The God of Jazz

A couple of weeks ago I went to see Medeski, Martin and Wood (MMW) (there is a song by them in the music playlist below!) in concert at the Bijou Theatre in Knox-viz-negas. They are a jazz band that provides a little bit of everything; traditional jazz grooves, acid jazz, modern jazz grooves, Jamaican sounds, Cajun sounds…the list goes on and on and on. The thing is, you will never hear one single song that has any one of these elements throughout the entirety of the song. It was a great show, well worth the money; especially considering it was in a small venue and I didn’t have to beat anyone down to get a parking spot.

As I was sitting there listening to the show, I thought about how God reveals himself to others in Music. I thought about it for a few minutes, and then it dawned on me. Now, superficially, MMW may not seem to be the most ideal band to sit and analyze in such a manner; but, in reality, it is a great example of the different ways God deals with the world and with individuals. For example, many of their songs will have one of the trio laying down the backbone of the song while the other two are doing their haphazard free-style jazz thing in the background. God shines even during the storm. Then all of a sudden, the three players will blend together all in harmony with no discord or musical confusion. God brings you through the storm by bending the will of others into His own harmony. But the thing is, it doesn’t stop...the players go in and out from free style to melodic, back and forth, just like our lives. We have times when everything around us is going crazy while God sits there and provides us a beacon to look to, a still small voice to listen to. In the end he is always there, you just have to tune Him in while tuning the distractions out.

You see this isn’t the most perfect example. I have given the impression that the haphazard free-style side shows do not add to the music. But that is what makes MMW so good. While at first the sideshows seem to be disjointed completely from the underlying melody, they are truly adding depth and breadth to the music. They are making the song better, just not in the most conventional of ways. God does the same sometimes. He uses the tough times to make us better people. He uses the discord to bring emphasis to Him, the perfect melody. If only we can see the discord for its real worth, we can then recognize that it's not necessarily a bad thing after all...

Now, if only I could come up with something for acid/experimental jazz