"Jeff Kaiser isn’t the first composer to endeavor to write jazz-flavored liturgical music — Mary Lou Williams beat him to the punch by a half-a-century — but “The Alchemical Mass” is still an unusual undertaking. Kaiser makes it more so by using as his text the heretical Mass written by 16th century astrologer and scholar Nicholas Melchior Cibenensis. Kaiser shows a boldness fitting to the text with his blending of avant-garde jazz and classically inspired vocal writing. And he succeeds at both."
