{"id":586,"date":"2005-09-25T21:34:00","date_gmt":"2005-09-25T21:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jazztheologian\/2005\/09\/better-question.html"},"modified":"2005-09-25T21:34:00","modified_gmt":"2005-09-25T21:34:00","slug":"better-question","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2005\/09\/better-question.html","title":{"rendered":"Better question…Who is “IT?”"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"<\/a>
\nIn light of the last post on “What is IT?” Perhaps a better question is, “Who is IT?”<\/p>\n

Grammy award winner, Wynton Marsalis tells this story about “IT<\/strong>“<\/p>\n

“Now, my younger brother Ellis couldn’t understand all this fuss about jazz<\/strong>. He wasn’t a musician, and jazz<\/strong> just didn’t speak to him.” But “He figured it might be worth it to learn to hear jazz<\/strong>. Some years later he called…’Man, I think I hear it. I can hear what y’all are playing.”<\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

“I knew exactly what it he was talking about. This hearing of it is the moment of revelation that leads you deeper into a love of jazz<\/strong>. All at once, the potential glories of interacting with this limitless music become evident and present, pressing. All the head-scratching and confusion are replaced with excitement and expecations. You are welcomed into a club that never dwindles–the It club.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

“After all, hearing jazz<\/strong> is not that difficult. Following jazz<\/strong> is where all the trouble begins. But when you begin to think of jazz<\/strong> in terms of language, you’ll see how much you already know. We’re all improvisers when we speak, making things up as we go along, using the base of our experience, education, and knowledge to communicate effectively. Jazz<\/strong> musicians improvise the same way. We try to express ourselves clearly, drawing on a mental database of melodies, rhythms, and textures.”<\/em><\/p>\n

“…jazz<\/strong> is a language–a language of words, beyond words.”<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

The key to jazz<\/strong> is our “inner ear, the sense that illuminates the music of everday details that so often go unheard. It, after all, is all around us.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Take a moment and re-read the above passage, only this time, replace the word “jazz” with “Jesus.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/div><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In light of the last post on “What is IT?” Perhaps a better question is, “Who is IT?” Grammy award winner, Wynton Marsalis tells this story about “IT“ “Now, my younger brother Ellis couldn’t understand all this fuss about jazz. 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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\/586","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=586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}