You could feel the anticipation as LA Music Academy students and staff piled into the Performance Hall to hear what these four luminaries of the LA live and studio scene would have to say. They didn't have to say much with words, because it was all there, unfolding almost palpably into the room. The father/son rhythm section of Abe Laboriel Sr. and Jr. propelled each tune with nuance and time feel to die for. Their energy was simply infectious. Greg Mathieson tore through the tunes with tasteful, bluesy blasts of the B3 organ. Each solo illuminated in its own way some profound type of musicality. Mike Landau demonstrated the sheer expressiveness possible in the world of the electric guitar, alternating between careful, hand-crafted passages and blasting, jimi-fied, electric ferocity. Music schools often focus a lot on virtuosity. The Jazz Ministry showed us how virtuosity serves the music.

For all of its emotional zeal and accessibility, the Ministry managed to sidestep most of the clichés of contemporary instrumental jazz. At one point, just when you were expecting another fire-breathing solo, Abe Sr. took us down another path, enlisting our support in an old-fashioned sing along, accompanied by solo bass chords. The campfire was not included, but if it were legal, a few of us would have had our lighters out.

In retrospect, it was apt that this funky ministry opened their 'sermon' with a tune called "The Sauce." Like only the best chefs in the world, these guys know how to pour on the right kind and amount in every musical instance-clearly a function of their vast musical knowledge, but also their extraordinary ability to hear and react to what one another was doing and to compose in the moment. One student asked Laboriel Sr. about an apparently non-musical issue: Tell us about the demands of a musical life on the family unit. Abe Sr. spoke briefly about his experiences in marriage and raising Abe Jr., ultimately emphasizing a point — no irony here — his pastor had made to him. "The greatest form of love is listening," Abe told us. And an evening of listening is indeed what we got.