I have collected only three autographs in my life:  the poet, James Dickey,
the Quaker philosopher, Elton Trueblood and jazz pianist, Ramsey Lewis.

Jamming in the Church
by James Mellick

Of my four brothers, Richard was a lifer in the Marines, David taught philosophy at the university and my younger twin brothers, Gary and Larry are medical doctors. Four of us were born like clockwork during the month of March but David was born in December and in some ways was different from the rest of us. We were the sons of Jack, a preacher to the working class, and Wilma, a loving mother and devoted wife.

One can not grow up in the church without being influenced and touched with music. My family was at the lower end of the economic scale but we were rich in talent and ideas. There were moral and social pressures to being minister's sons and we often found release through artistic expression.

Much of the music to which we were exposed were the old hymns and songs of the church but now and then itinerate gospel groups and singers subsiding on "love offerings" would pass through. In our pre-teen years, these singers would often be the only source of music with lively rhythms and a beats.

My grandmother, whom I only knew in a wheelchair, had a piano. When we visited the farm in Richland County, Ohio, I remember her playing old hymns with hands that were disfigured by arthritis. The knuckles of her hands were swollen and her fingers headed off in different directions, and yet she was able to wring out sweet melodies of the old hymns on the keys. David and I would often play "boogie-woogie" on the piano and she would wheel into the room and put a stop to it, saying, "this piano is dedicated to the Lord".

Even though we were not allowed to listen to rock and roll in our early years, it was difficult to block popular culture. We soon began to create and recreate our own music. David, an older brother who led me into visual art and music, was the musical force of the brothers. We did not have a piano in the parsonage but there was a piano and organ in the church next door. David was the only one of us who stayed with his early piano lessons but he and I learned to play by ear. He was influenced by Peter Nero, Dave Brubeck and Ramsey Lewis.

After sitting still and quiet in the Wellington (Ohio) Church of Christ for an hour and a half, we often found release by jamming in the church after hours when the congregation had gone home. The church was not air conditioned so the windows were often left open and the blues, jazz and rock n' roll would more often waft into the neighborhood from the Lord's house. Father would come running over to tell us to "knock it off". During these jam sessions, David would play the organ, I would play the piano, Larry and Gary would sometimes play their trumpets and Richard would bang out rhythms on over turned waste baskets.

My piano playing started by playing boogie-woogie on the black keys and I still love the black keys to this day. It wasn't until much later that I learned the names of the notes and chords. My high school choir teachers were amused that I played in the key of F#. I had choir practice after the lunch hour, so I would often get back to school early, after lunch at home, so that I could play the piano. It provided a degree of popularity with my classmates.

We would often have our jam sessions on Saturday evening while other boys our age were out dating girls. One of these sessions was memorable only because of the consequence to follow. I liked to lift up the top of the piano and place paper between the felt hammers and the strings for the honky-tonk sound it provided. Sometimes we would place tacks in the felts.

The following Sunday morning, Jane Ferguson sat down to play the organ and Verna Myers sat at the piano. A tacky sound came out of the piano at the beginning of the opening hymn. I can still see Mrs. Myers lifting the top of the piano and pulling out sheets of paper left from the night before. Father was not amused.

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