“A jam session?” Kingsley said. “How is that going to help anything?”
“By helping us find common ground,” Celia said. She looked at Laura. “When you were doing When the Saints Come Marching In yesterday, everyone really liked it. Ted and Ben even chimed in with the rhythm. Everyone was tapping their feet. It was a piece that all of us liked and knew, right?”
“Well,” Kingsley said, “it’s not up there with Bohemian Rhapsody or Kashmir in my book, but it’s catchy and easy to play. It’s ... fun.”
“Right!” Celia said. “Making music is supposed to be fun. We need to learn how to have fun together.” She looked at Laura. “All of us.”
Laura wanted to keep stewing in her anger and perceived lack of respect, but she forced herself to put it aside for the moment. Maybe Celia was onto something here. True, Saints was no Rhapsody for the Alto or Romeo and Juliet, but it was fun and easy to play. Something to just tear up with for the sheer enjoyment of it. That was why she had chosen it to round out her audition. It was something she could play at a whim without having to think about it and something she enjoyed, that she could phrase with some soul.
She nodded her head slowly. “Okay,” she said softly. “How do we do this?”
“Alternating melodies,” Celia said. “Ben and Ted set the rhythm up, I’ll play accompaniment on my Fender and maybe sing if the mood strikes me, and then Mary, Cindy, Jake, and Laura all take turns throwing down the melody, one by one. Each of you do your best, make it sing! Make us feel it! You know what I’m saying?”
Kingsley was now smiling, his eyes looking at Celia with clear affection. Interesting. “I know what you’re saying,” he assured her.
“Let’s do it!” Mary said enthusiastically.
“I’m in!” said Cynthia.
They all looked to Laura. She offered them the first smile of her tenure with them. “Let’s do it,” she said. “Who’s going to start?”
“You are,” Celia told her. She turned to Ted. “Four count and let’s get it on.”
“Hell to the yeah,” Ted said, grinning. He tapped his sticks together four times and they began to play.
Since it was an unrehearsed piece, and no one had any sheet music to help them remember the notes or to set the tempo or the key, Laura let them go through a couple of reps first so she could plug into the groove they were setting. She picked it up by tapping her foot in time to it. When she felt she was locked in, she began to play in the key of C major, the way she had always played that particular piece.
The music came out of her horn and it had soul. There was no doubt about it. She even began to move her shoulders back and forth as she played. After the drivel they had been making her produce, it was a true pleasure to play something she enjoyed.
“That’s the shit!” Ted shouted at her at one point.
“Agreed,” said Celia, who was strumming away at her Fender. “Let’s try it with some vocals.”
“Sing it, C!” Kingsley called out.
“Oh, when the saints,” Celia belted out, “oh when the saints. Oh, when the saints go marching innnnnn. Oh yes, I want to be in that number, when the saints go marching in. Blow it, Laura!”
Laura blew it, belting out another round of the melody. This time around, she added some style and few fills of her own, putting some more soul into it.
“Hell to the yeah!” Ted cried again, adding a little drum fill of his own. This time around, however, it did not annoy her. It added to the piece and he had struck it out with improvised precision.
“Oh, when the saints, ” Celia continued. “Oh, when the saints. Oh, when the saints go marching in. Oh yes, I want to be in that number, when those saints go marching innnnnn. Hit it, Mary!”
Mary hit it, playing out the melody on her violin with an enthusiasm and style, moving her own shoulders to the rhythm. She too brought a sense of phrasing to the piece—a playful, happy outpouring of musical emotion. She went through it twice, on the second time adding a few of her own fills, drawing some of the notes out, chopping some of the others.
“Way to go, Mom,” Kingsley said with a smile, his own foot tapping on the ground before him.
Celia sang out the chorus again. This time she called out Cynthia. “Do it, Cindy!”
Cindy pounded on the piano keys of her stage instrument. Laura was impressed with her competency and her phrasing. The piano had a lot more room for adding fills to a piece and she took advantage of them well, almost erupting into a mini-solo as she closed out her turn.
“We’re smokin’ now,” Celia said, and then sang out the chorus yet again. This time, she called on Kingsley. “Jake! Let’s hear what you got!”
She winced a little in advance as Kingsley took his turn on the electric guitar, hitting the notes with distorted loudness, his fingers bending and pulling at the strings to elicit the music. So prepared was she to dislike it that it took her a moment to realize that it actually was not all that bad. She wasn’t a big fan of the blues, but she certainly liked it better than rock music, and Kingsley was putting the notes down in blues style with a distinct emotion to his phrasing. He too was having a good time with the piece. She could hear that in his expression, could see in the tapping of his foot, in the sure way his fingers moved across the fretboard of his guitar.
“That’s the way!” Celia yelled when he was done. “Sing it with me, Jake!”
They sang the next chorus in harmony, their voices mixing together surprisingly well. Kingsley did not scream even once, and he had a decent sounding tenor voice that mixed well with Celia’s contralto. They went through twice and then Celia called out her next command. “Mary and Laura together! Do it!”
She hesitated a moment—double with a violin? Absurd!—but when Mary began to play the notes she dutifully stepped in and played them with her. It actually sounded much better than she would have thought. True, it was not a traditional doubling of instruments, but it worked!
“That’s badass!” Ted encouraged from behind his drum set. “Bring up the volume some!”
“Yeah,” shouted Kingsley. “Really grind it!”
Laura and Mary looked at each other for a moment and shared a nod. As they entered the next rendition, Laura blew harder, putting more strength into her notes. Mary did the same, moving the bow across her strings with a little more force, drawing louder and more authoritative sound out of the instrument.
“All right!” Celia said after finishing the next chorus. “Jake and Cindy this time. Show us what you got!”
They showed what they had. Laura was again prepared for it to be hideous, and was again pleasantly surprised to hear that it wasn’t. Kingsley laid down a solid blues track that mixed in with the piano rendition of the melody. It could not quite harmonize on the level that a sax and a violin, or a sax and a guitar could, but that was actually its strength. The notes came out in harmony but their rendition was quite different and complimentary.
“That is sweet shit,” Ted said, adding another impressive drum fill.
“Okay,” Celia said. “Final time around. All of you together! In harmony for the finish!”
“And then take us down tempo for the final sequence,” Kingsley added.
They went through it, with all four melody instruments playing in unison to the back beat. It sounded good ... deep, Laura could not help but feel. This was music they were making, turning a simple, repetitive piece into something quite more than its base melody.
“Bring it down,” Kingsley instructed after going through it twice.
Ben and Ted obediently brought the tempo down and those on melody followed them, making the final rendition march out slowly, down to almost a stop until they all let the very last note draw out and fade away.