I remember very well the „EVA Initiation Meeting“ we had in Aarhus 2011. So many brilliant ideas about Contemporary a Cappella gaining mainstream acceptance and being part of school’s curricula across the European borders. The big brains behind it …Volker Bauer, Florian Städtler, Jim Daus Hjernoe and Peder Karlsson to mention a few have  slowly but surely been working on strategies, drawing talented musicians and music educators into the boat and networking across the whole of Europe. It is more than time for the people who this will most benefit to also jump on board and set sail.

I have been a member of CASA for the past 2 years and have seen what this brilliant organization is doing for Contemporary a Cappella in the US and worldwide. Of course it’s main focus is on the development of collegiate and high school a Cappella… this is their tradition. The TV series Glee, the Sing Off and the film Pitch Perfect served as a rush of oxygen for the new „in“ trend contemporary A Cappella.

Having visited SoJam, the largest a Cappella festival in the USA last November I appreciated even more what our European festivals have to offer and realized that not only our festival culture but the very essence of European folklore, sounds and music awareness and the growing enthusiasm of the youth for contemporary acappella needs structure and representation.

The CARAs – Contemporary A Cappella Recording Awards – have shown that over the past few years the sheer diversity and development of European a Cappella and it’s influence even on American a Cappella cannot be ignored. Of course I can now shamelessly plug my choir’s own nomination for this year’s CARA in the category Best Folk/ World Song. The Bonner Jazzchor is an amateur choir with 35 members influenced by singer/ songwriters from Scandinavia  to North America and with a taste for unique interpretations of German folk songs. Mostly acoustic, hardly any vocal percussion and we were still nominated with “ Kein Schöner Land“ alongside professional ensembles like the Swingles, Amarcord  and Br6. This goes to show that „Diversity“ is the name of the game and Europe has plenty to offer!

It is time to extend an invitation to the Pop and Jazz choirs, advertise EVA at all festivals and competitions. For example in Germany get the „Chorverbände“ on board. EVA must become a household word among Contemporary Aca nerds so it’s time to wave the flag and get the singers and existing institutions interested. If not, EVA might remain an intellectual baby and that would be a crying shame.

[report by Deborah Rosanwo]

This was well and truly a doctor’s visit. I was in and out of London at the bat of an eyelid and am still reeling from all the fun, love, laughter and fine music that can be crammed into 36 hrs.

Family time is holy and precious for me so I chilled with my loved ones with home cooked oxtail stew and port wine and missed the Real Group kickin‘ aca-ass, commanding the respect and awe of colleagues, protégées and wannabes alike. TRG has a way of rejuvenating themselves whilst remaining so unmistakably their TRG selves. They shared a few of their success secrets at the Workshop „Pass Me The Jazz“ on Saturday. More about that later.

There is no better place to kick off the a cappella festival year than at King’s Place. One can feel the buzz and warm atmosphere of this global gathering of a cappella friends upon entering the premises. Within minutes of my arrival ( here comes the royal name-dropping) I had met and hugged (a very important aspect of Aca communication) Jeff Meschel ( Blogger, Israel ),  Bill Hare (Aca Guru Producer, USA) Vanderen Krogstad ( Singer, Norway), Clare Wheeler( Swingles, UK) Annemarie Homann( Single Singers, Netherlands) and Gregorio Hernandez ( SLIXS, Germany) Familiar faces, happy faces everywhere and of course „the Sound of Music“ coming from „Voices Only“ in the Foyer.

The first ensemble I heard was the Woofers, the choir of basses directed by the Swingle bass Edward Randell  (no tweeting or no birds allowed). Those Guys put their hearts and souls into those charts with deep rich bass and versatile baritone soloists. I heard Lewis Daniel, the bass from Vive also for the first time and he „saaaang“ as the Amis would say.

Of course I had no tickets for the workshops but as fate would have a certain Californian mixer and masterer decided to sing with the Single Singers and gave me his workshop ticket for Pass Me The Jazz with the Real Group! Aca kindness. The main theme was „Listening“ „We know very little about singing. But one thing we know: You have to listen.“ were Katarina Henryson’s opening words. She and Morten Vinter then had the packed auditorium find a unified pitch from a cluster and find a tempo by listening and reacting to each other. 200 highly motivated singers mastered each of these tasks in less than 30 seconds.

Lesson? „We might go down in pitch & tempo, but we would do so totally together instead fighting each other!“ said Morten Vinter We spoke about group dynamics and the importance of positive reinforcement. Katarina said that singers are their own greatest critics and we tend to transfer our harsh judgement of ourselves unto our fellow singers. We usually know what we did wrong. Leave that for a constructive rehearsal and focus on the great things that happened.  „We ( the Real Group) have a 20-minute rule after concerts: Say nothing negative right after the concert. We are all very vulnerable.“ I personally love that 20 minute rule and the Bonner Jazzchor tries to implement this as best we could… It is so difficult but so worth it, I can tell you! We were then treated to a 20 min Interactive master class with the Hungarian mixed vocal quintet Jazzation who won the jazz category & the Ward Swingle Award at Vokal Total. Needless to say they were brilliant with an incredible feeling for swing. Katarina and Morten had them shadow each other resulting in a slightly different interpretation each time. „It is important to know your instrument.. In this case the characteristics and timbres of the voices in your ensemble and to experiment with the sound. Know what’s going on with the middle voices“ We learnt so much at that workshop. The Real Group has always made it their mission to teach and share their 30 years of experience as a group.

We were all now ready for the concerts.

There was a lot more going on in the Foyer but I decided to focus on my highlights here. After a quirky boy group opener from Penny Arcade the Swingles came on stage and introduced SLIXS as “ some good looking Germans backstage ready to groove“ Everybody knows how much I love SLIXS and boy did they deliver! From Bach to Funk, from their own made up language to pure body percussion, they were charming, amusing, profound, sexy, groovy, cool. They were so funky that when Konrad Zeiner suggested we seat dance, the whole crowd got up and jammed to the groove…. The British got up and danced!!!! Unheard of!!! Goosebumps, eargasms, neck- snapping groove … They were on fire and I felt as though SLIXS as Germans had made the greatest impression on a British audience since Boris Becker and the FIFA World Cup in Germany 2006! Standing ovations and encores. They are no longer Germany’s best kept a Cappella secret!

MIX from the University of Colorado Denver, winners of the collegiate A Cappella Competition SoJam 2013 in Raleigh, North Carolina impressed me and obviously the Swingles so much so that they were invited to open for the Swingle’s concert. They took the stage and presented their blend of country and soul combined with a perfect stage performance as  if they had always graced the great stages of the world. They had stepped up their game in 10 weeks and had even Nicholas Girard from the House Jacks lost for words at their awesomeness.

 And then came the Swingles. I had heard them in Stockholm, Raleigh and now here on home ground and this was my most intense experience of their world class singing. They spun my emotional kaleidoscope. My favorites this time were After The Storm with the magnificent Oliver Griffiths on the lead, the heavenly rendition of Debussy’s Clair de Lune and the heart- wrenching mash up of Blackbird/ I Will with the Jo Etson’s soothing English rose mezzo soprano and Oliver Griffiths‘ heartbreaking tenor. A Swingles concert makes me feel as though I’ve had a decadent bath in champagne and cuddled up in silk sheets.

Everyone was on a high afterwards. There were tons hugs, lots of photographing and bonding going on. The a cappella year had gotten off to a grand start and although I had only been there for one day the LACF 2014 I am full of joy and music Thank You all, especially Jessie Hill, Mama LACF. Post Festival Blues are predestined!

When I said that I was going to SoJam, the reactions ranged from „Nice, what is that?“ to „All that way for a weekend of a cappella…On your own???“ It is actually Twitter’s fault. While following Vocalblog, I got caught up in an onslaught of overwhelmingly enthusiastic Tweets from SoJam 2011. Those who know me know that I can also be enthusiastic about things a cappella, but this was a completely new dimension, and it made me curious to see what the hype was about. The seed for my trip was planted.As fate would have it, I was in for six weeks of hardcore a cappella from September on, filled with choir competitions, the Bonner Jazzchor „Bottle This Moment“ CD Release Tour, and culminating in SoJam.So was it worth it? Definitely! Here are my personal highlights:

  1. Finally meeting dear Facebook and Twitter friends – Tone Siwela and Tara Marie Ahn – a cyber SoJam story. I struck up a great a-cappella-based friendship with both of them because of their effervescent 2011 SoJam Tweets, and meeting them in person was like a reunion of dear old friends.
  2. The pre-SoJam meeting at Jimmy V’s with CAL founder Tom Keyes, the A Cappella Recording Guru Bill Hare, Mr Vocalblog himself Florian Stadler, the CASA Ambassador for Ohio and Africa Tone Siwela, and myself …Aca Nerd.  Learning firsthand about the history and purpose of The Contemporary A Cappella League and discussing the regional benefits and the international relevance…Extremely informative…especially when interspersed with travelers‘ anecdotes!
  3. Chucks! This is THE Burger Temple of Raleigh. Try a Dirty South with Sea Island Red Pea Chili, crispy tobacco onions and Ashe County Mountain Cheddar. The owner won’t hesitate to explain where all the ingredients are bred or grown. Delicious!
  4. What does an a cappella ensemble from Singapore do when it realizes that a great fan cannot come to its concert because he can’t close his Chinese restaurant? A flashmob, of course! MICappella sang a beautiful contemporary Chinese song after ordering their food, much to the joy of the restaurant owner and astonishment of the customers. Extremely cool!
  5. UCD MIX. I was excited about the collegiate a cappella competition. I had heard all sorts of things varying from „If you like Beatbox, CPR, and Octavers…“ to „You can’t beat the enthusiasm of these youngsters“…all of which proved to be true! The ones that stood out that night, however, were MIX from the University of Colorado Denver. They were innovative and edgy with strong soloists but still a perfect blend, as well as fantastic drama in choreography that told the story. They practically goldfished me. I could have seen them among the Top 3 in the Vocal Ensemble competition at the Aarhus Vocal Festival. I. Was. Impressed. Needless to say, they won! Congrats!
  6. Hot on the heels of this experience came the MIX Masterclass with the Swingle Singers…great to see how Excellent can become Superb with a few tips on stage presence and tuning from the experts. MIX blew me away with their intensity even without stage props, costumes and microphones. We will hear a lot more from them in the future.
  7. Canadian party a cappella group Eh440 kept the audience entertained between the competition sets. They gave myself and Tone a ride in their car, and we all sang Lionel Richie’s „All Night Long“ in 6 improvised parts on our way to the SoJam After-Party (#carjam), and they even took us in as VIPs! A cappella bonds…just like that!
  8. A customised Vocal Jog for Dee around the Sheraton block with Florian Städler between discussions about EVA and CASA in the quest for an elusive taxi to the North Carolina University campus for the workshops on Veterans‘ Day…. an almost impossible task but we made it.
  9. MICappella…Asian a cappella took the stage by storm last Saturday. Not only are these guys cool to hang out with, their mix of pop, rock and ballads interspersed with stories of myths about Singapore … (They are neither in China, Malaysia nor Japan!!) , crowd approval gestures Asian style, a bass from hell, a mad beatboxer and strong vocalists made for a fired-up audience and good vibes all around. The modern day lighter song, aka „hold-up-your-flashlight-on-your-smartphone“ during a Chinese ballad was literally a brilliant moment for all.
  10. And then came the Swingles. All of a sudden there was a refined, pure, clear, beautiful sound encompassing us all like a tunnel of light shining into a clearing in the forest. The bass and the vocal percussion were defining but not intrusive, balm for my ears… Sara Brimer’s soaring soprano, Clare Wheeler’s unbelievable scats, Oliver Griffiths soul- wrenching tenor, Jo Etson’s refined mezzo… I was moved to tears by the Swingles for the first time, and I have seen them at least 4 times in the last 2 years. Their performance was a display of elite a cappella–aristocracy if you wish–hand-picked and handed down over the 50 years of the group’s existence. Yes, the Swingles totally own their art form!

PS.  Sunday morning brunch at Jimmy V’s … scrambled eggs, sausages and bacon, scones, bagels, fresh fruit and yoghurt, and coffee served in a real cup for the first time in 5 days! How I had missed that. And no, I will not descend into a German rant about Schwarzbrot, but this brunch really compensated for all the fast food and coffee to go.. I could laugh and sing again!