During the liturgy, Cornett talked about the history of jazz, the contributions of African American and Jewish musicians, the role of slavery and oppression, and how it all fits into a liturgical service in a Christian church. The music included original songs from Ellison, Zanella, and Herskowitz, as well as “Preambulum From Partita No. 5 in G Major” by J. S. Bach; “All the Things You Are”  by Jerome Kern; and music by Scott Joplin.  Charles Ellison played a song based on a Langston Hughes poem, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers.”  The three artists showed the versatility and improvisational skills that characterize jazz musicians when they were asked on the spur of the moment to play some music for the offering, and they were happy to oblige. In fact, their improvised song sounded so good, under other circumstances, the audience wouldn’t have known it hadn’t been rehearsed.

After the service, Professor Cornett explained how he came up with the idea. “I’m a Religious Studies scholar. I did my PhD in Church History, and one of the biggest challenges the church faces is this: How do they build bridges with the community at large?  I felt that we had an opportunity, because St. James United Church is located in the heart of the Montreal International Jazz Festival. It makes perfect sense for us to build bridges by inviting, incorporating, and integrating the best jazz composers and musicians at St. James.” 

Cornett continued, “Like many of the mainline Protestant churches, on any given Sunday in summer, you’ll see about 50 people in this church, and it’s a cathedral, a historic church. It easily seats hundreds of people with the upstairs and downstairs.” So Cornett went to the pastor and asked, “Do you want to see more than 50 people here on a Sunday during the Montreal International Jazz Festival?” and the pastor agreed to try it. That first jazz liturgy in 2011 featured Juno Award-winning saxophonist and composer Christine Jensen; pianist Felix Stussi, who was awarded the 2007 Grand Prize at the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal; and “The Queen of Montreal Blues,” vocalist Dawn Tyler Watson, winner of the Quebec Lys Blues Award. It was such a wonderful experience that the church decided to do it again this year. There was quite a buzz after the first one, and the outstanding artists they invited in 2011 spread the word to other musicians.

Professor Cornett declared that the most challenging part of the experience was organizing. “Ninety-nine percent of any event is organizing.” Praising the high caliber of the musicians, he said, “If you want the best, you’d better be the first out of the blocks. We had saxophonist Jean-Pierre Zanella, who won the Oscar Peterson Prize. That’s the highest award conferred on a jazz musician in Canada by the Montreal International Jazz Festival.” Speaking of pianist Matt Herskowitz, he said, “Dave Brubeck once told me, ‘Matt Herskowitz is twice the musician I am.’ So you’ve got to contact these people way in advance, and then you’ve got to coordinate schedules, because very often, these musicians are gigging.” Charles Ellison, one of Canada’s foremost jazz trumpeters, is a university professor and a musical and spiritual mentor to people like Wynton Marsalis. Cornett said, “There is, with Professor Ellison, a profound spirituality, and I think that’s what intrigues me. How do we bring together jazz and spirituality? As an African American idiom, jazz began as an expression of what Carl Jung called ‘The Collective Unconscious,’ and I refer to it as ‘Jazz’s Collective Soul.’”

As for the most rewarding part of the experience, Cornett cites the end result, the service itself. “When Matt Herskowitz and Jean-Pierre Zanella were doing ‘Bella’s Lament,’ it was heart-rending. [“Bella’s Lament” is from a theater piece based on the lives of Marc and Bella Chagall.] That’s an original composition of Matt Herskowitz’s, and when we heard Jean-Pierre Zanella’s  ‘Jelly Fish’…there was a real affinity between the two pieces, because Zanella had composed it upon the death of his mom.” Both songs were about loss and heartache, and the artists expressed some of the deepest human emotions through their music.

Professor Cornett spoke more about his own views on spirituality and jazz, saying, “I don’t believe that we can learn without the arts. I see jazz as a way of learning to trust ourselves. Jazz is about improvisation; that means intuition. This is where it gets back to faith for me, as a Religious Studies scholar. Ultimately, it’s about belief in God, and believing in one’s self as God’s creation. You know, God is very generous. God gives gifts to everyone; to each and every human being, God has bestowed gifts.  So, the role of the educator is to help that student, whether they’re in preschool, whether they’re in kindergarten, or elementary school, or high school, or in university. How do we help that divine creation to discover the gifts that God has bestowed on them? That’s really what an educator has as their goal.”

Cornett continued, “I began to ask myself, ‘How honest are we in education today? Do we create a space where the students can think for themselves and say what they really believe, or only repeat like a parrot what they’re told is the truth?’ That’s why I mentioned during the second annual Jamming at St. James, from the Gospel of John, ‘You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.’ I came to the conclusion that the way to best enable the students, to empower the students, is to create a space of freedom, where they have the freedom to explore the truth, to experience the truth, so that they can appropriate for themselves, the truth.”

The 2009 documentary film, Professor Norman Cornett: Since When Do We Divorce the Right Answer From an Honest Answer?, directed by award-winning Canadian filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin, is all about Cornett’s progressive and unorthodox approach to education and the arts, particularly his “dialogic” sessions on jazz. The dialogic sessions start with students listening to an unidentified piece of music.  Sometimes they wear blindfolds or listen in the dark to increase their ability to concentrate. Then, they give critiques on the music. Once the critiques are completed, the musician who played the piece joins the group to discuss the comments. The purpose of the sessions is to create an atmosphere where the students aren’t intimidated by the fame or reputation of the musicians when they critique the songs. Needless to say, there have been some interesting and eye-opening results. These sessions have included jazz luminaries like Oliver Jones, David Amram, and Branford Marsalis. The film also addresses Cornett’s controversial dismissal from McGill University without explanation, which caused an outcry of protest from students, lawyers, and fellow academics. The documentary has premiered throughout the world, including Paris, Madrid, and British Columbia.

Cornett has been doing a radio show in Montreal for the past three years, on CIRA, Radio Ville-Marie, 91.3 FM. He is also continuing with his dialogic sessions. For more information on Professor Norman Cornett, go to http://haveyouexperienced.wordpress.com/.

Both the 2011 and 2012 Jamming at St. James services were enlightening and entertaining. The jazz liturgy has become an annual event, and it’s a must-see for anyone fortunate enough to be in Montreal for the Festival next year.