Dreamed into reality in the late 1960s by Rev. Cecil Williams, the Glide Ensemble ensures music remains one of the pillars of Glide Memorial Church’s ministry. Starting with Glide Memorial Church’s first “Happening,” a contemporary worship service that brought jazz music into the sanctuary and hippies dancing in the aisles, music has always been a part of the movements of justice Glide Memorial Church has embarked on. Gone were the dirge-like hymnals; in came the joyous, explosive gospel music of the Black church alongside the rich traditions of jazz, rock, folk and blues.
This music, steeped in protest and visions of a more just and loving world, spirited Glide Memorial Church’s participation in the Anti-war and Civil and Human Rights battles of the 1960s and ’70s. The music has bolstered our work with the Black Panthers and the United Farm Workers, been proclaimed alongside Gay Liberation and Marriage Equality, and sung out against Apartheid, domestic violence, economic and social injustice, poverty and hunger.
From its humble beginnings on Christmas Day, 1966, when it was only 10 singers and jazz legend John Handy, the Glide Ensemble and Change Band has grown to include more than 100 voices and eight musicians. Beginning with the first choir director, Faith Winthrop, the Glide Ensemble and Change Band has benefitted from the direction of such talented leaders as Donnell Hickman, Ronald Sutherland, John F. Turk, Jr., Clifford Coulter, and Vernon Bush, and has teamed up with a host of notable musicians such as Sammy Davis Jr., Leonard Bernstein, Marvin Gaye, Bono, Bobby McFerrin, Maya Angelou, and Joan Baez.
Much like today, the Ensemble embodied an activist spirituality that provided the congregation and the community an antidote to the layers of repression that characterized many of their previous church experiences. A new world was emerging right outside Glide Memorial Church’s door and Cecil, his rag-tag, multi-colored singers, and Change Band brought that energy right into the sanctuary. This tradition is carried into today, where no one is rejected; everyone is accepted. Anyone, regardless of vocal talent, is able to join this egalitarian body and break the mold of a stale and sedate church every Sunday.
