Local Church Celebrates Jazz and Prayer

Jazz Evensong features All-Star Quintet Playing Music of Legends

“I have it on very good authority that the only music we will hear in heaven is jazz.” Thus concludes Father Doran Stambaugh near the end of Jazz Evensong at St. Michael’s by-the-Sea Episcopal Church in Carlsbad.

With the exception of a winter break and a few holidays, Jazz Evensong happens each Sunday from 4 to 5:30pm on the church campus along Carlsbad Boulevard, as the coastal highway is known in the city.

The series features an all-star quintet, playing tunes composed or associated with jazz legends and masters. After the first half-hour of music, the program alternates between brief prayers from the Bible, chanted by Stambaugh, and more music by the quintet. The group often supplies ambient sounds accompanying the rector’s singing.

Stambaugh launched the series six years ago after the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic, when churches were among the only venues allowed to operate. “Live music was locked down, but churches were permitted to gather in worship,” Stambaugh said. “And that’s what we did. Jazz Evensong is essentially an hour and a half of straight-ahead jazz, with a wee bit of prayer.”

A lifelong music lover, Stambaugh had contemplated the idea of blending music and, in particular, jazz into the church’s services. “In my brain for years I had kind of fantasized about what it could look like to have jazz in a liturgical setting,” he said, noting that much of the music he liked had spiritual inspiration as well as references to religious experience.

This year, as in past years, the series led off with a small-group rendition of pieces from Duke Ellington’s legendary sacred concert, originally performed in a cathedral. “I probably had [John] Coltrane’s ‘A Love Supreme’ in mind,” Stambaugh said of the saxophonist’s overtly spiritual suite. “That has always stayed with me, but I couldn’t figure out how to realize it. When Covid happened, I was like, ‘Maybe we’re all going to die. So, let’s do it.’”

Stambaugh began having conversations with bassist Dene Davison, leading the rector to conclude he could incorporate music into the Evensong tradition, while allowing the musicians to decide what material they wanted to play. “It really is part of the ancient Christian faith that celebrates creation in the world, the natural world and arts and music as a sacred thing in and of itself,” Stambaugh said of the inclusion of music. “I think the music is sacred on its own.”

It was Davison, the father said, who bent his ear with the line “the music we’ll hear in heaven will be jazz.”

The series started with Davison on bass, Tom Morey (the pioneer of boogie boards) on drums, Leonard Thompson on keyboards, and guitarist Joey Carano, followed by reed master Keith Bishop.

Bassist Gunnar Biggs, a longtime area virtuoso and educator who lives only a few blocks from the church, replaced Davison. Another San Diego music veteran, Bob Weller, took over the drum chair from Morey, who died in 2021.

“I often tell people it’s the best band I’ve ever played with,” said Bishop, a veteran of several high-profile big congregations, including that of drummer Buddy Rich as well as Broadway show orchestras. “It’s completely unique; it’s just kind of evolved.”

Biggs also had experience in the Rich band before becoming a fixture on the San Diego music scene since the mid-1970s. He said he enjoyed the Evensong band so much that he has passed up other opportunities to make the Sunday afternoon performances. “I don’t think I’ve held any gig this long,” he said, recalling he was initially asked to substitute for Davison, who was injured at the time. “I couldn’t believe how great the band was. They just knocked me out.”

Eventually, the group settled on the format of drawing its weekly material from a musician or composer whose birthday fell on or near the Evensong date.

Of course, such legends as Coltrane, Ellington, Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, Sonny Rollins, Horace Silver, Thelonius Monk, Lee Morgan, and Freddie Hubbard have been covered over the years. Said Biggs, “It’s like going to a jazz history class.”

Bishop takes the responsibility for programming and distributing the written music, which is performed unrehearsed. “We figured we wanted to cover all areas of jazz,” Bishop said. “It stretches us, too, which is a good thing. Everybody in the band listens to each other.”

Thompson noted, “I’m tremendously grateful for this gig… It’s an amazing thing to be able to play a gig for six years with the same people showing up every week who are good musicians. Plus,  you’re given a space to play music that you want to play.

“We’ve got a bunch of very competent and soulful musicians from different backgrounds that are very much into making one another sound good and making the band sound good. And we get to play different music every week.” In particular, Thompson said, he relishes the opportunity of playing opposite a guitarist, especially one with the harmonic dexterity of Carano.

“Playing with Joey, who is an amazing and sensitive musician, is a real treat,” Thompson said. “The fact that he plays guitar gives it a great challenge at the same time because as everyone whose done this together knows, piano and guitar together can be a very delicate thing. That’s been tremendously valuable to me.”

Rhythmic propulsion comes from the drums of Bob Weller, who came to San Diego from the Boston area and has been a mainstay of the jazz scene for several decades. Weller is adept as well on piano, as exemplified by his work with the late saxophonist Hollis Gentry III on his CD For the Record, and with North County saxophonist Dylan Soto.

Weller switches to the ivories if Thompson is absent; Drummer Duncan Moore is called upon to handle the sticks if Weller is on keys or absent.

Each week’s Evensong program is prefaced by its Jazz Legends podcast, in which Stambaugh and the quintet discuss the artist and material to be featured. The program can be easily accessed on various Internet platforms.

This year, Jazz Evensong will be deviating its weekly program to include some lesser-known artists plus an afternoon featuring compositions of the band members themselves.

The success of Jazz Evensong has led to St. Michael’s, under Stambaugh’s leadership, to hold an annual jazz festival in the fall, featuring New Orleans brass band music. Details on this year’s festival will be released later this year.

 

(Include yearlong calendar)