Well known hymnody in the jazz idiom for worship

Deanna Witkowski is the winner of the Great American Jazz Piano Competition and a past guest on Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz. From New York City this pianist/composer/arranger  has been heralded for her “consistently thrilling” playing and her “boundless imagination”.

Deanna is a frequent presenter on jazz and spirituality and counts among her output eighty sacred music originals and arrangements, including two jazz Masses, choral works, and congregational songs. Some of these settings are based on the traditional texts of Vespers and are ideal for Jazz Vespers. In 2017 she won the Annual Hymn Search of The Hymn Society in the US and Canada for her congregational song, “We Belong to God”.

Her latest publication Makes the Heart to Sing is part of a larger project that includes the publication of a folio of Witkowski’s arrangements and videos of her trio performing them. “It’s an instrumental jazz trio record but the mission is to get this music played more widely outside of church,” she says, “and to bring these jazz interpretations into circulation inside churches. The album is almost a demo for church music directors, and the arrangements are meant for congregational singing.”

Makes the Heart to Sing includes arrangements of:

Abbotts’ Leigh

Holy Manna

Cwm Rhondda

Beach Spring

Lasst uns Erfreuen

plus  9 other familiar hymn tunes.

The 13 hymns include jazz sheets, piano scores, and materials to lead worship.

The e-download may be purchased by following this link:

https://deannajazz.bandcamp.com/album/makes-the-heart-to-sing-jazz-hymns

To hear Deanna explain these settings watch this YouTube video.