A cappella group Oxford Gargoyles use their voices as jazz instruments

A cappella groupsare all the rage these days, thanks to the popular Pitch Perfect films. The Oxford Gargoyles, a singing group from Oxford University, however, have long made a cappella their own through a mixture of black-tie class and groovy jazz numbers.

The 14-member, mixed-gender Gargoyles have been growing in popularity since forming 17 years ago. While Oxford is known for its Anglican Church choir, the Gargoyles were founded as an outlet for jazz music, and remain the only jazz a cappella group on campus. For their annual international tour, they will return to Macau and Hong Kong for the second time.

Throughout the years, the group have found a distinctive voice, and one of their most recognisable features is the mimicking of walking jazz basslines. By voicing instrumentals — such as the bass and percussion beats — the Gargoyles style is somewhere between a choir and a jazz band.

"We are not singing lines you would hear in a choir, which are smoother and have more choral vowels. But we also don't sound like a jazz band," member and tour manager Sam Galler says.

This diversity in sounds and vocals has given the group much creative licence for adapting popular songs. While the Gargoyles' singing style is mainly jazz-based, the group draw inspiration from other genres by rearranging pop, rock and soul music into a vocal jazz style, Galler says. Songs the group have rearranged include Dancing in the Moonlight and Love me or Leave me.

Magnificat and Funk Dimittis, a song the group is particularly excited to perform, is a jazz-funk version of Anglican evensong pieces that juxtaposes Anglican melodies with pop quotes and soul-funk influences. The song, arranged by music director Jacob Swindells, pays homage to Oxford's rich Anglican music tradition and encapsulates the group's diverse artistic range.