Wednesday, September 14, 2005

Kind Of Blue (part 2)

America in the 1950's--All a matter of perspective. The war was over, suburbia was being invented and the American dream was being pursued...by some For black America, the 1950's were a decade of emergence. After 90 years of not being slaves and yet not being citizens either, something had to give. The dehumanization of separate water fountains, segregated schools, lynchings in the South, massive nihilism in the urban North and no voting rights gave rise to discontent. As Fannie Lou Hamer would say, sometimes your just "sick and tired of being sick and tired." In 1954 racial segregation of schools was ruled unconstitutional. In 1955 Rosa Parks decided to stay seated. And in 1959 Miles Davis recorded Kind of Blue and jazz has never been the same. Four years later, Martin Luther King Jr. called America to emerge, even better, to converge and America has never been the same either. Jazz anticipates, participates, senses the shift of the wind...listens Theology like jazz is not meant to be a series of static propositions but rather the job of a theologian (and everybody is a theologian!), is to sense current realities, anticipate the wind of God...to listen. To be continued...

9 Comments:

Blogger fatherneo said...

How do you discern the winds of God? Many have jettisoned the Scripture and important doctrines like the Deity of Christ drifting on a wind of some sort. What if you have to break wind? (grin)

10:06 AM  
Blogger jazztheo said...

Jazz theology assumes certain standards before improvisation can happen. One can only imagine the sound of an ensemble playing without any agreed upon standards...traditions padre, traditions.

2:43 PM  
Blogger jazztheo said...

p.s. Fatherneo, beautiful jazz is preceded by using wisdom when choosing ones ensemble.

3:42 PM  
Blogger jazztheo said...

Padre,

Jazz great, Wynton Marsalis, describes jazz as "a lively exchange of thoughts within a strongly applied discipline." Same could be said of Jazz Theology.

7:50 PM  
Blogger voixd'ange said...

Makes sense to me.

6:31 AM  
Blogger Constantine said...

Jazztheo,

I'm not often surprised or goading into thinking by much that is coined modern or contemporary (unless one would call Tillich & hence Buechner such) in terms of philosophy or theology, but you surprise me and make me think with your posts. Good stuff. I enjoy reading your thoughts. I get lost sometimes on the race bit (I'm a white boy--grin), but the notions you work with are very innovative. Keep it up!

6:59 AM  
Blogger jazztheo said...

Constantine,

I'm grateful for our dialogue...simple fact is we need each other to see what God is doing.

Stick with me on the race thing...for if you do, then you will discover that your not a white boy at all!

By the way, what is the source of your name?

7:13 AM  
Blogger jazztheo said...

Constantine,

I also an not to much in to the modern but realize this...this is early century stuff for my people. African-Americans have only existed for about three centuries. Christianity for us is very new.

8:41 AM  
Blogger Constantine said...

Jazztheo,

I'll stick with you. I'm too interested not to hang around. I'm also a Jazz and Blues fan, even Zydeco, so anyone who can correlate philosophy & theology with music has my ear.

My pseudonym came about when I interjected myself on "White Rabbit" as a source of irritation to my beloved pal. With all the Matrix inspired names on his Blog, I thought a different but apropos name would be just the right touch. It has a significant historical precedent, and at the time I started blogging the movie "Constantine" was on the silver screen starring Padre's beloved Neo.

9:08 AM  

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