Those open ears, of the musician-as-receiver, guide Wiley’s omnivorous activity. In the past year, I’ve happened to see him playing raucous Second Line marches with MJ’s BrassBoppers, tender ballads in a duo with longtime collaborator Kev Choice, and angular back-and-forth solos with tenor sax titan David Murray. Every time, the spirit — that goosebumps thing — is present.

Jazz saxophonist Howard Wiley rehearses in his Oakland studio. (Gabe Meline/KQED)

For one song to be performed this week, “That’s Why We Praise His Holy Name,” Wiley put himself in the music after his faith was tested. During his years of playing at Glide Memorial in the Tenderloin, there was a small child that sat in the front row.

“I had found out the baby’s life had been so tried. His mother was incarcerated, his father was incarcerated,” Wiley says. “And I don’t see the baby one week. Next week I see the uncle, I’m like, ‘Hey, man, where’s the baby?’ He’s like, ‘The baby is dead.’ Hurt me to my soul.”

That same day, Wiley learned that another acquaintance — “a man of God, a family man who I respected, I knew his family” — had been convicted of molesting children. While wrestling with the fact that God could allow such things to happen, Wiley started writing.

“It’s like a conversation with God. It’s like ‘God, how can this happen?’ And then talking to the victim, ‘How can this happen?’ And through God’s light, I found a way that saved my mind and soul. That’s ‘That’s Why We Praise His Holy Name.'”

News Daily Newsletter

The Bay

Emma’s Must-Sees

Videos from KQED Live

Donor-Advised Funds

gospel musicgospel music

New Ways of Expressing Black Queer Joy In the Church

The Gospel According to Howard Wiley