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<\/a>We listened and then we decided to make our contribution to the performance. My new-found homeless friend shouted, "Herbie Hancock!" And much to our pleasure the musician obliged. We smiled at each other as we marveled at his skills. I shouted, "Coltrane’s Alabama." Once again, he treated us to the song of our choice. And there we were, Black & Wite, Asian & Homeless…listening. It was a joy.<\/p>\nIt was quitting time, so the passerby’s were many and his instrument case was garnering tips as people tossed in changed mostly out of charity. Then I noticed the obvious. This guy didn’t need the money, he needed an audience.<\/p>\n
He was dressed in Gap attire and most likely was a student at a local university. He was practicing, more than that, he was trying to find his voice.<\/p>\n
Jazz is about the individual and the group. A jazz-shaped Christianity is about how we become within the confines and the safety of others. As we practice the ancient ways, we do so in the presence of others and with their input spurring us on until we discover and\/or happen upon our own voice.<\/p>\n
I was glad to have played my role.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Today I was reclined on a bench reading at the 16th Street Mall in Denver when I heard the unmistakable growl of a saxophone. I followed the sound to a man about a half a block away who was playing for tips. As I sat down to listen, I realized that I had company. I…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-misc"],"yoast_head":"\n
Jazz is... - The Jazz Theologian<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2007\/03\/you-had-to-be-t.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Jazz is... - The Jazz Theologian\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Today I was reclined on a bench reading at the 16th Street Mall in Denver when I heard the unmistakable growl of a saxophone. I followed the sound to a man about a half a block away who was playing for tips. As I sat down to listen, I realized that I had company. 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I…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2007\/03\/you-had-to-be-t.html","og_site_name":"The Jazz Theologian","article_published_time":"2007-03-07T22:14:06+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/jazztheologian.typepad.com\/findingthegroove\/images\/streetmusician.jpg"}],"author":"Robert Gelinas","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2007\/03\/you-had-to-be-t.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2007\/03\/you-had-to-be-t.html","name":"Jazz is... - The Jazz Theologian","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2007\/03\/you-had-to-be-t.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2007\/03\/you-had-to-be-t.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/jazztheologian.typepad.com\/findingthegroove\/images\/streetmusician.jpg","datePublished":"2007-03-07T22:14:06+00:00","dateModified":"2007-03-07T22:14:06+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/#\/schema\/person\/5e3ecb360405bd8603a61c7115194e01"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2007\/03\/you-had-to-be-t.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2007\/03\/you-had-to-be-t.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2007\/03\/you-had-to-be-t.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/jazztheologian.typepad.com\/findingthegroove\/images\/streetmusician.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/jazztheologian.typepad.com\/findingthegroove\/images\/streetmusician.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2007\/03\/you-had-to-be-t.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Jazz is…"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/","name":"The Jazz Theologian","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Robert Gelinas on Composing a Jazz-Shaped Faith","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/#\/schema\/person\/5e3ecb360405bd8603a61c7115194e01","name":"Robert Gelinas","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/fbe\/fbe4a8ffc24002390e969652fba5c72bx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/fbe\/fbe4a8ffc24002390e969652fba5c72bx96.jpg","caption":"Robert Gelinas"},"description":"\"For more information visit: Jazztheologian.com Robert Gelinas is Lead-Pastor (and resident Jazz Theologian) of Colorado Community Church\u00e2\u20ac\u201da multi-cultural, interdenominational community of 3000+ followers of Christ in the Denver area. Author of Finding the Groove: Composing a Jazz-Shaped Faith (Zondervan) and the upcoming, Strange Fruit: The Cross as a Way of Life (2011). Founder of Project 127, a ministry dedicated to seeing the day when there are no children waiting for homes in Colorado's foster care system. Robert deeply desires to see the body of Christ mobilized to serve the least of these. The poor, the down and out, the disenfranchised and disabled, those deemed unimportant and the unborn. He believes that God loves all people yet he has a special heart for the poor and the poor in spirit, the miserable and the marginalized. A Contributing Editor for Leadership Journal and Urbanfaith.com. He acquired a B.A. in Bibilcal Studies from Colorado Christian University and a Master of Arts in World Christianity (Missiology) from Denver Seminary. Robert is married to the love of his life, Barbara, and they have six energetic children (3 boys & 3 girls--one bio, five adopted--two from Ethiopia). Friend of God...Passionate about the Body of Christ...Lover of this thing called jazz! Please visit Jazztheologian.com for contact info., speaking schedule, videos, Facebook and Twitter.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/author\/rgelinas"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/79"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Streetmusician\"](\"http:\/\/jazztheologian.typepad.com\/.shared\/image.html?\/photos\/uncategorized\/streetmusician.jpg\")
<\/a>We listened and then we decided to make our contribution to the performance. My new-found homeless friend shouted, "Herbie Hancock!" And much to our pleasure the musician obliged. We smiled at each other as we marveled at his skills. I shouted, "Coltrane’s Alabama." Once again, he treated us to the song of our choice. And there we were, Black & Wite, Asian & Homeless…listening. It was a joy.<\/p>\n