Imagine a jazz combo providing the music for the familiar church hymn “Just a Closer Walk With Thee.”
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The trumpeter blows his instrument. The bassist strums along. The pianist’s hands fly over the keyboard.
Welcome to Second Sunday Jazz, a new worship service offered at Central Presbyterian Church, 5101 N May.
“It offers another style of worship from our traditional service,” said the Rev. Janet Ruark, the church’s pastor. She initiated Second Sunday Jazz.
She said the informal afternoon service is in the church’s parlor instead of being in the sanctuary.
It originally began as a summertime series but will be extended into fall because of its popularity.
“It’s a lot of fun, and people really seem to enjoy it,” Ruark said.
Several of those people are the musicians who make up the jazz combo providing music for the service.
Jan McDaniel, the church’s music director and a music professor at Oklahoma City University’s Bass School of Music, helps gather jazz musicians to play during the service. Not every musician can attend each service. But McDaniel said he has found a faithful group in Michael Anderson, a trumpeter with the Oklahoma City Philharmonic and a music professor at OCU; Tim Lykins, a drummer and recent OCU Bass School of Music graduate; and Clinton Trench, an OCU student who plays double bass.
McDaniel said he is the pianist in the combo, and singer Renee Saindon often provides vocals.
McDaniel said he had never thought of a jazz service until Ruark brought up the idea. He was, however, familiar with the Lovers Lane Jazz Band at Lovers Lane United Methodist Church in Dallas. And he knew that jazz greats such as Duke Ellington and Dave Brubeck had created jazz renditions of sacred music.
With that in mind, all McDaniel had to do was find a few willing musicians and Second Sunday Jazz was born.
The first service was on a Sunday morning earlier this summer. Though well-known Oklahoma City trumpeter David Hooten had come to help kick off the series, McDaniel said he still wondered how receptive the Central congregation would be. After all, the jazz was strikingly different from the church’s standard liturgical music.
“When we started that first note, I didn’t know what to expect because this is a liturgical church. I didn’t know if people were going to get up and walk out or what they would do.”
That initial service was a hit.
Ruark and McDaniel said subsequent services have drawn plenty of church members. Plus, many people who don’t belong to the ministry have shown up after having seen the church’s banner promoting the jazz event.
Bassist Trench said the service appeals to those who love jazz and others who are open to a different type of service.
The musicians typically meet shortly before the informal service to discuss what they plan to play. McDaniel said they don’t rehearse. They like the groove that is created with no formal practice.
“You can rehearse the spontaneity out of jazz. We have a long history of playing together at OCU, and the best groove we’ve had, we had no rehearsal,” McDaniel said.
Ruark generally gives the welcome, then the combo provides music for an opening hymn that most attendees are familiar with.
She presents a short biblical lesson followed by more music. Participants may be asked to join in a moment of silent reflection or a time of meditation while the jazz combo plays softly.
An offering is taken to help defray the costs of the service.
McDaniel said the combo has taken an improvisational approach to the musical selections, and attendees appear to like this aspect of the service.
“You play the traditional rhythms and you monkey around with it,” he said.
So, what’s new for the Aug. 13 service?
For starters, the combo will debut its rendition of the spiritual, “How I Got Over,” a song made famous by Gospel legend Mahalia Jackson.
Also, McDaniel will play a baby grand piano instead of the upright piano he has played in previous services.
The enthusiastic musician sees the new addition to the church parlor as a way he can more fully enjoy Second Sunday Jazz.
“It’s going to be liberating to me — because my back won’t be to everyone. I just have a blast doing this.”
