Jazz Music Masses in Detroit?

hymn, church music, chant, evangelization, Jazz

Who in their right mind would think a Mass featuring Jazz music is a good idea?  Is this one of the fruits of Vatican II and Sacrosanctum Concilium?  And yet it is allowed while the Traditional Latin Mass is essentially being outlawed.

This has to fall under the ‘truth is stranger than fiction’ heading.  In the Archdiocese of Detroit two Jazz Masses will be held this weekend.   At 11:00 am on September 4, Sts. Peter and Paul Jesuit Church will host its 6th Annual Jazz Mass, and at 2:00 pm, St. Moses the Black Catholic Church in Detroit will have “Holy Mass with music honoring the culture of Jazz in Detroit.”

Just how Jazz Music fits in with the “solemn character of the celebration” (emphasis added) of the Mass, per the “Catechism of the Catholic Church” (CCC) 1157, is quite beyond me.  I don’t think anyone can say Jazz is solemn or reverent.

Jazz Anyone?

Now don’t get me wrong, I like Jazz music.  But I don’t think Jazz is suitable for Mass any more than is Rock ‘n Roll.  Yet there will be not one but two Jazz Masses in Detroit this weekend.

And apparently the Archdiocese of Detroit does not have a problem with this.  Announcements about both Masses were in the Detroit Catholic.

In case you don’t feel like clicking on the links, this is the write up for the Sixth Annual Jazz Mass:

6th Annual Jazz Mass
Ss Peter and Paul Jesuit Church, Detroit, Michigan
Everyone is welcome to join us on Sunday September 4 at 11 am for our 6th Annual Jazz Mass, held in conjunction with the Detroit Annual Jazz Festival. Conveniently located down the road the from the festival. Featuring local musicians Cliff Monear, Jeff Pedraz, David Alvarez III, and Russell Miller.

And this is the write up for Mass honoring the culture of Jazz in Detroit:

Holy Mass with music honoring the culture of Jazz in Detroit

WHEN
Sep 4 2:00PM
LOCATION
St. Moses the Black Catholic Church: 1125 Oakman Blvd., Detroit, MI 48238

Come be inspired by Gospel and Jazz music forms that both draw upon the heart and spirit of the people. Learn about Gospel and Jazz blended into one genre form called “Gospel Jazz”. To be performed during Mass on September 4th to glorify the Lord. Featuring legendary Detroit jazz artists Alvin Waddles, Dorothy Duensing, Nate Winn, Jonathan Muir Cotton, Deblon Jackson and the William S. Harrison Chorale.

Presider: Fr. Marko Djonovic
Homilist: Fr. John McKenzie

Giving Glory to God

Getting back to the CCC, 1157 says, in full,

“Song and music fulfill their function as signs in a manner all the more significant when they are “more closely connected . . . with the liturgical action,” according to three principal criteria: beauty expressive of prayer, the unanimous participation of the assembly at the designated moments, and the solemn character of the celebration. In this way they participate in the purpose of the liturgical words and actions: the glory of God and the sanctification of the faithful.”

I guess I just don’t see how a “Holy Mass with music honoring the culture of Jazz” is giving glory to God and sanctifying the faithful.

As I wrote just last week here at CS:

“As with so much in the Novus Ordo Mass, in general, and in the GIRM, as Pope Paul VI said in Missale Romanum, room was left “for legitimate variations and adaptations.”  But just how a set of instructions that leaves room for different variations and adaptions makes for a universal, unifying Mass is a bit mysterious.  Pope Francis, however, seems to think a Mass that leaves plenty of room for variations and adaptations will be unifying.”

I don’t think Pope Paul VI envisioned Jazz Masses when the Missale Romanum was put together.  But this is where we are today.

So let me end again, with what I wrote last week:

“Maybe those Catholics who still prefer the TLM should write a letter to Pope Francis expressing their sadness over Traditionis Custodes.  He lives at Casa Santa Martha instead of staying in the papal apartment.  His address there is:

His Holiness, Pope Francis
Saint Martha House
00120 Città del Vaticano, Vatican City

“Just be advised the cost of the letter could be around $2 U.S.”

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10 thoughts on “Jazz Music Masses in Detroit?”

  1. Pingback: The Finding of St. Stephen’s Body, Frequent Confession, and More Great Links! - JP2 Catholic Radio

  2. David summoned the priests Zadok and Abiathar. David commanded the commanders of the Levites to appoint their brothers as singers and to play on musical instruments, harps, lyres, and cymbals, to make a loud sound of rejoicing. They sacrificed seven bulls and seven rams. David was vested in a robe of fine linen…David was also wearing a linen ephod. Thus all Israel brought up the ark of the covenant of the Lord with joyful shouting, to the sound of horns, trumpets, and cymbals, and the music of harps and lyres. But as the ark of the covenant of the Lord was entering the City of David, Michal, daughter of Saul, looked down from her window, and when she saw King David leaping and dancing, she despised him in her heart. When David had finished sacrificing the burnt offerings and peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord. David then appointed certain Levites to minister before the ark of the Lord, to celebrate, to give thanksgiving, and to praise the Lord, the God of Israel.

  3. Every time I hear/read the word “presider”, I want to puke. A priest is a priest is a priest, one who offers sacrifices to God. The priest is not some actor in a play or an observer of a performance.
    The Archbishop of Detroit, of course, couldn’t care less.

  4. In general, I agree with the author’s premise about jazz music at Mass. I will bring up one possible exception, though it is more classical music than jazz, but written by a jazz great, Dave Brubeck. Brubeck, after becoming Catholic, wrote a full mass piece call Mass To Hope. I would argue that Brubeck’s piece follows paying “solemn” honor to God via the music for the Mass.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uA6I0wxBbNs&list=PLVIJPAcnWUSgQBm5J8tLKBScaP6OQLxDs
    Brubeck became a Catholic in 1980, shortly after completing the Mass To Hope which had been commissioned by Ed Murray, editor of the national Catholic weekly Our Sunday Visitor. Although he had spiritual interests before that time, he said, “I didn’t convert to Catholicism, because I wasn’t anything to convert from. I just joined the Catholic Church.
    https://www.davebrubeck.com/to-hope-a-celebration

  5. Pingback: THVRSDAY EDITION – Big Pulpit

  6. an ordinary papist

    I highly doubt that you have ever experienced Leonard Bernstein’s ‘Mass’ composed in 1970 using the Tridentine rite and performed in Paul VI Hall of Audiences at Vatican City. Had you, I would suspect that compared to a jazz Mass you would have shriveled down to nothing like Oz’s bad witch.

    1. Bernstein’s “Mass” is truly cringe-worthy. And just to clarify for someone reading this who is not familiar with it, Bernstein’s “Mass” was Musical Theatre based on the Tridentine Mass. It was composed as a stage production. It is not a Catholic Mass.

  7. David and all the house of Israel danced before the Lord with all their might, with singing, and with lyres, harps, tambourines, sistrums, and cymbals…When David went home to bless his own house, Michal, the daughter of Saul, came out to meet him and said, “How well the king of Israel has honored himself today, exposing himself to the view of the slave girls of his followers, as a commoner might expose himself!” But David replied to Michal: “I was dancing before the Lord. As the Lord lives, who chose me over your father and all his house when he appointed me ruler over the Lord’s people, Israel, not only will I make merry before the Lord, but I will demean myself even more. I will be lowly in your eyes, but in the eyes of the slave girls you spoke of I will be somebody.” Saul’s daughter Michal was childless to the day she died.

    1. Whatever it was, what David did was not a Holy Mass to be offered as a holy sacrifice to Our Lord and Savior. There was no priest, no Eucharist.
      Not comparable, not by a long shot.

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