Jazz form has taken on different incarnations throughout its lifetime, but it isn't until recently that 'choral jazz' has found its way into choirs of any stripe. For this, you can thank equal parts Latin mass musicians Lalo Schifrin and Scott Stroman and Bob Chilchott's A Little Jazz Mass and Nidaros Jazz Mass.
Will Todd's Mass in Blue has become an example of the genre, as Laura Jones at Oxford University Press Blog says, "presenting an innate fusion of jazz elements within choral writing."
Todd describes the composition as a "watershed work," which fuses together his penchant for jazz with his experiences in church and choral music.
A prominent choral composer, Todd found success with pieces such a My Lord Has Come and The Call of Wisdom (commissioned for celebrations to Her Majesty's Diamond Jubilee) along with performing and recording with his own jazz trio.
An unique blend of jazz and church, choral jazz has its own voice, a hybrid so original that your local parish would sing it just like an obscure jazz club in a NYC basement would.
2014 has been the stage for the new edition of Todd's Mass in Blue, where the choral parts and textures have been simplified and the piano parts have been toned back to embrace the choir while having some semblance of subtlety.
Check out a small look into Mass in Blue below to get with the picture.
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