Around the turn of the century (yes, I know that makes me sound old!), Ed Bacon told me about a new parishioner to All Saints, Bill Cunliffe — a world-class jazz musician. Not living in that world, I hadn’t heard of Bill (or any other famous living jazz musicians), but we met and discussed >
The premiere of Bill Cunliffe's Hymn was a complete surprise for Tim Howard and myself. The choirs commissioned Bill to write the piece for the occasion of the 10-year anniversary of the collaboration of Timothy Howard and James Walker. Since Tim played trombone in high school and I played the clarinet, they asked Bill to include those two instruments in the piece. They asked Greg Norton to conduct and Paul Floyd to accompany, and they had three secret rehearsals at Pasadena Presbyterian Church in the weeks leading up to the day. During the Greetings at the 11:15 service, Ed Bacon called Tim and me up and simultaneously Coventry Choir joined Canterbury Choir in the chancel. Bill, Greg and Paul entered the chancel. Both Tim and I freaked out! Then it was announced what was happening. It was an amazing experience and a complete surprise.
In the 1980s and early 1990s there was more liturgical flexibility in terms of incorporating a short "major work" into the morning liturgies. What evolved in the late 1990s was adding these works into evensongs — particularly the Evensong for the 4th Sunday of Advent with Canterbury Choir. In 2000, I tried this for the first time at our Lenten Evensong. It gave Coventry Choir and extra musical challenge in the period between Christmas and Easter and greatly enriched our Lenten experience.
Oregon Bach Festival, Paris, South Africa
On sabbatical, James Walker visits Dallas, Chicago, New York City, Boston, London, Paris, Taize, Cape Town and Johannesburg. And is selected to spend June and July with Helmuth Rilling in a Conducting Masterclass at Oregon Bach Festival.
