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 at https://www.mattwilsonjazz.com/

Featured music: “Ice Cold” from Jazz for the Earth. Bill Carter and the Presbybop Sextet. David Liebman, guest soloist

Theme music: "All Thumbs" from Faith in a New Key, Bill Carter and the Presbybop Quartet
Music used by permission from Presbybop Music (BMI)
Announcer: Chris Norton
(c) Presbybop Music

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 it opened the jazz world to him. 

How did you discover jazz? Have a story to share? Send it to us at podcast@presbybop.com.   

Theme music: "All Thumbs" from Faith in a New Key, Bill Carter and the Presbybop Quartet 
Music used by permission from Presbybop Music (BMI) 
Announcer: Chris Norton 
(c) Presbybop Music

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 where you can view the chart that Mary Lou Williams used to describe the lineage of jazz: https://jazzwomenarchives.wordpress.com/2019/01/21/mary-lou-williams/ 
• Here’s the YouTube clip where Damien Sneed demonstrates Gospel music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SepVdCiM2ek 

Featured music: 

“Down Goes Babylon” from Dancing Day, Bill Carter and the Presbybop Quartet 
Music used by permission from Presbybop Music (BMI) 

“Out of the Depths” from Psalms Without Words, Bill Carter and the Presbybop Quartet 
Music used by permission from Presbybop Music (BMI) 

“Coventry Carol” from Fragile Incarnation, Bill Carter and the Presbybop Quartet 
Music used by permission from Presbybop Music (BMI) 

Theme music: "All Thumbs" from Faith in a New Key, Bill Carter and the Presbybop Quartet 
Music used by permission from Presbybop Music (BMI) 
Announcer: Chris Norton 
(c) Presbybop Music

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 story and we’re glad to tell it. 

Want to hear the mass? The highlights were recorded by Fantasy Records, and you can obtain that recording by clicking here. (The MP3 files are more readily available than the CD or LP.) 

To learn more about Derrick’s connection to Vince Guaraldi, visit his page at  http://fivecentsplease.org/dpb/guaraldi.html 

Want to learn more about our 50th anniversary celebration at Grace Cathedral in 2015? Derrick has a lengthy series of accounts listed below: 

• http://impressionsofvince.blogspot.com/2015/06/mass-appeal-chapter-2.html 
• http://impressionsofvince.blogspot.com/2015/07/mass-appeal-chapter-3.html 
• http://impressionsofvince.blogspot.com/2015/08/mass-appeal-chapter-4.html 
• http://impressionsofvince.blogspot.com/2015/08/an-afternoon-of-grace.html 
• http://impressionsofvince.blogspot.com/2015/08/mass-appeal-chapter-5.html
• html http://impressionsofvince.blogspot.com/2015/09/east-coast-grace.html 

And we suggest subscribing to his blog of All Things Guaraldi at http://impressionsofvince.blogspot.com/ 

You can get your own copy of Vince Guaraldi at the Piano by clicking here on Amazon or clicking here for the publisher’s page. We have additional material of our conversation with Derrick which we will release as a bonus podcast in the future. 

Featured music: 

“Blues in F,” performed by Bill Carter with the Jim Martinez Trio at the 50th anniversary of the Guaraldi Mass, Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, accompanied by the Jim Martinez trio. Music is unreleased. © Presbybop Music. 

Theme music: "All Thumbs" from Faith in a New Key, Bill Carter and the Presbybop Quartet 
Music used by permission from Presbybop Music (BMI) 
Announcer: Chris Norton 
(c) Presbybop Music 

 “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 of Vince Guaraldi at the Piano. As Guaraldi’s biographer, he has a unique perspective on how the pianist’s music became an integral part of the animated Charlie Brown specials. 

You can get your own copy of Vince Guaraldi at the Piano by clicking here on Amazon or clicking here for the publisher’s page. 

Featured music: 

• “Jamming on Three Chords,” an unreleased live recording, Bill Carter and the Presbybop Christmas Eve Band. Music used by permission from Presbybop Music (BMI) 
• “O Tannenbaum,” public domain, arranged by Bill Carter and the Presbybop Christmas Eve Band. Unreleased live recording. Music used by permission from Presbybop Music (BMI) 

Theme music: "All Thumbs" from Faith in a New Key, Bill Carter and the Presbybop Quartet 
Music used by permission from Presbybop Music (BMI) 
Announcer: Chris Norton 
(c) Presbybop Music

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 Carter on piano. 

Want to enjoy the video of the event? Go to https://youtu.be/xLqiV51k5t4

Featured music: 

• Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming, from Jazz Noel, Bill Carter and the Presbybop Christmas Eve Band 
• Angels We Have Heard on High, recorded live on Christmas Eve 
• We Wish You a Merry Christmas, recorded live on Christmas Eve 

Theme music: "All Thumbs" from Faith in a New Key, Bill Carter and the Presbybop Quartet 
Music used by permission from Presbybop Music (BMI) 
Announcer: Chris Norton 
(c) Presbybop Music

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 music to prove it. 

Here’s the free verse poem that Bill composed: 

When Word 

takes flesh 

it is a fragile 

Incarnation. 

Power becomes subject to weakness, 

Freedom is chained by time, 

Fools compromise Wisdom, 

Death crouches behind the Door. 

Still we discern a Way 

Through the dark, 

giving, 

embracing, 

loving 

risking all. 

And joy finds us. 

Featured music: 

• Away in a Manger, from Jazz Noel, Bill Carter and the Presbybop Christmas Eve Band 
• What Child is This, from Fragile Incarnation, Bill Carter and the Presbybop Quartet 
• Sussex Carol, from Fragile Incarnation, Bill Carter and the Presbybop Quartet 

Theme music: "All Thumbs" from Faith in a New Key, Bill Carter and the Presbybop Quartet 
Music used by permission from Presbybop Music (BMI) 
Announcer: Chris Norton 
(c) Presbybop Music

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 poignant quotations:   

“It is in the torment of the insufficiency of everything attainable in this life that we realize that all symphonies remain unfinished.”  - Karl Rahner 

“Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in our lifetime; therefore we must be saved by hope. Nothing which is true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore we must be saved by faith. Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore we must be saved by love. No virtuous act is quite as virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as it is from our standpoint. Therefore we must be saved by the final form of love which is forgiveness.” - Reinhold Niebuhr, The Irony of American History 

Featured music: 

• “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” from Jazz Noel, Bill Carter and the Presbybop Christmas Eve Band 
• “Creator of the Stars of Night” from Fragile Incarnation, Bill Carter and the Presbybop Quartet 
• “Shadows Into Light” from The Dancing Calvinist, Bill Carter and the Presbybop Quintet 

Theme music: "All Thumbs" from Faith in a New Key, Bill Carter and the Presbybop Quartet 
Music used by permission from Presbybop Music (BMI) 
Announcer: Chris Norton 
(c) Presbybop Music

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 books, God’s Mind in That Music: Theological Explorations through the Music of John Coltrane. It’s an extraordinary book, published on Cascade Books. You can find it by clicking here. 

Check out his website at www.jamiehowison.ca 

• Featured music: “Elegy” from Jazz for the Earth, Bill Carter and the Presbybop Sextet, David Liebman, guest soloist. 
• Featured music: “Ice Cold” from Jazz for the Earth, Bill Carter and the Presbybop Sextet, David Liebman, guest soloist 

Theme music: "All Thumbs" from Faith in a New Key, Bill Carter and the Presbybop Quartet 
Music used by permission from Presbybop Music (BMI) 
Announcer: Chris Norton 
(c) Presbybop Music

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 melody from Ireland. And we hear how Dave Brubeck turned down a commission to compose for a papal mass - and then dreamed up the piece while he slept. You can click here and listen to him tell the story. 

Bill also recounts a story from Herbie Hancock about a wrong chord, transformed by ingenuity. Here is the link to hear Herbie tell the story.  

Featured music: “Be Thou My Vision” from Faith in a New Key, Bill Carter and the Presbybop Quartet 

Theme music: "All Thumbs" from Faith in a New Key, Bill Carter and the Presbybop Quartet 
Music used by permission from Presbybop Music (BMI) 
Announcer: Chris Norton 
(c) Presbybop Music