In my church, we have this saying – ‘church is not the building, it’s the people, the relationships, the community’. And this song is community embodied, exemplified and most importantly, enjoyed. Music too, is not really about the instruments, its about the musicians and their ‘communion of sounds’. Church, at its best, is a place where individual expression is celebrated, encouraged even. And we hear expression everywhere in the trumpet phrasings, genre-blending rhythms, sporadic drum solos, there is even a tap dancer at the beginning. It seems chaotic. Yet all are welcome. And in this atmosphere, musical harmony emerges. We can go further; church is a place where individual expression is put to the service of the collective. I think the benefits of any community emerge over time, after you’ve stuck through the bits that don’t really make sense. After all, when you first start going to church, you sing songs that you don’t really understand.
I recently took a friend to see Kavuma and his band – The Banger Factory – perform. This was my friend’s first time at a Jazz concert, and she commented on the brotherhood amongst the musicians. She even said, “I’ve never seen a bunch of guys this passionate about anything before”. She had a point. The band were sharing the kind of moments that were firmly at the top of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
But most of all, this song reminds me of the churchiest thing you can imagine – call and response. In this song, a musician will make a call, and there is always an individualised response to the call. What a beautiful promise to have, that when you put out a call from the depths of who you are, someone will respond, that someone will relate with you. You are not alone. That is church.
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