I just read a really good book, Blue Like Jazz, by Don Miller who lives here in Portland.

"The first generation out of slavery invented jazz music. It is a music birthed out of freedom. And that is the closest thing I know to Christian spirituality. A music birthed out of freedom. Everybody sings thier song the way they feel it, everybody closes thier eyes and lifts up thier hands."

-Blue Like Jazz, page 239