Alexander Douglas admits that he started out writing a middle of the road, uninspiring piece for one of London's premiere music festivals. He was one of four musicians commissioned to write a major original piece for the 10th anniversary of the Manchester
Alexander Douglas admits that he started out writing a middle of the road, uninspiring piece for one of London’s premiere music festivals. He was one of four musicians commissioned to write a major original piece for the 10th anniversary of the Manchester Jazz Festival. But then he asked himself: “Is this worthy of God?” He asks this question of all his musical projects no matter what musical genre he is using.
The 26-year-old Douglas ended up writing a gospel choral piece that won praise from the festival audience and the music critics, among them the Guardian, one of Britain’s top newspapers. With this acclaim, Douglas joins a small number Seventh-day Adventists praised for their exceptional works in the arts.
“Alexander Douglas is a contemporary jazz musician ... who also has a deeply enduring love for the Lord,” wrote Guardian critic James Griffin in his review of the 45-minute piece, “Songs From the Heart,” which included nine gospel songs with a jazz influence.
Griffin went on to say that the piece was “artfully constructed and beautifully sung. Douglas’s oblique piano interludes provided some welcome moments of introspection, evoking the complexities and challenges that faith presents before resolving inevitably into another round of major-key hallelujahs from the choir.”
Douglas responded to the critique in the Adventist Church’s British Union Conference weekly newsletter. He says, “It seems that the critic responded to the concert on a holistic level—he wasn’t into gospel music, but he appears to have appreciated both the quality and sincerity of what he heard.”
Quality is a topic that comes up frequently when talking to Douglas. A jazz pianist, choral director, composer and arranger, he is very serious about quality in his music. To him music is not just about random notes and keys that sound pretty, but music reflects “my responsibility to God as a musician,” he says.
He also tells the Messenger, a magazine published by the Adventist Church in Britain, that “jazz filled a place in my musical world that wasn’t filled by gospel music—and then it became my major means of expression.
“At times in my improvisational output, I do feel praise—and that’s a worship moment,” he says. “And in many ways, that’s one of the many reasons why I took up choral directing—it is simply an amazing medium for praise of and to God through music.”
Although the Manchester piece was largely gospel, he claims that parts of it are not entirely appropriate for the sacred environs of a church. If he were to play that piece in a church, he concedes that he would not play it as he did at the festival.
Douglas says when he plays music for God, such as in a church setting, he tries to take out anything that is not about God.
“There are lots of composers who use Christian and Biblical imagery in their music but are not talking about God,” he notes.
“Some have [also] decided that anything classical is holy by definition when a lot of times it is anything but,” he adds.
Douglas says he is also concerned that, in general, Christians have become ultra dependent on hymns. “Hymns are for the most part the default worship music in most churches,” he says.
“It is as if the Almighty only endorses one type of praise music,” he says. “How do we cope when someone from Southeast Asia never learned classical music?”
Douglas is working on a masters degree in ethnomusicology at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London. That may explain his eclectic taste in musical styles.
“I have been exposed to a lot of the musics of the world, and I really like much of the music of Africa—as well as of the Middle East, some of India, as well as Japan and China. Latin-American music is also absolutely fascinating.”
He also loves the classical masters like Bach, Mozart and Schumann, and such jazz greats like Americans Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea, and British jazz pianist Julian Joseph. And when it comes to gospel he cannot even begin to list his favorites. It would take too much time, he says.
He takes into consideration this broad range of music every time he sits down to create an original piece.
“I love composing for the simple reason that it provides a deeper experience of that thing we might call ‘musical creativity.’ Often, what one hears in one’s head is in some way related to external musical stimuli that one has been exposed to,” he says, explaining his love of creating music.
By the age of 16 he had already decided that he wanted to become a professional musician. But his parents, both Adventists, were very worried about him doing music professionally.
“They were even more worried about my involvement with jazz. But when they heard my choral output at the Cathedral [event], they really realized how serious jazz is, and I think they’ve finally stopped worrying,” he says.
Douglas continues to do something few ever get to do professionally—play, create, direct and arrange music. He has also performed in many venues all over Britain, and hopes someday to become a full-time composer.