“The God Groove: A Blues
Journey to Faith” by David
Ritz
c.2019, Atria
$26.00 / $35.00 Canada
243 pages
By Terri Schlichenmeyer
One thing leads to another.
Isn’t that how it goes? You
start somewhere and a door
is opened. You enter that
door and see a window. The
window takes you elsewhere
and each new place teaches you
something different. Isn’t that
the way life is — and in the
new book “The God Groove” by
David Ritz, isn’t that the way
faith is?
Growing up in New York
City, David Ritz fell in love
with music. Finding it was “as
easy as walking down Fifty-
Second Street,” or just to his
parents’ living room: Ritz’s
father loved classical music
and shared his passion with
his son.
For Ritz, though, jazz was
the thing. It was always there
in New York but when he was
a teen, his family moved to
Dallas, where hearing jazz
meant a lengthy search and
at least a “ninety-minute bus
trip.” One day, in his quest
for good music, he stumbled
upon an open door from which
emanated tight harmonies
and soaring voices.
He’d found a Black church,
but he was reluctant to enter.
Though his family had never
been all that religious, the fact
remained that Ritz was white
and Jewish. God was a distant
thought. Jesus was someone
he barely knew about.
And so it continued
through most of his life, until
he was a married father of
twin girls. He was 32 years
old then, and desperate for a
career change so, because he’d
“become obsessed with Ray
Charles’ voice,” Ritz pestered
Charles to let him write the
singer’s biography. That led to
an opportunity with Marvin
Gaye and an introduction
to Aretha Franklin, who led
Ritz to another jazz-andblues
singer and another and
another. As each person sat
down with him in interviews,
the conversation often turned
to religion, God, and the love
At …The Time is Nowow!
Caribbean L 40 ife, July 19–25, 2019 BQ
inherent in Christianity.
As he was ministered to,
Ritz began to listen, and he
began to think. He started to
see Christ in a different way,
and he visited churches. And
yet, he still wasn’t ready to
call himself a Christian…
For a lot of reasons, “The
God Groove” is a challenge
to read.
The name-dropping is first
on the list: author David Ritz
worked with many premiere
performers and they’re all in
this book, which is impressive,
initially, but becomes like
background noise after
awhile. Alas, those star-stories
get tangled up in Ritz’ own
tale, which can drown out his
fascinating memoir; and the
back-and-forth, does-he-ordoesn’t
he religious argument
also goes on too long.
And yet — there’s an
underlying personal change
of direction that Ritz allows to
run just beneath the surface
of his story, as he meets flawed
people and confesses his own
flaws, including drug use and
infidelity related to bisexuality.
At the risk of spoiling, there’s
Book Cover of “The God Groove.”
a happy ending available, but
getting there might be tough.
Readers who are questioning
their faith may find takeaways
here. Jazz fans might also like
what they see but if you’re
neither, you may struggle.
“The God Groove” isn’t awful,
you might be led to just put
it aside.
Musical path to faith
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