| LearnJazzPiano.com archives: Jazz in the Sanctuary | |
| kaon99 -- 04/10/2007, 07:45:56 -- #34451 | |
| All, I would like to write some jazz style music for my church. The only decent modern music for the church that I have come across is a play-along by Chuck Marohnic called "Jazz in the Sanctuary" which is excellent. I intend to write something with original lyrics and either original changes or changes from a jazz standard. (This is my first real composition and I don't want to be overly ambitious.) My main goal is to avoid the "factory template music" sound of most contemporary church music. The church has a fairly hip music director so non-traditional sounds should be ok. If any of you can point me to some existing contemporary church music with an authentic (i.e., good) jazz sound, I would be most grateful. Thanks. - Ken | |
| Scot -- 04/10/2007, 08:00:07 -- #34451 | |
| Several "names" out there have put together recordings of church related music. Gospel, originals, etc... I can't think of any off the top of my head, but I know they are out there (Monty Alexander did one, but it's mostly based on old church "standards", gospel and such) | |
| jmkarns -- 04/10/2007, 20:10:01 -- #34451 | |
| Ellington did Jazz as a Mass but I don't remember the recording. | |
| kaon99 -- 04/12/2007, 08:43:06 -- #34451 | |
| All, I have backed off somewhat from my original goal (see above post). I have decided to just use a lead sheet from "Jazz in the Sanctuary" and write out a piano and bass part to start. The young woman who plays piano in my church is note reading machine and has pretty good time. My question is this, have any of you had experience with writing a comping part for a note reader? I would appreciate any information you have on things that have worked. Right now, I am thinking of a medium tempo gospel version of "What a Friend We have in Jesus." Except for the intro and ending, I envision the the piano as mainly syncopated "hits". The problem is how do you convey hip comping to a note reader? Any ideas or suggestions would be much appreciated. Thanks. - Ken | |
| jaledin -- 04/12/2007, 16:26:35 -- #34451 | |
| That's a tough one. I've certainly transcribed a bunch of jazz comping, but it's pretty much all improvised, of course. If you're asking about notation specifically, you should be fine with dotted rests and notes. Even though she's a good sight-reader, I would guess she could catch on pretty quickly if you gave her some voicings to use and showed her exactly how you want the hits to be played. | |
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