There are at least three ways to think about how spirituals have influenced the development of jazz. First is the fact that jazz as a genre, from its infancy days in New Orleans in the early twentieth century, was a music form that flowed naturally from the spirituals tradition. For example, music educator Hansonia Caldwell¹⁵ quotes Congressman John Conyers, who spoke at the August, 2002 funeral service for the great jazz musician Lionel Hampton:

From this perspective, virtually all of the music that we call “jazz” has been influenced by the spirituals, which was the first substantive genre of American music. In other words, without the spirituals that pre-dated jazz, the very idea of jazz as we know it would not have been possible.

A second, more explicit influence of spirituals on jazz is seen in the plethora of jazz compositions over the years that have been inspired specifically by the spirituals tradition. A good example is Duke Ellington’s famous composition “Come Sunday” (from Ellington’s jazz suite Black, Brown and Beige), which Ellington himself regarded as a modern spiritual. Another example is jazz saxophonist John Coltrane’s “Spiritual,” recorded during a time when Coltrane was explicitly exploring more spiritual sides to his music. More recently, jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis’ Pulitzer Prize winning jazz oratorio “Blood on the Fields,” draws explicitly on the legacy of slavery and the historical connection between singing and freedom.

Finally, a third (and most direct) way in which the spirituals have influenced jazz is through the many performances and recordings over the years that have offered jazz interpretations of specific spirituals. The list of musicians who have recorded jazz interpretations of the spirituals includes such notables as Louis Armstrong, Ramsey Lewis, Charlie Haden, Hank Jones, Charles Lloyd, Terence Blanchard (in collaboration with opera singer Jubilant Sykes), and Cyrus Chestnut.

A creative example of how jazz interpretations of spirituals can also connect to other important cultural traditions is the collaboration between two jazz musicians, Warren Byrd (African American) and David Chevan (Jewish). Byrd and Chevan have produced a series of albums through Reckless DC Music that skillfully interweave music from both the Black sacred music tradition and the Jewish liturgical tradition, combined with some original compositions, to highlight some of the common cultural and religious bonds between Jews and African Americans.