The Ladies Sing the Blues in Stylish, Promising ‘Oo-Bla-Dee’

Miles Davis had a four-word description of the history of jazz: “Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker.” One invented, the other reinvented. Yet every history carries a subcontinent’s worth of inventors and explorers.

Regina Taylor’s new bebop-soaked play, “Oo-Bla-Dee,” a co-production of the La Jolla Playhouse and Chicago’s Goodman Theatre that opened the playhouse’s season here Sunday, reminds us that jazz history also was made by women, many living in a time of Coloreds Only signs and crushing sexism. (Some things change more than others.) Pianists and composers such as Mary Lou Williams ensured that their voices would be heard. The exuberant 1946 Williams bop tune “In the Land of Oo-Bla-Dee” gave playwright Taylor her title, and more: Taylor’s language--ripe, overripe, consciously musical, self-consciously so, yet often exhilarating--comes straight from that same land.

Taylor’s best known as an actress, in films such as “Courage Under Fire” and “Clockers,” and as Lilly Harper on television’s “I’ll Fly Away.” She lends grace and unadorned truth to whatever she performs. As a playwright her strengths are quite different. She’s highly promising, if stylistically all over various maps, willing to try anything and everything.

“Oo-Bla-Dee” combines realism with heightened poetry, and the whole thing’s narrated by a symbol no less formidable than Mother Time herself (Sabrina Le Beauf), watching over the tale of saxophonist Gin del Sol (Caroline Clay).

It’s 1946. Gin’s invited to join the jazz quartet Evelyn Waters and the Diviners, fronted by the diva-riffic Evelyn (Jacqueline Williams). In short order Gin meets drummer Lulu (Myra Lucretia Taylor), bassist Ruby (Cheryl Lyn Bruce) and manager Shorty (Ernest Perry, Jnr.). Gin acquits herself well in her debut, even if she hasn’t found her own idiosyncratic sound.

How she does so provides the theme of “Oo-Bla-Dee.” The best stuff, however, is in the variations.

In the second of three “movements” (since its Chicago premiere the play’s been compressed from three acts into two), Taylor delivers a wonderful road trip from St. Louis to Chicago with the band members tooling along in a “wine-colored Buick,” arguing, laughing, listening to Billie Holiday on the radio, remembering things they may prefer to forget. Being pulled over by the police, for example. It’s lovely, easy writing, heightened yet utterly direct.

If “Oo-Bla-Dee” sustained this level of invention, it’d be a modern classic. The play, co-directed by author Taylor and Susan V. Booth, hammers on its favorite motifs mighty hard: The word “time” is invoked like a mantra, over and over and over. Often the words are given visual punctuation by way of newsreel footage or silhouetted “shadow play.” Much of it isn’t really needed. There’s enough going on verbally.

You can argue with the visual layering, but even with its excesses and a rushed, harried finale, “Oo-Bla-Dee” makes some potent music. The governing image in scenic designer Donald Eastman’s handsome set is that of an elevated train, topped by an enormous luminescent clock.

With one exception it’s a top-flight cast, led by Clay’s fervent, vibrant Gin, featuring especially sweet and nuanced work from Bruce’s Ruby and Perry’s conciliatory Shorty. Taylor’s Lulu is perhaps a little too in tune with the role’s comic potential, but she’s engaging company all the same, as are Williams and Le Beauf. Only Jimi Antoine, as the past Gin left behind, comes up short; he sticks to a one-note rant in a role that’s frankly more convenience than inspiration.

You get both throughout in the writing. Taylor has a genuine voice and unusually sound instincts regarding a theatrically blended moment, when voices become sounds and sounds become a kind of melody. It’s more a matter of figuring out when to leave well enough alone. Paradoxically, restoring five or 10 minutes near the end might help the play’s resolution.

Tidy it’s not. But Taylor’s tribute to the ladies of jazz marks a distinct jump up in this playwright’s development. In the lyrics to the titular Williams song, the phrase “oo-ba-diddly-ya” means “You appeal to me.” The play needs some work, but even so: oo-ba-diddly-ya.

* “Oo-Bla-Dee,” La Jolla Playhouse, Mandell Weiss Theatre, University of California, San Diego, North Torrey Pines Road at Expedition Way, La Jolla. Tuesdays-Fridays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 2 and 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2 and 7 p.m. Ends June 20. $19-$39 (Pay-What-You-Can 2 p.m. this Saturday). (619) 550-1010. Running time: 2 hours, 25 minutes.

Sabrina Le Beauf: Luna C, Lady Day, others

Caroline Clay: Gin del Sol

Jimi Antoine: Arthur, Soldiers, others

Myra Lucretia Taylor: Lulu

Cheryl Lynn Bruce: Ruby

Ernest Perry, Jnr.: Shorty

Jacqueline Williams: Evelyn

Written by Regina Taylor. Directed by Regina Taylor and Susan V. Booth. Set by Donald Eastman. Costumes by Mara Blumenfeld. Lighting by T.J. Gerckens. Original music by Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson. Sound by Michael Bodeen. Stage manager Malcolm Ewen.