WAYS WE WORSHIP: CELEBRATING JESUS WITH JAZZ

It wasn't exactly New Orleans, where jazz bands take to the boulevards and people parade behind them as they play, but the trumpets blared and choir members marched through the church aisles just the same last week in Cape Girardeau.

Musicians armed with a trumpet, trombone, clarinet and saxophone led the choir in "When the Saints Go Marching In" to begin services at Centenary United Methodist Church Sunday morning.

Playing for the second annual Jazz Sunday is a treat for the orchestra. It is seldom that the group gets to play religious jazz music so the service is always fun, said Jerry Ford, who is also a member of the church.

Musical selections included "When the Saints Go Marching In," "Just a Closer Walk With Thee," "The Preacher," and "Canticle of the Sun."

Jazz Sunday is a service unlike most worship services at the church. As people enter the sanctuary, complete with stained glass windows and elegant carpeting and pews, the sounds of jazz fill the room.

One man joked about needing ear plugs because the music was so loud.

Jazz Sunday is a musical celebration that coincides with Transfiguration Sunday on the liturgical calendar, a day that marks Jesus' transformation on the mountain.

Even though the liturgy calls for celebration before Lent, when people prepare for Ash Wednesday, church members were a little skeptical the first year, said the Rev. Clayton Smith, senior pastor at the church.

Centenary is a downtown church with all the elements of traditional worship: a choir dressed in robes, a piano, organ and candles.

But sometimes people find Jesus after struggling through the discord and disharmony of life -- and that's where jazz connects.

"We need a little jazz and a lot of Jesus," Smith said. Inspiration, creativity and improvisation are at the heart of created beings. Music, and jazz in particular, empowers humans to express themselves.

Jazz has no common definition but is disorder and musical conflict, Smith said. Yet, in that setting, there are pieces of harmony and melodies of music.

The roots of jazz are religious, Ford said. It was a musical expression of sorrow that began in the Mississippi Delta. Not every church song was a jazz piece, but the elements laid the foundation for the service.

"People didn't know what to expect, but after hearing it, they said they wanted us back," said Ford of the first jazz service.

Playing for Jazz Sunday "gives us an opportunity to play tunes that normally we wouldn't get to play at a dance or wedding," he said. "You just don't play religious music."

Several of the selections were arranged specifically for the service, like "Canticle of the Sun." That song was not rehearsed by the choir, orchestra or congregation until the service.

It was the perfect example of jazz, Ford said. "You never play it the same every time. It's basically everybody improvising."

Ford said jazz is a success if all the musicians start together and end together. "We won't worry about what happened in between," he said.

In his sermon, Smith urged the congregation to make life an experience worth celebrating. "We need to look to ourselves to discover the joys of Jesus."