Spirits Rejoice! Jazz and American Religion

[Jason Bivins]

Hi all,

Several of you know about this already, and my friend Ghost of Miles was kind enough to feature me on his Nightlights show last month, but I would like to announce the publication of my new book:

https://global.oup.com/academic/product/spirits-rejoice-9780190230913?cc=us&lang=en&#

This one has been a labor of love for a long time (and a refreshing change from writing about religion and politics).

[AllenLowe]

cannot get the link to work, but will take a look; was curious if you deal with the early New Orleans/Southern Holy Rollers? Thinking about the way Ory described Bolden's playing; also, the testimony of Pleasant Joseph about how influential that sect was in early New Orleans. Also, the overall effect of COGIC on Southern music -

[HutchFan]

This looks very interesting. Thanks for sharing.

[JSngry]

Congratulations on the book!

For what it's worth in the "historical footnote" column, I was raised Missouri Synod Lutheran (1950s-early 1970) and Concordia Press(?) put out a series of books about "modern life", one of which was called Encountering Jazz And Popular Music, or something like that, from the mid-late 1960s. My pastor let me borrow it. It was the usual pipe-smoking liberal-conservative "joyous noise" thing overall, but it did address, at least superficially, the issues of race, drugs, and music biz economics in terms of both cause and "christian response" in a not unrealistic manner, which I found a bit surprising, to be honest with you. And of course, it loved all the jazz liturgies and masses and such that were coming into bloom at the time...not just justified by faith, now justified by jazz too, or something like that.

In no way was it a scholarly tome such as this, but it might be worth noting that such things did exist in contemporaneous WASP-y times, places, and church libraries.

[Jason Bivins]

Allen, I largely don't deal with those particular intersections. On the good advice of my editor, I resisted the urge to try for complete coverage and so consequently had to make some decisions as to what could be pared. As there's already lots of good scholarship on the kinds of topics (and the period) you mention, I wanted to focus thematically on not just religious traditions, but ritual, communitarianism, cosmology, etc. My goal was twofold: to argue for the seriousness of jazz as a subject of reflection in Religious Studies (my discipline) and to complicate/broaden the discussion of "religion" or "spirituality" in Jazz Studies.

Jim, cool anecdote.

Thanks for the interest, all!

[JSngry]

Sounds like you should talk with Charles Gayle sometimes?

[Clunky]

This sounds very interesting. I struggled to get the preview function to work at the Oxford site but succeeded once I'd ordered ( @ amazon).

[johnblitweiler]

Jason, congratulations - I'm happy for you. Looks like a book we need.

[clifford_thornton]

Wrote the publicist as I'd be interested in getting a copy to review. In any case, I'll be checking this out. Congrats.

Side note: my honors undergrad thesis (1999-2000) was written on spirituality in Afro-American free music, specifically Coltrane, Ayler and Braxton. Don't have a copy anymore, alas.

[Joe]

Very much looking forward to this!

[Jason Bivins]

Thanks all for the interest.

[Chuck Nessa]

Good luck with the book Jason. I look forward to reading it.

[Face of the Bass]

Already ordered and received, and just read the first chapter. Fantastic writing so far. Can't wait to read the rest.

[JSngry]

Just ordered from Amazon...does this affect your royalty payment as opposed to ordering directly from the publisher? (he asks AFTER placing the order, DOH)

[Jason Bivins]

Thanks again to all for the interest.

Jim, don't think it affects anything in that area.

David, I think I'm going to be speaking at OSU sometime in the upcoming year. Would be great to meet at last if that shapes up.

[Face of the Bass]

That would be great, Jason. Drop me a line if you are ever going to be in the area. And congratulations on the new book!

[alankin]

Congrats!

[Face of the Bass]

I'm most of the way through this now. It's a fantastic book, beautifully written and almost overwhelmingly stimulating and inspiring. All the quotations from the various musicians mentioned are worth the price of admission alone, but Jason did a fantastic job weaving them together and putting them in conversation with one another. I can't recommend the book highly enough.

[clifford_thornton]

Too bad Allen deleted his comments; while it might seem like he was being heavy-handed, and perhaps that's true, it's also the case that more than one book can be written on the subject of spirituality, religion and improvised music. Mr. Bivins' writing has always impressed in short form and I'm looking forward to reading this longer tome!

[Jason Bivins]

Thank you so much, David. I'm gratified by that praise.

And Cliff, you are too right. In fact, I make such a plea/petition in the introduction! Hopefully many more books will be written on this subject, which deserves the widest possible attention.

[Face of the Bass]

As I have been reading it, one of the things that I've started to wonder about is to what extent the kinds of spirituality invoked by jazz musicians is generational, both in the historical sense of the book's heavier focus on musicians of the 1960s and thereafter, and also in the biographical sense of musicians gravitating towards these concerns as they gain more age and experience.

The other thing I was reflecting on last night was how many of the voices in the book are now deceased, or are now of very advanced age. So the book has also made me reflect more on the future of jazz.

The one thing I can say is that it is very gratifying to read a book that takes so seriously the very musicians that I admire most--Ayler, John Carter, the Art Ensemble, Sun Ra, Dennis Gonzalez, etc. I can imagine in another author's hands that would have been very different.