IN THE SUMMER OF 1985 John Garcia Gensel, the "Jazz Pastor" of St. Peter's Lutheran Church in New York suggested Anne Phillips as the writer of a Christmas benefit to be held there. That was the birth of The Jazz Nativity. Dave Brubeck, Clark Terry and Gene Bertoncini who are still in the cast were in that very first show with Pastor Gensel as narrator and Bob Kindred as musical director. Bob's haunting rendition of "Silent Night" created the opening mood in the darkened church that very first night just as it does today. Rabbi Saves Christmas The Jewish Week Dec 24-30 1993 A rabbi “saved” Christmas this holiday season. No kidding. His name is Balfour Brickner, senior rabbi emeritus of the Stephen S. Wise Free Synagogue on the Upper West Side, and he agreed to host the “Jazz Nativity,” a Christmas show, earlier this month when the show was homeless. “On the eve of the celebration of Hanukkah and the freedom of expression it epitomizes, the Nativity finds room at our synagogue….We welcome this musical event…events such as this do not represent a co-mingling of faith, but instead are a testimony to a time of increasing mutual recognition and respect for each other’s traditions and beliefs.” The show has moved to several sites since then. For seven years it played at St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church on Park Ave. Sunday afternoon people would line up on Park Avenue. Some waited outside in bitter weather, some were turned away. It has since played Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center, The Lamb's Theater, Orchestra Hall in Chicago, the Patriot Theater at the War Memorial in Trenton, NJ and even a synagogue, the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in New York. As the show has grown so has the audience. People who came one year brought friends the next. It mattered little whether they were jazz aficionados or not, because it was also wonderful theater, they loved it and went away with a new understanding and appreciation of jazz. Through the Jazz Nativity Children's Project hundreds of inner-city children were introduced to the music.   More and more jazz greats joined the cast. Charles Kuralt from CBS Sunday Morning became the host. The Kings, Shepherds and Angels have been played by Tito Puente, Lionel Hampton, Phil Woods, Al Grey, Clark Terry, Stanley Turrentine, Jackie Cain and Roy Kral and tap dancers Honi Coles, Cookie Cook and Jimmy Slyde. The ten piece band is made up of the jazz world's best including the Cuban conga master, Candido. Each year's performances in New York are like a big jazz family reunion.   The joy and love inherent in the show spreads out to the audience. Never has such a combination of jazz and theater been done. It is both moving and a rollicking good time. As one reviewer said, "This extraordinary performances will keep Christmas in you heart forever." The Jazz Nativity is now published by G. Schirmer Music and is beginning to have productions in other cities throughout the country. A live recording (Listen to Samples), featuring all these jazz legends is also available for purchase.

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