Jazz Vespers to celebrate fifth anniversary

On Sunday, April 13 at 5 p.m., Epiphany Lutheran Church in Carbondale will celebrate the fifth anniversary of its popular Jazz Vespers, a monthly evening prayer service. It will be the 60th such service, and will mark five years (actually six calendar years with a 13-month pandemic break) since it all began.

Jazz Vespers at Epiphany was established in 2019, with the inaugural service held on Sunday, April 14 of that year. Since then, 298 different tunes have been performed for the services, along with 79 repeat performances. And over the years, making such a joyful noise has involved five separate pastors or leaders and 16 individual musicians.

Most of the music from the original 2019 service will be revisited for Sunday’s service, which will be a Lenten evening prayer service led by Pastor Brian Coffey. Members and guests of the New Arts Jazztet — Bob Allison, trumpet and flugelhorn; Brandon Bryant, trombone; Mel Goot, piano; Phil Brown, bass; and Kyle McDonald, drums — will perform works by Nat and Cannonball Adderley, Will Campbell, Duke Ellington, J J Johnson, Horace Silver and McCoy Tyner.

Jazz Vespers was first started nearly 60 years ago by Pastor John Gensel at Saint Peter’s Church New York. It continues to be held there on a weekly basis, with other churches and denominations since having joined the practice.

Epiphany Lutheran Church is located near the roundabout in Carbondale, Illinois, at 1501 W. Chautauqua St.