Jazz Mass
Jazz is American classical music. It is a true American art form. The Jazz Mass continues to be an important part of the worship life at St. Ambrose. The St. Ambrose Musicians are a feature of the Ocean City Jazz Festival, North Topsail Beach, NC, Fourth of July weekend each year. The Jazz Mass is a worship service based in the African American musical tradition of Jazz.
2024 Ocean City Jazz Mass Worship Service
Sermon by the Rev. Jemonde Taylor for Pentecost V, Fourth of July Weekend, July 2, 2023 at Chestnut Chapel, North Topsail Beach, NC for the Ocean City Jazz Festival.
Sermon features the Jazz Mass Quartet playing the Battle Hymn of the Republic, John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme, and Charles Mingus’ Let My Children Hear Music.
In the early 2000s, St. Ambrose’s newly installed rector, the Rev. Dr. Michael Battle, requested a grant from Trinity Church, Wall Street, NYC to start a Jazz Mass. A Jazz Mass is a worship service with service music and hymns played in a Jazz genre. The instrumental voices of saxophone, piano, acoustic guitar, bass guitar, and drums made up the Jazz Mass. The purpose was to offer a new worship service at St. Ambrose to appeal to a younger demographic with hopes of growing the congregation.
St. Ambrose received a $25,000 grant for one year. The church leadership invited a Jazz Group called Moment’s Notice, named after the Duke Ellington Jazz standard. Moment’s Notice was led by Bobby Moody. From 2001 until 2018, the Jazz Mass was a Sunday morning fixture during the 9:15am hour.
Click through the images below!
UNC-TV Video
Advent Evening of Jazz, December 2012
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