession&id=852 .  Here's another link to a more substantial list of Eddie's work.  http://www.worldcat.org/identities/lccn-no92-3129  Several of Eddie's Masses were published by Fortress Press (Augsburg/Fortress).

I like Elliot Levine's setting of the e.e. cummings poem "i thank You God."  SSATTB.  

Listen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyWQBUN8EnQ

Buy here: http://www.shadowpress.biz/catalog.html

My choir liked "King of Kings" by Jill Gallina (Glorysound 35012067).  Most appropriate for Advent, but could be done any time. Audio link here:

 

Robin Leary

Jazz Gloria by Landis is quite accessible, SATB, and has a double bass part.  I was introduced to it at a Summer Sing several years ago, and have always wanted to perform it.