All About Jazz: What would you say is the connection between the deep pathos found within jazz music and the biblical notion of the seat of emotion?
Jeremy Begbie: A great deal of jazz has a streak of pathos, a kind of dark color to it, however joyful or celebratory the piece as a whole may be. A part of that is the pervasiveness of the blues, the blues scale, which brings a tinge of lament and restlessness to the music. Moreover, the blues brings to us the awareness of the fragility and sometimes the injustice of life. Jazz at its best faces up to these things, and actually incorporates those darker tones into a “bigger picture.” That’s the real miracle of this music: the way it can take up dissonance into a dynamic of hope. I think that’s what the best kinds of jazz are doing.
AAJ: How can we relate this idea to the Gospel?
JB: Well, this is very basic to the Gospel, in that, injustice, suffering, and evil are not ignored but are faced and through the cross taken up into God’s purposes. So there are very strong resonances here between jazz and the Christian faith.
Read it all.
A fascinating interview w/ Duke Div School's Jeremie Begbie on the intersection of Jazz+Christianity
All About Jazz: What would you say is the connection between the deep pathos found within jazz music and the biblical notion of the seat of emotion?
Jeremy Begbie: A great deal of jazz has a streak of pathos, a kind of dark color to it, however joyful or celebratory the piece as a whole may be. A part of that is the pervasiveness of the blues, the blues scale, which brings a tinge of lament and restlessness to the music. Moreover, the blues brings to us the awareness of the fragility and sometimes the injustice of life. Jazz at its best faces up to these things, and actually incorporates those darker tones into a “bigger picture.” That’s the real miracle of this music: the way it can take up dissonance into a dynamic of hope. I think that’s what the best kinds of jazz are doing.
AAJ: How can we relate this idea to the Gospel?
JB: Well, this is very basic to the Gospel, in that, injustice, suffering, and evil are not ignored but are faced and through the cross taken up into God’s purposes. So there are very strong resonances here between jazz and the Christian faith.
Read it all.