Black Sacred Jazz Histories
 

What is the social, cultural, and political authority of Black churches for the people whom these institutions shaped, but who chose to pursue their own lives outside of these institutional walls, without making the leap to other religious traditions? What is authority for those who don’t formally identify with Black churches? Jazz is an artistic profession where Black musicians in the era of Jim Crow and within the dominant culture of what was then referred to as the “Negro church”—now "the Black church"—viewed themselves as representatives of their race. Several musicians also crafted expressions of religion through their artistry. This talk will showcase how some prominent jazz artists, including Duke Ellington and Mary Lou Williams, agreed with, or diverged from, the social and theological norms of Black Protestant church culture through their sacred music, which also reflected their conceptions of African American sacred history.

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