Bill Carter and Presbybop Music

Matt Wilson is an extraordinary musician. We talk about his sense of humor, his willingness to take risks, and the importance of vulnerability. The conversation hummed along quickly – and we’ve split it into two episodes. 

Check out Matt’s website…

Our cohosts talk about how they developed a taste in jazz. Bill Carter tells how he met and befriended Dave Brubeck. (Imagine the legendary musician in a white bathrobe!) Jeff Kellam recounts his love of big band music and how…

In this episode we explore the blues. How does the blues get into the bloodstream of jazz? What does this suggest about human life and the spiritual life? How might the blues express our suffering? Or pray our hope? 

• Here’s…

We explore a little-known jazz story: Vince Guaraldi composed and performed a mass! We talk with Derrick Bang, his biographer, about the creation of this music. It was presented at Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, in May 1965. It’s an extraordinary…

 “The only time we heard jazz on television when I was a kid,” says trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, “was when A Charlie Brown Christmas came to town” Our guest for the next two episodes is Derrick Bang, music critic and author…

In this special episode, we offer musical highlights from the annual Jazz Christmas Eve event at First Presbyterian Church, Clarks Summit, PA. Our Presbybop Elves include Mike Carbone on saxophone, Tony Marino on bass, Marko Marcinko on drums, and Bill…

Jazz is embodied music. Ideas take flesh! This is a grand spiritual theme, of course, and lies at the heart of Christmas story. But what does incarnation sound like? That’s what this episode is all about. And we have the…

What can jazz suggest to us about hope? Good question for all times of year, but especially for the season of Advent. We explore the question with two ancient chants as our soundtrack. Along the way, we chew on two…

Today we welcome Jamie Howison to The Spirit of Jazz. He is a priest of the Anglican Church of Canada, a jazz lover, and a kindred soul. He lives and works in Winnipeg. 

We discovered Jamie through one of his…

Here is another conversation about creativity. Do new melodies - and ideas - comes as a message from Headquarters? This is a mystery, of course, but we continue to chase it. We listen to a jazz performance of an old…

We heard someone grumble, “We’ve never heard jazz in church before.” It reminds us of an insulting letter from a noted preacher, disparaging jazz as inferior music. Both assume there’s a hard line between “sacred” and “secular” that must never…

Jazz unfolds like a conversation! It’s a dialogue with a tune, with other musicians, with the imagination. The music values relationships, teamwork, collaboration, and mutual participation. We explore the reality of the “Muse” - inspiration personified - and revealed in…