Jazzing up Mass: Jim Duff's CD Brings New Life to a Old Form
"Jazz Mass." To many of us, especially those raised in the Roman Catholic church, it sounds like an oxymoron. A contradiction in terms.
But that's exactly what musician and composer Jim Duff has created and committed to CD.
From a musical perspective, a mass consists of six sections. They are the Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Benedictus and the Agnus Dei.
In his composition, Duff has followed this format, adding his own special section to the end - the Beatus, a Beatitude, or blessing.
If it seems like composing and recording a mass is a strange thing, it's not unprecedented. Many of the great composers, like Beethoven and Brahms, also wrote masses, and not always for performance in the church.
Masses were often showcased in concert halls to please the ears of the religious and the non-religious alike.
That said, Duff's choice of writing his mass in a jazz sensibility is unusual.
“There have been very few jazz masses," says Duff. “I found only two or three on the Net."
But that's exactly what musician and composer Jim Duff has created and committed to CD.
From a musical perspective, a mass consists of six sections. They are the Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Benedictus and the Agnus Dei.
In his composition, Duff has followed this format, adding his own special section to the end - the Beatus, a Beatitude, or blessing.
If it seems like composing and recording a mass is a strange thing, it's not unprecedented. Many of the great composers, like Beethoven and Brahms, also wrote masses, and not always for performance in the church.
Masses were often showcased in concert halls to please the ears of the religious and the non-religious alike.
That said, Duff's choice of writing his mass in a jazz sensibility is unusual.
“There have been very few jazz masses," says Duff. “I found only two or three on the Net."
For more information contact All About Jazz.
