This is the future on-line community

of Jazz On Earth

As the United States is called the melting pot of cultures so is Jazz the melting pot of different heritages including music from the 1800’s in southern America, ragtime music, big band, some blues tunes, and even Latin music can be considered ‘jazz music.’ It’s about celebrating, mourning, entertaining, commemorating, worshiping and even working. The owners of Jazz On clubs would like to see this specific style of music brought back to the people in all parts of the world and not just in the big cities but for everyone to enjoy.

OWNERS

Steven Deeds

e-mail: Steve@JazzOnEarth.com

phone: (978) 590-6148

Angel Waalkes

e-mail: Angel@JazzOnEarth.com

phone: (907) 227-6301 or (603) 854-0100

Varrin Swearingen

e-mail: Varrin@JazzOnEarth.com

phone: (559) 709-8150

Edi Swearingen

e-mail: Edi@JazzOnEarth.com

phone: (603) 203-4593

Vision Statement

To Love God and Love People by revealing an image of God and His creation by showcasing quality Jazz music in, and applying concepts surrounding Jazz to a widely appealing, economically viable restaurant and bar.

What Is Jazz?

Understanding our vision requires a deeper understanding of the problem and several components of the vision for a solution. The first element requiring understanding is Jazz itself. This is especially true considering it is the element that sets Jazz On apart from other restaurant / bar / club environments.

Jazz music began in the early part of the 20^th century, or possibly the late 19^th century if ragtime is included in the history of jazz proper. The modern word Jazz also has its roots around that time, having its earliest known modern use published in 1912 in an article about a baseball player's pitch. The word and the music were not put together until after both had developed independently. Since that time, both have gained better definition.

Today, there is no single definition of jazz that is universally accepted. This fact illustrates, in part, what jazz itself actually is: a continually evolving and expanding set of frameworks inside of which music is expressed, most often including individual expression of the musicians. In short, jazz is: improvisation within a structure, or musical freedom within an agreed-to set of boundaries.

The frameworks (styles, songs, composition of bands, etc.) that comprise what is often thought of as jazz have expanded constantly since its origin. The level of improvisation has varied from very little and very structured (modern smooth jazz and older big band and ragtime), to almost completely unstructured (free jazz). The flip side of that coin is that the level of structure has varied, both in its style, and in the level of detail it dictates to the musicians, or the level of improvisational freedom it offers them. Naturally, different people are drawn to different styles or types of jazz.

It is the almost universal existence of improvisation or freedom that, in my view, separates jazz from most (or all) other forms of music. For example, classical, opera, pop, rock, country, and so on, generally do not have the level of freedom or improvisation that jazz does. Songs, instrumentation and styles are tightly scripted and changes are viewed more as changes to the musical framework itself than improvisation within that framework. There are some improvised 'solos' in rock music, which brings it closer to the jazz idiom, which existed before the advent of rock. Bluegrass is closer yet, and blues is considered by many to be a type of jazz.

What remains as probably the single overriding theme of jazz music is improvisation within structure.

What is the correlation between Jazz and God?

Some Christians believe jazz music is evil, citing its secular origin or word association with sexuality (note: neither sexuality nor music appear to have been the word's origin). Some believe rock and roll is evil for similar reasons, and a few believe any music with secular origin is evil and should be avoided and rejected by all God-fearing people. Taking that view, however, would require adopting the position that music itself has an inherent value independent of the heart or motive of the people currently playing or listening to it. If applied consistently, language would suffer the same consequence with disastrous results (we couldn't speak to each other). These views assume that a practice, language, art, or place cannot be redeemed or defiled from its historical origin. This idea is contrary to the Christian message of redemption and God's design of nature and mankind in His image.

Having ruled out Jazz as inherently sinful or corrupt, the next question is how can jazz music and its concepts be presented in a secular environment as a form of imagery for God? Based on the definition supplied above, the jazz concept of improvisation within structure is a form of image of God and his creation. Man is created in the image of God and also has the 'variation on a theme' motif, which is a natural consequence of improvisation. It is easy for any person to both identify people as people, and people as individuals. Jazz music highlights the concept of the variation on a theme that improvisation within structure creates with each piece being different each time it's played.

Merely displaying variations on a theme, though, only demonstrates a single layer of God's creativity – the result of it (variety). Humans, being created in God's image, are given a mind and spirit prone to creativity itself, not just variety. Art, in general, is an illustration of that kind of creativity. Jazz music is an art form that, being creative and varied, is an image of all art, humanity, and God himself.

By jazz music allowing the musicians the freedom to demonstrate in real time a new twist on an established theme, or sometimes to create new forms all together, the concept of jazz focuses attention on the creativity of people as individuals and participants in a structure. Occasionally, they work alone or together to make new structures. All of this creativity amounts to an image of God relating to structure and improvisation.

While academic research and writing on the correlation between God (and the image or characteristics of God) and jazz is minimal, there are occasional references to it on the net and probably elsewhere. See:

http://www.cathedral.org/cathedral/worship/ets040620.html

http://addisonrd.com/WordPress/?p=269

http://makingdisciples.wordpress.com/2007/07/06/steven-manskar-on-making-disciples/