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Saturday, April 4, 1992
Modesto Bee
St. John peers down from the wall at the people entering the small, San Francisco storefront church and crunching into crowded pews.
He holds a brass saxophone in his left hand. In his right, a scroll that reads, "Let us sing all songs to God." There's a red ribbon tied around the base of the horn and red flames of the holy Spririt in the hollow from which St. John Coltranes' jazz pours.
Packed into the corner, but still in the icon's view, the basist tunes his strings.
The percussionist sets up his drums.
Soon people have to stand along the wall and in front of the storefront window. The usher tries to pull in his Santa Claus belly to squeeze past people whitle he passes out tambourines.
A deaconess emerges from behing the white curtain and takes the stage near the altar, turns toward St. John, recites a prayer, then turns toward the congregation. "Let the procession begin," she cries, signaling the chime.
Such is commencement of worship at St. John's where bishops and priest sway to the music of their patron saint John Coltrane. Where congregants pound drums, puff horns and shake tambourines in the pews while the floor boards rumble.
At St. John's, people leave feeling like they've tanscended to the spiritual world. If the spirit doesn't nab you the music will. And if you happen to be a tone-deaf atheist the spectacle will hold your attention.
The bishop's white robe curls and flaps, mimicking his short jig. The brass cross that hangs from his neck swings from side to side as he listens to the notes pouring from the horn of the priest who furiously blows into his piece. Veins bulge from the priest's neck and temples as the sisters break in at an angel's octave singing ëHalleluiah.' All the while the slender woman wrapped in black sits imp with her eyes closed. Every few minutes she wakes from her trance to raise the tambourine and shake it.
The Church
Such is worship at St. john's African Orthodox Church of the West. For about 20 years St. John's has used the music from Coltrane's 1964 release "A Love Supreme" to transcend. Here, God is summoned through the metaphysical elements of sound. Coltrane's sound.
"It's a vehicle for the atonement of the heart," says the Rev Franzo King, bishop and one of the founders of the storefront Catholic church. It's a vehicle that carries you to God.
St. Johns rest on the edge of San Francisco's Tenderloin, where God competes with drug dealers and prostitutesfor attention. The parish draws in Christian spiritualists, amateur and street musicians, jazz enthusiasts and music lovers. When the church began-as the One Mind Evolutionary Transitional Church of Christ-Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims and Rastafarians filled the pews alongside Christians.
Depending on who was talking, Coltrane then was either the supreme being or the divine prophet. After a while says King, the Christians objected to giving Coltrane god-like status.
So they switched to Christian orthodoxy in 1982. Most of the non-Christians left after that conversion.
The African Orthodox Church of the West, a breakaway church from the African Orthodox Chruch, gave St. John's the spiritual freedom to make John Coltrane their patron saint. Historically, the African Orthodox Church of the West is a liberal church giving each parish autonomy.
Archbishop George Alexander McGuire, a former Anglican priest, started the African Orthodox Church in 1921. McGuire left the Episcopal Church because he believed blacks could not rise in hierarchy. The Episcopal Church at the time did have a few black bishops, but the church would not promote black clergy simply because of race. Some priest, however, believed the church needed more movement in the hierarchy to better represent black congregants.
After he left the Episcopal Church, McGuire approached the Russian Orthodox and the Roman Catholic churches in hopes that one would ordain him and give him independent power. But none wanted to give him independence from the church.
Archbiship Joseph Rene Vilatte of the American Catholic Church gave McGuire what he wanted and consecrated him bishop in Chicago. There McGuire started his own church and order.
The African Orthodox Church of the West broke away from the main church, in 1984 and remained an independent church.
With the exception of allowing clergy to marry, the church follows a catholic framework in hierarchy, liturgy and rites. Its services incorporate black Christian traditions such as "call and response" preaching and spirited worship.
In the case of St. John's, freeform jazz is a major part of the service. But before King blows notes from his sax, he begins the service with prayer, blessings and incense. Then he takes his place on the throne seated next to the Rev. James Haven, priest and tenor saxophonist, and waits to perform his solo.
This is the Church of St. John's, where musicians and listeners bow their heads to sound, then look up hoping to find God.
The congregation is entranced as the music thunders in the church. Everyone in the congregation is in motion. Hands, feet, heads, whatever limbs happen to get caught in the vibration. The young short man with a head of unmanaged blond curls stands in the back of the church moveing his head like a woodpecker in slow motion. The afuche cabasa-a cylinder block wrapped in beads-rattles in his left hand. His movements are as disjointed as an uncoordinated man trying to tap his head and rub his tummy at the same time. As the music fades out the congregation stands and chants, "May there be peace, love, perfection throughout all creation, Oh God. May there be peace love, perfection throughout all creation, Oh God. May there be peace..."
Coltrane and Spirituality
Born and raised in North Carolina in 1926, John Coltrane started out playing the clarinet in the school band. By the time he moved to Philadelphia in 1944, he began training on the alto sax. It was in Philadelphia that his jazz career catapulted. He joined the Miles Davis Band in 1955 and played for a year until Miles reorganized the group without him. Coltrane at the time was trying to break an addiction to drugs and alcohol that affected his playing. But in 1957 he had undergone a transformation.
He was raised in the black church but he never mixed religion with his music. His spiritual awakening changed that. He pledged to "make others happy through music."
In the liner notes of his 1961 album "A Love Supreme" he explains his difficulty in keeping the pledge and his return to it: "As time and events moved on, a period of irresolution did prevail. I entered into a phase which was contradictory to the pledge and away from the esteemed path, but thankfully, now and again through the unerring and merciful hand of God, I do perceive and have been duly re-informed of His Omnipotence, and of our need for, and dependence on Him."
"At this time I owuld like to tell you that no matter what...it is with God. He is Gracious and Merciful. His way is through love, in which we all are. It is truly- A Love Supreme."
Franzo King, then hip and in his 20's, was crushed when he read these notes.
"The God people got John," he told a friend, How could he be so uncool? But when he saw Coltrane in person, he began to understand.
"I saw John the first time and I knew it was something more than just a jazz thing. I thought I would be safe from God. After all, it was a jazz concert. But King says Coltrane's music spoke to him in a spiritual way. "I had to go back and re-examine the liner notes."
He began to see Coltrane and his music in a whole new light. He understood what Coltrane meant when he said jazz needs another performing stage beside clubs.
"What better place than the church," King says. So was the birth of One Mind Evolutionary Transitional Church of Christ.
The drummer charges with his ballistic improvisation after which the piano man jumps in pounding the ivories with his long dark fingers. The music slows down and everyone stands for Coltrane's prayer. "Thank you God. God is all." The bishop's wife, dressed like a num, raises her arm and waves her hand in the air.
Musicians and Listeners
Musicians from around the city file into St. John's every week ready to jam. Some are there to jam for God. Others are there just to jam.
Nineteen years ago, Haven saw musicians going in and out of the church when he walked past coming from his nearby apartment. Every Sunday he heard Coltrane's music pour out of the storefront. Like the Pied Piper it lured him in. Haven started playing fewer gigs in alternative spaces-warehouses and clubs that had no alcohol- and began devoting his music and time to One Mind.
"My involvement started because I was searching for a church that I could feel comfortable praying with the people there. In other churches, something wonderful would happen but I didn't feel compelled to join. When I came here the music of John Coltrane was a binding factor for all of us in the congregation."
It would not have been possible without the music, he says. Haven still plays in four bands to support himself, but the church is where he found his spiritual voice.
"A person who's searching has to keep searching and get sincere."
Perhaps Heidi Gehrmann and Mike Crockford also are on a sojourn for spiritual truth. Visiting from New Jersey, the pair had heard about the "Church of Coltrane" by word of mouth.
"This should be church," says Gehrmann comparing it to her Roman Cathlolic experiences. "I probably would have a different feeling if I had gone to this kind of church."
Like Gehrmann and Crockford, many come through the door enthusiastic for good jazz. But once the preaching starts they leave. "I'm not much for the liturgy," Crockford says bluntly. He and Gehrmann left right after the offering but promised to return next week for the music.
Haven says sometimes people misunderstand Coltrane and his music in the realm of the spirit. In his own way, believes Haven, "Coltrane is leading everyone else back to God." |
