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Feb.-
March 2005 CJA Network Featured Article
Jazz
Pianist/Vocalist
Deanna
Witkowski
Playing
Jazz At LaSalle Street Church: a timeline from 1996-2004
LASALLE- TAKE ONE
Before making the move to Manhattan, I lived in
Chicago from 1993-1997. For the bulk of this time I was
attending LaSalle Street Church, a lively place that I
miss dearly. When I first began attending, there was a
jazz service that an outside group came in and presented
to the congregation. Soon after attending that
particular service, I approached one of the pastors and
told her that I was a jazz musician and would be
interested in coordinating a jazz service in the future.
In June 1996, I got my chance. I’ve included the
bulletin from this service, the first jazz-based service
I’d ever put together. By this point in time, I had
been playing piano on and off at LaSalle, and usually
played some jazz for at least the prelude and postlude,
but this service was the first one where I had the
opportunity to hire other musicians and coordinate all
of the music.
At LaSalle, there was a worship planner/committee that
helped to select the hymns. Although my memory isn’t
foolproof, I’m pretty certain that I didn’t choose
“Stand Up and Bless the Lord” and “Make Me a
Captive, Lord” for congregational hymns—but what I
did to the hymns was to put a groove on them, which
always livens things up. On “Stand Up” we did a
half-time funk groove, and I reharmonized the tune a
bit. I’m including the standard hymn (with my chord
notations) along with a simple lead sheet that I made
for the band.
I also wanted to include LaSalle musicians in the mix,
so I arranged Ellington’s “Come Sunday” for the
choir (for copyright reasons I’m not including the
arrangement here!). For a special music slot, my quintet
did a tune by the late pianist James Williams, called
“Yes, Yes, Oh Yes!” I transcribed the tune from one
of Williams’ recordings that featured his gospel/jazz
group, ICU (Intensive Care Unit). For a prelude, we did
one of my originals (that I later recorded on my first
CD), “Rains in Kenya.” I had recently returned from
a four month sojourn in Kenya, and lots of LaSallers had
helped to sponsor that trip, so it was great to be able
to present this tune to them, which I had composed while
in Kenya. For the postlude we got out of the way and had
a few instrumentalists from LaSalle take over.
LASALLE- TAKE TWO
I must have done something right the first time
because LaSalle allowed me to do a jazz service the
following year. I again hired outside musicians
(including my regular Chicago drummer, Tom Hipskind) and
worked on planning the service in tandem with a worship
planner, in this case, a great film/video guy, Brett
Nelson. This service was also marked as a special event
in that it was celebrating the groundbreaking of a new
multi-disciplinary community center that the church had
dreamed about building for years (notice the “sending
forth hymn”: “The Church’s One Foundation”).
The jazz portions of the service in some ways were
similar to the previous year’s: I transcribed another
James Williams’ tune for my ensemble (this time, a
quartet); I arranged the hymn “All Creatures of our
God and King” for the LaSalle choir (this has since
turned into a congregational arrangement that I often
use in jazz services); I put another funky half-time
groove on “Praise Him, Praise Him” (check out the
original version along with my leadsheet arrangement);
and the quartet did a couple of other jazz tunes: the
prelude was a tune I’d been playing for awhile with my
band, called “Paco and Dave.” I transcribed that
tune from a Caribbean Jazz Project recording. And under
the “special music” slot, I included a new original
setting of a hymn text by Jeffrey Rowthorn. I had
recently bought an Episcopal hymnal—and if you have
that hymnal, the text can be found at #394. My setting
is a swinging medium tempo 16 bar tune that all of the
guys can blow on. We’ve used this tune a lot in
subsequent jazz services.
LASALLE- TAKE THREE
Soon after that last jazz service in June 1997, I
moved from Chicago to New York. The amazing thing about
this move was that my own worship planning and composing
at LaSalle—including developing these jazz
services—helped to facilitate my move to the Big
Apple. In the same summer that I did the 1997 jazz
service, I received my quarterly issue of IMAGE,
a journal of art and religion, that I had subscribed to
for several years. On page 22 of that journal was a job
ad—something I had never seen before in this
publication (the journal is mainly articles, short
stories, interviews with artists and visual art
reproductions, but no job ads). The ad was for an
available music position at All Angels’ Church, an
Episcopal church on the upper west side of Manhattan. I
have the ad in front of me as I type this- here is a
portion of the ad copy:
“We are looking for an artist (emphasis not
mine- it was in the ad!), with exceptional keyboard
skills embracing a wide spectrum of musical idioms and
styles, from gospel to classical. In addition, he/she
must be a skilled arranger and choir director. We are
interested in candidates who might bring composition
skills as well as a sensitivity to music as it relates
to other artistic disciplines.”
I read this ad and felt that it was describing exactly
what I wanted to be doing both inside and outside the
church, and that I possessed the skills outlined in the
ad. I ended up applying, interviewing, and getting this
full-time position. For part of my interview, I brought
with me the bulletins and music from past LaSalle
services that you have access to on this site.
While I was at All Angels’, I still returned
periodically to Chicago to perform (and still do!), and
even returned and did jazz services and concerts at
several churches-- but never ended up going back to
LaSalle to play until the fall of 2003, several years
after I had left All Angels.’ I had been putting a
Chicago area tour together with my amazing
Grammy-nominated saxophonist, Donny McCaslin, and
contacted LaSalle to see if there might be interest in
having my group return to present another jazz service.
Laura Truax, who had stepped in as senior pastor since
my LaSalle days, was wholeheartedly behind hosting us
again.
I’m posting the annotated version of the bulletin for
this service here, so that you can get a sense of how we
flowed from speech to music. Kathy Neely, the worship
planner for the service, was very detailed in writing
what the worship leader would say, and sometimes even
what I would get to say! I often get asked how to plan
jazz services (and will be doing an audio lecture on
this to be posted on this site)- in this case, it helped
me to know that it was Christ the King Sunday. Because
of this calendar event, “All Creatures of our God and
King” was appropriate, so we took the setting that I
had originally begun work on as a Lasalle choral
arrangement and had the congregation sing it with my
quartet. The listed hymn of response, “Christ the
Light,” is a Phos Hilaron original setting (“O
Radiant Light, O Sun divine…”). This is an
appropriate vespers (evening) service text, but because
the setting is so fun- and different from my other
pieces- we included it here. I had originally written
this setting on commission for a jazz hymnal put
together by my friend, pastor and jazz pianist Bill
Carter.
The overall feel of this service was different than the
previous two, because it was like a homecoming. At the
11 am service, Bob Weaver, a great supporter and friend
from LaSalle, introduced me by giving an anecdote of
coming to LaSalle as a newcomer and hearing me play a
Monk tune in the service. Soon after this, he was at
Orchestra Hall to hear a double-bill with the Dave
Brubeck Quartet (Mr. Brubeck has also written quite a
bit of liturgical music) and Bill Russo’s Chicago Jazz
Ensemble, of which I was then a member. He turned to his
wife Rebecca after we walked on stage and said,
“Isn’t that the girl from LaSalle?” And according
to Bob, my playing (and choice of material) was one of
the things that drew his family to LaSalle!
The other thing that was different at this service was
that the congregation had been learning some of the
music ahead of time. I had sent music ahead and for
several Sundays, some dedicated time was spent in
learning the music- so everyone was singing with gusto!
We also had a separate music folio printed for the
congregation. Having all of the music in one place
worked really well. And we used a folio again the
following year, when, yes, we returned to LaSalle!
LASALLE – TAKE FOUR (the most recent
installment)
After our 2003 service at LaSalle, Pastor Laura
said, “why don’t we make this an annual event?”
So, when I found out that the great Brazilian musician
Hermeto Pascoal was coming to Chicago to give two
concerts down the street from a friend’s house (where
I always stay when I’m in town), and that his concerts
were taking place about a year after my group’s last
LaSalle appearance, I contacted Laura, and the church
graciously moved around their schedule to accommodate
having my band come for another jazz service.
At this service, all of the music- except for the
opening song, and a Taizé piece (which I had arranged
in more of a gospel vein), were original pieces. I had
the scripture text to go on, as well as the fact that it
was Reformation Sunday. I’ve included the bulletin
here- check out the great call to worship that Kathy
Neely again superbly wrote.
One of the main passages for the day was from Jeremiah
31. In it, God speaks of a “new covenant” that he
will write in the hearts of the people of Israel. I have
a song with original lyrics (and music) that seemed
apropos for the service, called “New Things I Now
Declare.” Laura liked the piece so much that she not
only kept referring to “new things” in her
message—she also asked us to reprise part of the tune
as a sermon response. Here is a portion of the lyrics
from “New Things”:
New things I now declare, says the Lord
New dreams I want to give you on your way
Let me clasp you by the hand, and I will never let you
go
For, my child, I want you to know
That when you’re sitting in the darkness
And you think I’m not around,
Remember, I’ve already left my presence here
And all you have to do is lift your head
To find my night-time sign
For you can only see my stars when it is dark
And new things I now declare, says the Lord
We again had a separate music folio for the
congregation, and the lyrics to “New Things” were
also printed in the folio so that people could check out
the text if they wanted to do so.
I am very grateful to LaSalle for continuing to support
me by welcoming my band, my music, and by their
joy-filled participation that was clearly in evidence at
each of these jazz services. I trust that my experience
will give you new ideas, new dreams, and new hopes for
your own worshiping community.
http://www.deannajazz.com
www.deannawitkowski.com
http://lasallestreetchurch.org
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