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[an error occurred while processing this directive] (none) Music in `Oo-Bla-Dee' Jennifer Donahoe Lulu , (Deidrie) left, and Gin Del Sol (BW Gonzalez) jazz it up' in the Oregon Shakespeare Festival's 2001 production of Regina Taylor's `Oo-Bla-Dee.' By Myles Murphy Ashland Daily Tidings To produce a play about a Bebop Jazz band in the 1940s, Director Tim Bond needed to have original music created in the style of the time. To fill that need, Bond turned to Ashland Composer Michael Van-nice. "He had a total and complete understanding of the form," Bond said. Along with Music and Sound Designer Todd Barton, Bond and Vannice explored music of the time and searched for ways to express parts of the play through music. "Working with Michael Vannice and Todd Barton has been an incredibly rich collaboration," Bond said. "It was an experience in learning to articulate what we're after and to articulate the intent of the playwright." Vannice, a composer and musician, shares Bond's interest in Bebop and other forms of jazz. "I'm really glad I got to be a part of this," Vannice said. "It's such an intense play." As a musician and a music historian, Vannice was very familiar with protagonist Gin Del Sol's search for her own voice through the play. "It's about a person finding her sound," Vannice said. "You just haven't arrived until you have your own sound." He cites jazz greats such as Charlie Parker and Billie Holiday as examples of musicians who had "found their sound." "Billie Holiday - when she sings, she does all this stuff with time and the relation to the beat," Vannice said. While Vannice composed the songs in the play, much of them are improvised, so the choice of musicians to record the music was of utmost importance. "I just called people who I knew played really well," Vannice said. He gathered musicians who he had played with before, some of whom had performed with Vannice for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival Production of "Crumbs from the Table of Joy" in the 2000 season. Vannice was faced with the challenge of writing music that would express the search and eventually discovery of Gin's (Regina's) sound. "There's a passion musicians have to have," Vannice said. "The play conveys this sense of passion that the music and jazz musicians have. I wanted to convey this sense of passion, so the music couldn't just be light and shallow." For the most part, Vannice's composition is pretty standard Bebop - a four person combo playing with tremendous energy, fiddling with time and melody. All bets are off for the finale when Gin finds her voice, however. Vannice and the other musicians transcended the genre trying to give the moment credibility. "Tim said, `Take it away,'" Vannice said. Actors' Theatre Alexs Restaurant Ali Ross/ Real Estate Agent Allyson's of Ashland Aphrodite's Salon Asante Health Ashland Community Food Store Ashland Community Hospital Ashland Homes Real Estate Ashland Springs Spa Associates for Oral & Maxillo Beasy's On The Creek Big Kahuna in the Park Bloomsbury Books Bookwagon New & Used Books Charter Communications Chateaulin Restaurant Conversations With God Center Cycle Sport Denny's Restaurant Earthly Goods Womens' Apparel Enchanted Attic Energy Outfitters Gateway Real Estate Grants Pass Visitor's Bureau Greenleaf Restaurant Hellgate Excursions Hot Spring Spas Jacksonville Inn John L. Scott Real Estate of So. Oregon Kat Wok Restaurant Klamath First Federal La Fiesta Mexican Restaurant Lithia Artisans Lithia Real Estate Martino's & Macaroni's Ristorante McDonalds Out of the Blue Patricia Sprague Real Estate Pizza Hut Remax Realty Group St. Mary's School Sara Walker/ Real Estate Agent Scheffels Toys Shop'n Kart Tamale Dog Taqueria The Apple Cellar The Galice Resort The Living Gallery Tudor Guild Gift Shop Twenty-four Pont Home Textiles Two Pines Unicorn Gifts and Toys Winchester Inn Windermere Van Vleet & Assoc. Real Estate Windmill Inn Ashland Daily Tidings 1661 Siskiyou Blvd. Ashland, OR 97520 Telephone 541-482-3456 © Copyright 2001 Lee Northwest Publishing