Aggie jazz performance and prayer

Aggie Music Project performed jazz vespers at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Logan on Monday for the Lenten Compline Service.

Steve Sturgeon, the vicar of St. John’s, said jazz vespers is a term that can mean a jazz performance in a church or it can be a church service that has jazz thrown in.

“We wanted to come up with a service that has jazz interwoven into the services itself,” he said.

Compline service is one of four prayer services throughout the day held at the church.

Sturgeon said one of the reasons he held the session was to show people that religious worship can be a flexible experience.

“It wasn’t just tacked on as an after thought,” he said. “It was actually a service. We chose compline partly because it is short, and so it gave us more flexibility.”

The AMP is a group of USU music professors who perform jazz music around Cache Valley. AMP includes Corey Christiansen on the guitar, Max Matzen on the trumpet, Jason Nicholson on the drums, Josh Skinner on the bass, Kate Sinner performing vocals, Kevin Olson on the keys, Todd Fallis on the trombone and Jon Gudmundson and Greg Wheeler on various saxophones.

Gudmundson, an associate professor of music and one of the saxophonists, said the musicality of typical religious services at St. John’s usually involves organ music.

“What made it different was we had to set the text of these really old English texts from the Anglican church, which was done by Kevin Olson, to new music,” Gudmundson said. “He updated old words with new music.”

Olson, the keyboardist and an associate professor of music, said he had a fun time adding a jazz flare to the ancient music. Although, he said, the success of the night really came from the AMP.

“It really helps to work with such professional colleagues,” Olson said. “That is the thing about jazz. You don’t write everything out, so you never know how it is going to turn out, and so I think they did a great job.”

Sturgeon said he thought the night was a success and filled with good energy.

“There is just an energy to jazz that I really love, and I think that was present in the service tonight,” Sturgeon said. “Hopefully we will do it again.”

— morgan.pratt.robinson@gmail.com