Angelic jazz, holy and cool

J.J. Wright ’14MSM, ’17DMA premiered Drama and Devotion, his original sequence of five jazz oratorios based on stories from the readings of the Easter Vigil, at Rome’s Chiesa Nuova on June 1, 2017. Inspired by the “spiritual madrigals“ of the Jesuit priest and composer Giovanni Francesco Anerio (1567-1630), Wright introduced his similarly innovative compositions at the same church that had showcased Anerio’s wildly popular music 400 years before. Videography by Christopher D. Owens.