The Rev. Bill Carter filled in for the organist 25 years ago during the Labor Day Sunday service. A trained jazz musician, he thought he’d try something new.
To his delight and surprise, curious newcomers and news crews with cameras who’d heard about the jazz-playing preacher filled First Presbyterian Church of Clarks Summit that morning.
On Sunday, his band, now called Presbybop, marked a quarter-century since he first introduced the Jazz Communion Service at the church on School Street, where church members and guests filled every seat to hear the sextet with bass, drums, saxophone and horns wail in the sanctuary.
With the Rev. Carter at the piano, subtly gesturing instructions with his right hand to “take a bass solo” or “wrap it up,” Presbybop weaved music of the late bass virtuoso Charles Mingus throughout the regular service. Musical interludes accompanied the offertory, Communion and even the hymns.
Mr. Mingus grew up in the 1920s and ’30s in Los Angeles and frequently felt the sting of racial oppression.
“Visually and economically, he was a victim of racism his entire life,” the Rev. Carter said. “Sometimes he responded to that in caustic and sarcastic ways, and sometimes he tried to lift the music to a higher standard.”
Mr. Mingus’ Pentecostal Christian upbringing also inspired his music.
“For our 25th year, we wanted to do something that was musically demanding for the guys,” the Rev. Carter said. “Given the national climate and the recurring issues of racism over the last couple years, I thought this would be a good way for us to address that with some jazz.”
After its first studio recording in 1998, Presbybop has produced 10 albums and plays about 25 gigs every year, the Rev. Carter said.
The band plays a Christmas Eve service and always the Sunday before Labor Day.
As the band played Sunday, a banner over the altar read “jazz belongs in church,” a sentiment echoed by some in the congregation.
“Jazz really does emote passions and feelings, emotions,” said 20-plus-years church member Andy Kepler of Ransom Twp. “I suppose if you go into some of the hymns, you can see rage and you can see ridicule, but as he (the Rev. Carter) said in his message, Charles Mingus used his music to sort of poke fun at people and to bring out issues, just like Billie Holiday in ‘Strange Fruit.’ ”
Not a member of the church, Will Quinn of Tunkhannock hung in the back, taking in the sounds after the Rev. Carter dismissed the service, and Presbybop played two more numbers.
He had heard about the Jazz Communion on the radio.
“It’s pretty stunning,” he said, “that these guys are here and they’re really committed to doing this thing that they appear to really love doing.”
The Rev. Carter called the music a gift to the wider community that brings people together but also challenges him as a performer.
“I hire the best musicians I can and do my best to keep up,” he said.
Contact the writer: joconnell@timesshamrock.com, @jon_oc on Twitter
Source: http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/presbybop-musicians-celebrate-25-years-of-jazz-communion-1.2087023