Jazz-Inspired Church Service

The final note of the festival resonates in the St. Göran´s Church, where jazz meets spirituality in a moving jazz-infused church service. In collaboration with the Mariehamn Parish, Åland Sea Jazz invites you to a special service where all music – including hymns and liturgy – is performed in jazz arrangements. The concert is a tribute to the influence of church music on the birth and evolution of jazz.

The history of jazz is full of contrasts – the music has echoed in both sinful and sacred spaces. In New Orleans, brothels, underground nightclubs, and funeral parades all competed to hire the finest jazz musicians. Many of the great jazz pianists of the 20th century began their careers playing in churches, and Miles Davis once shared that he first heard swinging boogie-woogie during a Sunday church service.

Over the years, many jazz masses and spiritual works have been composed, with Duke Ellington’s two Sacred Concerts, featuring Alice Babs among others, standing as some of the most celebrated.

Åland Sea Jazz highlights this rich heritage and brings the festival to a poetic and heartfelt close with a Sunday church service in a jazz setting.

Maria Stenberg-Haug, vocals

Fredrik Erlandsson, piano & trumpet