On one hand I was working on a piece about the local Jewish congregation and it’s Bob Dylan-based Shabbat service.
On the other hand, I had interviewed jazz pianist Matthew Shipp about his new album.
So why not combine the two pieces, before my right hand loses her cunning,  and imagine what would happen if a congregation asked the jazz musician to look at the service with fresh eyes and jazz it up a bit?

It reminds me of the conversation I had about jazz education at Stanford, and whether a music professor was upset that so few of his students made a career in the arts. The elder musician in the conversation added, “If you were going in for open heart surgery, you would want it that you doctor knew how to improvise, right?”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kC2PGtDpGU8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJpB_AEZf6U

edit to add, Monday, April 2: I ran into Aleta Hayes, the triple threat Stanford instructor and collaborator of Matthew Shipp and mentioned this idea to her and she didn’t laugh me out of the room, not even after I tried to squat next to her table on using my Penguin Jazz encyclopedia as a stool, which sent me falling back onto my backline. Aleta, who toured with William Parker and I think also Shipp overseas, is a “triple threat” in that she sings, dances and acts/directs.

In the Bob Dylan Shabbat 3/30/2012 “Fifth Friday” Evening Service, by Ari Cartun of Etz Chayim et al, on page 16, v’Sham’ru (based on Exodus 31:16-17, and Debbie Friedman version) it says “and on the 7th day, ceased (shavat) and infused-the-universe-with-soul(vayinafash)”

It also reminds me, especially this time of year, about the link between blacks and Jews regarding Exodus and “let my people go” and “Go Down Moses” the famous spiritual. Also, without even asking him about his spiritual beliefs or upbringing, I notice that his catalog has both a folk mass and a title about Ultimate Power or The Almighty or the Infinite. So although he is drawn into this hypothetical conversation somewhat randomly — his album came out in the last month or so — he would not be the least qualified person to be asked to do this type of thing, to re-imagine a Shabbat service and “vayinafash” it — infuse it with some jazz soul. Rather, Shipp is one of a fairly large universe — by my reckoning — or beautiful jazz minds who could probably, if asked nicely, add something to the Jewish experience and worship. I am thinking also of Dar Williams at a Jewish camp in Pennsylvania, I watched some video on recently.