Rock and roll merged with jazz Feb. 12 at the Oxford High School Jazz Concert, courtesy of a spur-of-the-moment dare.
James Baker, cofounder and lead guitarist of the local band Half Empty, had written a song titled ‘Bell, Book and Candle? when his friend, OHS Jazz Band flutist Kaitlin Ufolla, dared him to put his song into a format the jazz band could play.
Originally written for guitars, bass guitar and vocals, for Baker it was a challenge to transition the song to a jazz format.
‘The problem was with copying it over to the different instruments,? explained Baker who, like Ufolla, is a junior at OHS. Unlike the guitars, brass and woodwind instruments require the musicians to take breaths.
‘Each phrase is alternated between brass and woodwind section, woodwind in the first part and then brass finishes up the part,? Baker explained. ‘This way, nobody gets tired and they get the breath they need.?
When Baker wrote the song and presented it to Ufolla, she then presented it to Jazz Band instructor Gary Ashton. Then, Ashton worked with the band on the piece once Baker gave him the musical score.
While Baker’s song originally contained lyrics and vocals with the lyrics telling the story, in the jazz version, the piano, brass, woodwind and percussion instruments do the ‘speaking.? Once the band performed it, the audience’s reaction said it all.
‘The audience members were blown away and kept on going,? Baker said of the applause. ‘The general reaction was, it must’ve been difficult to write.?
The song’s title, ‘Bell, Book and Candle,? comes from a medieval phrase describing an excommunication from the Roman Catholic Church. When this event happened, a bell was rung to create a death toll, a book was closed to symbolize separation from the church and a candle was snuffed out to symbolize the condemned’s extinguishment and removal from God’s presence.
‘I thought it was cool phrase and that I’d get questions about the title,? said Baker.
While Baker is not Catholic, he wrote the song because he found the phrase’s metaphors and their interpretations fascinating. For some, excommunication can be a tragedy of both spiritual and eternal death for a person. For others, the bell, book and candle can be a triumph since they begin a new life for the person.
Which is the correct interpretation? That’s up to each individual listener to decide, Baker said.
While Baker said the non-conventional song was a ‘one-time deal? for him due to the challenges of transitioning from rock to jazz, Ufolla described performing it as a difficult experience but one she enjoyed.
‘With or without lyrics, the music definitely speaks to people,? she said. ‘It has message and emotion behind the melody itself…[James] has a passion for music and I thought it would be good while he was in high school to do something like this. I encouraged him to take something he is good at and let others hear it.?
Ashton described the song as a ‘nice piece? and said it can be fun to transfer rock and roll into traditional band instruments.
‘The challenge is to be true to what the pieces sound like and adapt it to jazz,? he explained. While the jazz band has never performed anything like this, Ashton noted the fusion of rock and roll with jazz itself isn’t unusual. Back in the 1970s and 1980s, he noted, performers like Chick Corea and Return to Forever popularized that style.