Time: 10:30pm–12:00pm
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The First Unitarian Universalist Church of Essex County, 35-47 Cleveland St., in Orange will present its annual Jazz Worship Sunday Feb. 27 at 10:30 AM.
Church member and pianist Dave Braham has assembled an outstandingly accomplished combo. Drummer Diego Lopez was born in Milan, Italy and moved to Chicago where he performed in the blues bands of KoKo Taylor and Sugar Blue. Moving to New York, he has performed with a variety of artists including the Latin jazz group SYOTOS and Gato Barbieri.
Multi-instrumentalist Ray Johnston, also a church member, plays all woodwind instruments. He studied jazz at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. He appears every Monday night at the Cotton Club in Harlem. He has taught instrumental music in the East Orange schools for many years and plays woodwinds with the New Jersey National Guard Band.
Bassist Bob Funesti has performed with Ted Curson, the Midnight Sun Orchestra and has studied jazz bass with Mike Richmond. He and Ray perform together in the Silver Starlight Orchestra.
Mr. Braham has performed and recorded with many highly accomplished jazz artists including Houston Person, Etta Jones, Lou Donaldson and Bob DeVos. His latest CD as a leader is "To Be Free", available from RandomActRecords.com. He also teaches instrumental music in the Union, NJ school system.
This Sunday celebrates how jazz has been a central component of the Civil Rights struggle as well as America’s lasting contribution to world music. The Rev. Darrell Berger’s sermon, “Howard Thurman: minister to All People,” tells the story of how Rev. Thurman began the first racially integrated, culturally diverse church in America, in San Francisco in 1944.
This congregation has been at the same location, just off Main St. in Orange, since 1893. It is the host to a number of other congregations, representing a wide range of religious faiths. It also hosts several spiritual study groups and LANBI, a center for the Haitian Community whose founder, Marcial Bonhomme, was recently honored by H.A.N.D.S., the Orange development organization, for his contribution to the community.
The Church’s motto is “Where every mind is free and every soul is welcome.” For more information about this program or the church, see wwww.essex.org or call (973)674-0010.
