Fifty-one years ago, Mary Lou Williams, famed Black jazz pianist and composer, approached Cardinal Terence Cooke of New York with a special request.
The versatile musician had written and arranged compositions for Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman, and influenced other jazz greats including Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker and Miles Davis.
Now, 18 years after conversion to Catholicism in 1957, she wanted to bring her faith and talent to a larger audience, with the first-ever Jazz Mass at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City.
The cardinal agreed, telling her “We could use a little noise around here.”
On Feb. 18, 1975, the Mass, which Williams called a “Mass for the Young – or the Young Thinking,” took place. From her piano, she conducted the choir of four Roman Catholic schools. As well, a bassist and drummer contributed to the uplifting evening.
This powerful occasion – an uplifting synthesis of spirituality and music – is one of the inspirations for an upcoming event at Camden’s Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, that will combine art, music and story.
“We Could Use a Little Noise Around Here” will be held at 6:30 p.m. on Feb. 11, with artist and author Brother Mickey McGrath, OSFS, and nationally known singer and pianist Meredith Dean Augustin to celebrate Black History Month.
It is sponsored by the Office of Black Catholics Ministries of the Diocese of Camden.
“It’s a wonderful time for people to hear stories in a sacred space and hear beautiful music,” says the Camden-based Brother Mickey, well-known for his inspiring and thought-provoking works over the course of his 40-plus years as a religious.
Amidst current global conflicts, and their own personal struggles, “many people are walking with anxiety and fear,” Brother Mickey said, and the event is designed to “bring a sense of hope and calm.”
“Art, beauty, music and creativity are antidotes to anxiety and fear; they unite us, transform us, as we realize we’re not alone in our struggles,” he said.
To that end, the evening will highlight the lives of three 20th-century women who used their voices to push back injustice and division: the aforementioned Williams, Marian Anderson, and Servant of God Sister Thea Bowman.
Anderson, a native of South Philadelphia, was a first-class Black opera singer and a pioneer for civil rights. Utilizing her talents at places such as the New York Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, and at the Paris Opera House, the talented performer could sing global arias as well as African American spirituals.
Despite her box office draw, she still encountered racism in the United States. In 1939, she was rebuffed in her attempt to perform at Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C., a rejection that was noticed by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. In response to this injustice, Roosevelt and the newly formed “Marian Anderson Committee” secured Anderson a concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. On Easter Sunday 1939, she entertained 75,000 people of all races assembled at the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
Servant of God Sister Thea Bowman, the first U.S. Black Catholic woman on the path to sainthood, was a prophetic voice for racial unity in the Church, and an advocate for Black culture and Black Catholic spirituality.
Born in Mississippi in 1937, the granddaughter of slaves and only child of well-educated parents, she was inspired to convert to Catholicism at the age of 9 by the Franciscan Sisters of the Perpetual Adoration, who staffed the school she attended. At the age of 15, she moved to La Crosse, Wisconsin, the home of the religious community, and later became the order’s first African-American member.
In 1989, the author, scholar and teacher spoke to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops at Seton Hall University during a powerful witness of justice, unity and sacred tradition. Beginning her address with asking “What it means to be Black in the Church in society,” she interpolated music and song to tell her personal testimony.
“I bring myself, my Black self, all that I am, all that I have, all that I hope to become, I bring my whole history, my traditions, my experience, my culture, my African American song and dance and gesture and movement and teaching and preaching and healing and responsibility as a gift to the Church,” she told the bishops, before getting them off their feet, clapping and joining her in a refrain of “We Shall Overcome.”
“Music connected all of them, and they all believed it was a binding force for humanity, for the cause of unity and civil rights,” Brother Mickey said.
As a pastoral leader, liturgical musician, and author whose work bridges prayer, community, and lived faith, Meredith Dean Augustin is excited to join her friend, Brother Mickey, for “an opportunity to unite us all.”
She and Brother Mickey “will tug on the heartstrings,” she continued.
New York City-based, she serves as vice president of pastoral services at RENEW International, and as director of music at the Church of Saint Francis of Assisi in midtown Manhattan, where she leads one of the most diverse music ministries in the country.
Her musical work spans sacred, gospel, and jazz traditions, and on Feb. 11 she will perform such standards as “The Whole World in His Hands” and “Give me Jesus” to “get people reflecting and thinking,” she said.
“Music and art are so healing, and we’re going to put aside all of those things that are weighing heavy on our hearts and minds, and find peace, love and joy,” she said.
“We Could Use a Little Noise Around Here,” with Brother Mickey McGrath, OSFS and Meredith Dean Augustin, will take place at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, 642 Market Street, Camden, on Wednesday, Feb. 11 at 6:30 p.m. Attendance is free, and parking is available.
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