Come Blow Your Horn

Come Blow Your Horn
JOSHUA 6: 1-21

In New Orleans over the weekend for a meeting (I have such a hard job) I talked with Tom Wright, author of The New Testament for Everyone series, and with staff from the publishers. I remarked that the most demanding aspect of this project is having a story to begin each chapter, and someone asked if I would be able to incorporate a reference to New Orleans. This turns out to be easy, because I also spent time there listening to trumpeters blowing their horns. In Preservation Hall I listened to a band playing with the authentic traditional jazz configuration, its front line comprising clarinet, trumpet, and trombone, as it was before the saxophone was imported from dance bands. In the open air on Bourbon Street was a band with an older feature, a tuba instead of a bass. This music started off as marching music; you can’t march and play the bass at the same time...