Eddie Bonnemère
Born(1921-02-15)February 15, 1921
Harlem
DiedMarch 19, 1996(1996-03-19) (aged 75)
New York City
GenresJazz
Instrument(s)Piano
LabelsRoost Records, Fortress

Edward Valentine Bonnemère, known professionally as Eddie Bonnemère (February 15, 1921 – March 19, 1996), was an African-American jazz pianist as well as a Catholic church musician and composer. His "Missa Hodierna" became in 1965 the first Jazz Mass ever used in a Catholic church in the United States.[1]

Career

Bonnemère already played as a church pianist in Harlem during his school days. After military service in World War II[2] He played with Claude Hopkins, and then received his master's degree from New York University.

In 1953 he led a combo with Ray Barretto in the Savoy Ballroom.[3] In 1955, he had a Mambo band.[4] He joined in 1956 the Detroit club Baker's Keyboard Lounge[5] and released on the label Royal Roost the 10-inch album Ti-Pi-Tin / Five O'Clock Whistle. He followed in 1959 when his trio recorded the LP Piano Bon-Bons and 1960's The Sound of Memory.[6] In 1964 (with the participation of Kenny Burrell) his album Jazz Orient-ed was released on Prestige Records.[7]

In the mid-1960s, Bonnemère was one of the protagonists of an Africanization of the Catholic Mass spearheaded by Fr Clarence Rivers, as part of the Black Catholic Movement.[8] In 1965 he wrote—influenced by Mary Lou Williams—the Missa Hodierna for jazz ensemble and choir, which was first presented in 1966 during a service in Harlem's St. Charles Borromeo Church, making history as one of the first US Jazz Masses ever.[1][9] This Mass was also performed in the Town Hall together with Howard McGhee's instrumental composition Bless You.[10]

In later years he worked as a church musician[11] and composed the Missa Laetare and other liturgical works.[12] He was also musical director of the Church of St. Thomas the Apostle in Manhattan, whose choir recorded his Mass for Every Season in 1969.[13]

He died in 1996.

Discography

  • Missa Laetare (Mass of Joy) (Fortress, 1969)
  • Mass for Every Season (Community of St. Thomas)
  • O Happy the People (Fortress)

References

  1. 1 2 Rubinstein, Leslie (1987-04-19). "JAZZ FOR CHURCH SERVICES MAKES MEASURED PROGRESS". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-07-15.
  2. ↑ Bill Lee, William F. Lee: People in Jazz: Jazz Keyboard Improvisors of the 19th & 20th Centuries. Alfred Publishing Company, 1984
  3. ↑ Leonard Feather, Ira Gitler: The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz. Oxford University Press, New York 1999, S. 41.
  4. ↑ Jet, 17. März 1955, S. 63
  5. ↑ Concert database
  6. ↑ Roost Records Diskographie
  7. ↑ Prestige Records Discography
  8. ↑ Gayraud S. Wilmore: African American Religious Studies: An Interdisciplinary Anthology, S. 233.
  9. ↑ Linda Dahl: Morning Glory: A Biography of Mary Lou Williams, S. 291, vgl. auch New York Magazine, 30. März 1970
  10. ↑ vgl. Helen Dance Has Jazz a Place in the Church? Saturday Review 15 July 1967
  11. ↑ James Abbington: Readings in African American Church Music and Worship, S. 211
  12. ↑ Robert W. Hovda: Strong, Loving and Wise: Presiding in Liturgy, S. 31
  13. ↑ Donald Boccardi: The History of American Catholic Hymnals: Since Vatican II, S. 39
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