For this Black History Month, we're shedding light on foundational members and influential Jazz musicians of Saint Peter's ministries and history.
Duke Ellington is widely considered the greatest jazz composer and bandleader in the history of jazz. Composing hundreds of songs, many of which have become standards, he led his band for over 50 years, playing a legendary residency at the Cotton Club in the late 1920s and touring the world until his death in 1974.
His friendship with Pastor John Garcia Gensel, pictured here alongside Ellington, would be fundamental to the influence and identity of Saint Peter’s Jazz Ministry. Pastor Gensel founded the Saint Peter's Jazz Ministry and subsequent Jazz Vespers in 1965.
"I met Pastor John Gensel, whose Lutheran church my sister, Ruth, regularly attends. I went to his church and found that music was not confined there to the more or less solemn kind usually heard in churches. Pastor Gensel had recitals and music that were, I sensed, much more appropriate to the jazz musicians with whom he was involved. This led to the observation I made in connection with my first sacred concert: that every man worships in his own language.”
- Duke Ellington, "Music Is My Mistress," Doubleday Books, 1973.
Additionally, Ellington considered his Sacred Concerts, performed at Saint Peter’s, as the “most important thing I’ve ever done.” His contributions to jazz, and to Saint Peter’s, are indispensable.
