Search - Ben Folds :: Ben Folds Presents: University a Cappella!

Great album, and a lot of fun!

Kerry Marsh | California | 04/28/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I'm the director of the Sacramento State Jazz Singers and the arranger of "Selfless, Cold and Composed" on this album, and I'm very proud to have been involved in its making. Ben is one of my favorite artists, and it's such an honor to have worked with him and his team on this project, the proceeds of which are going towards "Save the Music."



One of the goals/intents of this album was to present some of Ben's previous work in a new context for his listeners, and to give some exposure to some of the hard-working and talented amateur singers who've been putting together a cappella versions of his charts and posting videos to YouTube. Ben was cool enough not to worry about copyright infringement as some artists might, but instead he admired the passion of the groups (mostly college glee club types, student-directed with student arrangements) and chose to encourage other groups to submit their performances for a contest to make it onto this album. Over 200 groups submitted (or already had vids up), and these tracks (besides the two tracks by Ben himself) are the result. Most groups rerecorded their songs the Sac State Jazz Singers, as well as the U of Chicago, ended up using the original tracks from the submission, as Ben felt the quality was high enough to hang with the album.



Sac State's track, "Selfless, Cold and Composed," sounds a bit different from the rest of the project because my arrangement goes a bit further from the original and uses some thick jazz voicings, with some scat singing, as well. The way the album is assembled, though, our track seems to fit in well, and the following track by U of Chicago, "Magic," is incredibly well-written, sung and produced. Other favorites of mine are "Not the Same," "You Don't Know Me," "Fair" and, of course, Ben's two tracks, "Effington" and "Boxing." The album has gotten a lot of media attention, and I hope it helps create new fans of a cappella and of Ben Folds!"

This is terrific!

Mickey | Kalamazoo, MI USA | 04/28/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"It's so awesome to hear these songs re-interpreted this way! Not only is there incredible creativity in the arrangements on the album, but there's also the added impact of knowing that these songs were sung, mostly live, without instruments. You can tell that the groups were really thinking about the meanings and the emotional content of the songs -- it comes through quite clearly.



The first person to rate the album based their rating on a technical problem with hearing samples on the amazon.com website, not based on the quality of the album. Don't be fooled by people who haven't heard the album they submit a rating for!



My assessment -- the whole thing is terrific.



"

WOW

George Richardson | 04/28/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"this was absolutely astounding!! I'd never really appreciated accapella, though I am an avid fan of Folds, however, upon listening to this cd I was struck by how, for lack of a better phrase, damn good it was!! I highly recommend this to all even if accapella is not your thing."