After watching Spike Lee’s “Mo’ Better Blues” starring Denzel Washington, Taylor Barnett, then in high school, marched downstairs and told his parents, “Mom, Dad, I want to be a jazz trumpet player. Can you get me lessons?”
Now Worship Arts Director at WEPC (along with his wife, Tiffanie Chan), music professor at VCU, and a member of Richmond’s No BS! Brass Band, Barnett is putting together A Richmond Big Band Christmas, slated for December 14 at 4:00 and 7:00 PM at VCU’s Singleton Center for the Performing Arts. Combining Barnett’s love for music and ministry, the concert will feature fourteen jazz musicians, including three singers, who will perform “energetic, modern arrangements of the sacred songs you love in this highly entertaining and uniquely American musical style,” according to the concert’s website, www.rvachristmas.com.
Barnett started playing the trumpet in middle school band class because his older brother played, and because “trumpet always gets to play the melody.” He had considered quitting. But with encouragement from his mom and an inspiring band director, Barnett continued in high school. Then, once he saw Washington’s portrayal of Bleek Gilliam—“the cool jazz musician playing gigs”—Barnett was hooked on jazz.
“That whole vibe they portray I thought was way cool,” Barnett recalled of the movie. “From that point, I pretty much decided that’s what I’m going to do.”
Barnett’s parents said “yes” to trumpet lessons. Barnett soon realized that one of his friends in band class was the nephew of a world-renowned trumpeter. “I was like, ‘Your uncle’s John D’earth? You should let me come over and hang out sometime.”
And he did. D’earth also lived in Charlottesville, where Barnett grew up. Not long after they met, D’earth called Barnett’s parents. “I think Taylor’s got a lot of potential, and I’d like to teach him if he’d be into that,” Barnett remembers him saying. Thus began a mentorship that encouraged Barnett through high school, college, and graduate school at VCU, where D’earth is now serving as artist-in-residence.
“He really took me under his wing,” Barnett said. “I would get to ride with him down to Richmond, see him rehearse, and play concerts. He let me sit in with his band when he played in Charlottesville. He really took a lot of interest in me. He and I are still friends.”
In 2013 Taylor Barnett and his wife, Tiffanie Chan, joined the staff at WEPC as worship arts directors. Their daughters are Abigail (L) and Clara.
Barnett went on to earn his masters in music from VCU and his doctorate of musical arts from James Madison University. He has performed with the Woody Herman Orchestra, the Dorsey Brothers Orchestra, the Oratorio Society of Virginia, and with artists such as Gladys Knight, The Temptations, Frankie Avalon, and Steve Wilson. Now as a music professor at VCU and a member of No BS! Brass, Barnett has his finger on the pulse of the Richmond music scene. His vision for A Richmond Big Band Christmas is to bring together some of the city’s best jazz musicians—friends and colleagues—who have been playing together for years.
“I’ve been around long enough and I’ve been teaching at VCU for long enough that I know a lot of people and I know a lot of formers students who are now playing in bands and teaching in music stores and schools,” Barnett said. “And that’s partly the impetus for doing the Big Band concert, seeing all these great artists and all these great artistic events going on around the holidays.”
Jesus, however, is also a central to Barnett’s vision for the concert. “With the exception of when Handel’s Messiah gets played, there are [only] a couple of things that are actually proclaiming Christ,” he said of the Richmond Christmas season. “We were thinking: How great would it be to get the best jazz musicians in Richmond together with singers and do a concert of only sacred hymns?”
The idea for the concert was inspired by “Go Tell It!”, an album produced by City Church in San Francisco. Jazz musicians that attend City Church put together jazz arrangements for the church’s Lessons and Carols service one year. The service was so well received that the musicians made a recording of the arrangements the next year.
After listening to the album, Barnett called City Church’s Worship Arts Director, Karl Digerness, to ask him for advice on putting together a similar concert in Richmond—and to ask if he could purchase the musical charts.
“We don’t really do that,” Barnett remembers Digerness saying. “But that actually sounds really cool because it would fit where God has placed you in the Richmond music scene and knowing all these musicians and also being in a leadership role at your church.” Digerness gave Barnett all the charts from the album, which A Richmond Big Band Christmas will draw from.
Barnett’s colleagues in the music community whom he approached about helping with the concert have also expressed enthusiasm. When he wrote to them in June about his vision for a “Christ-centered Christmas concert” in the heart of Richmond, many responded “Yes, please! How can I help?” Barnett recalled.
For more information about the concert or to buy tickets, visit www.rvachristmas.com. Net proceeds will benefit Virginia’s largest free healthcare clinic, CrossOver Healthcare Ministry.
Watch this short film on A Richmond Big Band Christmas: