Someone Found This Site . . .

. . .while searching for a "Rappin' Reverend t-shirt."

My response: I am begging you. If you find one, please, please come back and tell us where we can get ours.

I am one hundred percent serious.

Shades of Praise

From NPR, a really neat story about Shades of Praise, an interracial, interdenominational choir in New Orleans. Founded by a Loyola University theology professor and led by the pianist for a New Orleans R&B legend, it's been a fixture on the N.O. scene for several years.

Beyond that, though, it's a model for the way people of different races and classes can grow in community together--through good times, and now following Hurricane Katrina. One singer notes, "This group represents what the city could be." Listen--and let me know if you were as moved as I.

An Ethnomusicologist on the Air

From the Naples Daily News, a profile of Dick Spottswood, host of WAMU's bluegrass-themed radio program.

Another Reason to Love the Music . . .

"'Oh, honey! It makes you feel relaxed, you feel it all over your bones . . . "If you're depressed, that's the great tool for getting yourself out of depression.'"--Ruthie Macon on gospel music, quoted in the Marion Chronicle-Tribune

More on Jazz in Church

Here's a wonderful article from yesterday's Chicago Tribune: Churches get in groove with jazz. My favorite quote: "'I see jazz as mirroring God's continuing creation in the world,'" said Pastor Janet Volk of Northlake Lutheran Church in Northlake. "'You never know what's going to happen.'"
My own life has taken a jazzlike, unexpected turn. More on that later! In the meantime: What's the most jazzlike twist your life has taken? If your life were a jazz song, which would it be?