Enoch Smith Jr.: The Book of Enoch Vol. 1

With a longstanding residence as a music worship leader at Allentown Presbyterian Church in New Jersey, pianist / composer Enoch Smith Jr. comes to jazz with a gospel perspective.

Once common in soul music and even blues, this gospel background is rarer in jazz, especially in recent years.

On The Book of Enoch, Vol 1, as in his previous outing, The Quest: Live at APC (2016), Smith's performance is in a jazz vein—albeit one with significant gospel overtones and influences. While the song selection on the prior album was a mix of religious and secular, here the songs are purposely old spirituals and gospel tunes performed as modern jazz pieces.

As Smith explains in a press release, he and his trio (Kai Gibson on bass, and David Hardy on drums) had been exploring the canon of hymns and spirituals, early and contemporary, at their weekly church service and the other members of the trio felt this exploration deserved being preserved in a recording.

The album kicks off with the traditional "Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho." Smith opens it assertively on piano, Hardy riding the rims of his drums before the trio slips into a more standard arrangement. As the song moves from the modified opening into the first verse, Smith transitions from a linear approach to the melody to block chords, and then back again, with his left hand augmenting Gibson's bass work on the piano's deep low end. During the linear approaches, Smith plays with a light, lithe touch—sounding not too far from the late Vince Guaraldi. But after a few measures, he then changes gears again. This consistent change-up in delivery creates its own sense of urgency.

Just past the halfway point, Gibson provides a lengthy solo on standup bass that is literate, swinging and joyous before handing it back to Smith, who, after a few bars, steps back for Hardy's engaging drum solo before all three carry it to a satisfying conclusion.

The 19th-century hymn "Holy City" opens in a far more restrained mood, and while the pace remains relatively sedate, Smith's strength in how he attacks the keys hints at barely restrained spiritual passion.

The fully contemporary (1999) gospel number "Soon And Very Soon" by Andraé Crouch gets a fairly straight-ahead post-bop treatment. Smith's piano mostly follows Crouch's own version for the opening bars before the band then takes it into improvisation, extrapolating on the theme.

"Christ Is King" by American composer Kenneth Morris was published just after World War II. Morris' own background was largely in jazz, and even the most devout take on the song still has large jazz influences. Here, Gibson opens the song on bass with Hardy joining in behind him before Smith also starts comping softly behind him, then taking the lead. The three men continue to trade the leads throughout, building off the melody before re-centering it for the close.

Ralph Carmichael's 1969 Christian pop song, "A Quiet Place," became something of an easy listening standard in subsequent years. The arrangement here is one of quiet introspection, with the trio breaking it down about a third of the way in. The pretty melody lends itself nicely to improvisation, and the three men never take it too far out.

Smith contributes the original song, "Gracefully," which is anchored by a melody nearly as gorgeous as that from "A Quiet Place." The band closes out with the gospel piece "Mitch's Moves," composed and recorded by Philadelphia gospel artist Parris Bowens just about two years before his 2021 death from complications of COVID-19. Smith's opening on piano is a moving homage to Bowens' own reading. Smith's trio plays it a little slower than Bowens did, but they frame the theme with such care during the opening that when they switch gears and begin extemporizing and riffing on the melody, it is utterly logical. Gibson contributes yet another moving solo on bass, and Smith is near-perfect at stepping back into a support role when the others are out front.

This album as a whole is a lovely blending of the gospel and jazz traditions—two styles that developed in parallel in the early 20th century and retain many commonalities that allow for jazz readings of gospel music that retain the full impact of the original material while drawing out news facets of each song through the different (jazz) approach.

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