{"id":596,"date":"2005-10-25T22:14:00","date_gmt":"2005-10-25T22:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jazztheologian\/2005\/10\/a-final-thought.html"},"modified":"2005-10-25T22:14:00","modified_gmt":"2005-10-25T22:14:00","slug":"a-final-thought","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2005\/10\/a-final-thought.html","title":{"rendered":"A final thought on precision"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

<\/a> So why all this time spent on timing and precision? It determines how we approach God. <\/p>\n

Jazz is not against timing and precision, but jazz deals with time differently. "In a jazz performance, while every bar of music should take the same amount of ‘clock time’–fill the same ‘period’–within those bars and groups of bars there is a constant sense of respiration, of infinitesimal accelerations and decelerations in the actual playing, even though the background pulse, the tempo, remains constant. A large part of the music’s meaning comes from this playing with time<\/strong>, this sense of being able to operate flexibly, accuratly, and freely within the implied lockstep of chronology…" (Tom Piazza)<\/span><\/p>\n

"Playing with time." Playing with precision as opposed to being oppressed by precision.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jazz icon Sydnew Bechet once gave the following instructions to a fellow musician, "I’m going to give you one note today…See how many ways you can play that note<\/strong>–growl it, smear it, flat it, sharp it, do anything you want to it. That’s how you express your feelings in this music. It’s like talking."<\/em> (The History of Jazz, p50)<\/span><\/p>\n

How would that approach change what we do with the propositions of theology?<\/strong><\/p>\n

"God is love." Spend a day with that note. See how many ways you can say it, pray it, sing it, yell it, write it, question it, prove it…until you hear it…fully.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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

So why all this time spent on timing and precision? It determines how we approach God. Jazz is not against timing and precision, but jazz deals with time differently. 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It determines how we approach God. Jazz is not against timing and precision, but jazz deals with time differently. 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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\/596","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=596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}