Richard D’Abreu Jr.’s CD is available on his website, jazzinthespirit.com, and can be streamed at the usual outlets. (Photo by Corey Brown)
With a life encompassed in equal measure by faith and music, it’s no wonder the seldom heard confluence of jazz and gospel music exudes from the latest release from saxophonist and composer Richard D’Abreu Jr. The Brooklyn, New York, native grew up surrounded by the spirited, sacred power of the music in his church, and at home by the improvisational wizardry of legendary hard-bop jazz saxophonists Cannonball Adderley and Sonny Rollins. By the age of 6, D’Abreu was writing songs, and by 11 he was drawn to the sax. He went on to attend Brown University, where he studied ethnomusicology, and later graduated from Berklee College of Music. Richard’s talents earned him an introduction to and eventual mentorship with iconic jazz drummer Max Roach. In 2006, D’Abreu and his wife moved to Richmond. He has served as the director and minister of music at several churches and is currently at Fourth Baptist Church. D’Abreu talks about his new CD, “Jazz in the Spirit,” the spiritual kinship of jazz and gospel and his days with Max Roach.
Richmond magazine: How did gospel and jazz cross paths for you?
Richard D’Abreu: It’s pretty organic. I grew up in a historically black church in Brooklyn, New York – Concord Baptist Church. I was always around gospel, hymns and spiritual music. At the same time, my dad was a real jazz enthusiast. The sound of the saxophone was just in my heart. I started playing at 11, and a year later, I joined the youth choir at my church, and that just supercharged my interest in gospel music.
RM: Tell me about ethnomusicology and how it influenced “Jazz in the Spirit.”
D’Abreu: Think of it like the anthropology of music. It’s the study of man and the study of the music from the perspective of the people that make it. The way Western music is taught says that there are certain rules that have to be applied. Ethnomusicology throws all that on its ear. We would study everything from the Irish tin whistle to the music of Cuba and Puerto Rico. That’s where a lot of sounds in my CD come from. Like [the song] “La Pureza Amor de Christo,” which is “Christ’s Love so Pure.” It’s inspired by the music that in New York we would call “Latin jazz,” but also with the feel and soulfulness of gospel. It’s all in there.
RM: How did your relationship with Max Roach come about?
D’Abreu: I kind of met him almost by accident. We belonged to the same church, and he used to come back periodically to visit. I was home from college one Sunday playing saxophone in the service, and Mr. Max Roach just happened to be there. He gave me the opportunity to do some work notating and transcribing some of his music for him at his beautiful apartment in Central Park West. As fate would have it, I got really sick one day, and I threw up all over the man’s rug! He was livid, of course. The great miracle of it was that he saw how serious I was about music. The man wrote me a check for my whole second-semester tuition. I will never, ever forget that. He was a master of jazz, but he actually hated the word because, in the story of Emmett Till, the alleged victim was asked if Till “jazzed” her, meaning did he rape her. He hated the word. I asked him what I should call it. He told me to call it the music of Duke Ellington or Charlie Parker or Dizzy Gillespie. I said, “Yes, sir.”
RM: What does “Jazz in the Spirit” mean to you?
D’Abreu: This music is already a fusion of gospel and jazz. One of the great things I’ve enjoyed is seeing church folks who might not be that into jazz finding an address in this music. And I’ve got some hardcore jazz heads who wouldn’t be into church music finding an address in it, too. I call it creating a community because it’s these two different groups of people who wouldn’t have anything to do with each other ordinarily coming together to listen to music that’s about inspiration, love, joy and doing things for other people.
