Description
Liturgical Jazz, sub-titled A Musical setting for an order of Morning Prayer, is an album by the American jazz composer and saxophone player Ed Summerlin (September 1, 1928 – October 10, 2006), released on Ecclesia in 1959. Featuring Methodist clergyman Roger Ortmayer doing the spoken portions.
An article on Liturgical Jazz was featured in Down Beat magazine March 31, 1960.
The ‘Liturgical Jazz’ was begun in February of 1959 and finished in July of the same year while Ed was studying with George Russell in New York. Ed feels that Russell’s Lydian Concept of Tonal Organization is one of the most important contributions to jazz since the swing era. [Excerpt from a note printed on the back of the LP sleeve]
What we have here is exactly what the album title says: Liturgical Jazz, an early experiment in modernizing the liturgy through the medium of jazz music. There are a couple of traditional hymns mixed in, but mostly it’s instruments like sax, trumpet, trombone, flugelhorn, drums and bass pumping out competent jazz grooves. Ed Summerlin is the composer and also plays tenor sax. Methodist clergyman Roger Ortmayer does the spoken portions, sometimes reading his lines in a fast high-pitched robotic monotone that’s not too distant from Beldar Conehead. Add the rhythmic chanted responses of the other readers and the smooth pulsating background beat and you’ve definitely got something that’s a bit off the beaten path. Back cover notes state that Ed wrote Liturgical Jazz in 1959. Ed also had a later album on Avant Garde worth checking out called Ring Out Joy. [Ken Scott, The Archivist, 4th Edition]
LP tracklist:
Side One
A1. Prelude
A2. Collect for Purity of Heart
A3. Hymn of Praise: “Love Divine” (Charles Wesley)
A4. Service of Confession: Scripture Sentences; Call To Confession; General Confession; Prayer of Absolution; The Lord’s Prayer — Service Of The Word: Versicle; Venite ; Old Testament Hymn (Psalm 6) ; Old Testament Lesson (Hosea 14:1-7,9)
Side Two
B1. Te Deum
B2. New Testament Lesson (II Peter 1:3-11)
B3. Benedictus
B4. The Apostles’ Creed
B5. Witness to the Word: Sermon
B6. Service of Offering: Song without words (in place of anthem); Versicle; Collect of the Day; Collect for Peace; Collect for Grace to Live Well; The Grace
B7. After-service: Hymn: “Soldiers Of Christ, Arise” (Charles Wesley)
B8. Postlude
1960 TV ad – Requiem for Mary Jo. Ed Summerlin, jazz music for a church service.
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