Dispensational Jazzology

[David MacLeod]

About 20 years ago, I was part of an online jazz discussion forum.  I don't remember all the details of how this started, but I think it had to do with a discussion on Kenny G.  Everyone in the group couldn't stand his music, and we liked to make fun of him.  Someone called Kenny G the anti-Christ.  This inspired me to do a re-write of part of the book of Revelation, substituting Kenny G where I could. 

It was fun, and people enjoyed it. So I kept going, and wrote some more material.  One of the participants encouraged me to write enough material for a small booklet, which he promised to help me edit and format, and publish (desktop publishing). 

And so, Dispensational Jazzology was born. Written by my alter-ego, Dr. D.D. McCloidsman. A character originally suggested by another friend a decade or two earlier.  Dr. McCloidsman began as a charlatan televangelist character, as I goofed around with friends.  He then became a stage performer at 2-bit church talent shows for our "college-career" group, and finally as the theologian who developed the "McCloidsman Study Bible" - a cross between the televangelist charlatan and C.I. Scofield, of the Scofield Reference Bible fame.

And so we published a hundred or so copies of our booklet.  Many were given away as gifts, and some were sold.  I developed a website for the project, and in those early days of the internet (early '90s), it became a minor 'hit' in jazz circles.  The site got an "Amen, Brother"  along with praise for my "wry scholarship" from the Washington Post, and excerpts and links started appearing at many other sites, and a few web awards were won.  Seattle's fringe music rag called it "a revelatory masterpiece" and printed excerpts.

Eventually I ran out of booklets.  Always intending to write and publish an expanded version, but never getting a round tuit. And then AOL stopped supporting personal websites, so the website went away.  At that point Dispensational Jazzology only existed in printed form for a select few; as a joyful memory for others, and as a broken link on many jazz websites.

Until now...

Recently, the online magazine Beams and Struts - "a magazine for hungry minds and thirsty souls", asked me to contribute something for their "Saturday Night Jukebox" series.  I was pretty busy, and thought it would be easiest to give them something previously written, and I thought a piece from DJ would do nicely. 

Well, it took a little more time than I originally planned.  On the old website, I had embedded numerous very short sound files into the text.  Those were the days of dial-up and low bandwidth, and before the advent of Youtube.  So, for the first excerpt of DJ, I found some great Youtubes to embed, and even created 3 short ones of my own.  And then I thought this would be a good time to create another Dispensational Jazzology website. 

And so, what all of this is leading up to, is inviting you all to check it out.  First at Beams and Struts where it has made it's new edition debut, and then at its new home: dispensationaljazzology.wordpress.com. 

I haven't even told you the arc of the storyline, so I guess you're just going to have to go there and find out.  I will share the shortest YouTube video I created.  Just 17 seconds long.