The singer-songwriter Ben Folds sounded a call last fall to collegiate vocal groups everywhere: “I’m making an album of a cappella versions of my music to be performed by the best university groups we can find.”
Mr. Folds, formerly of the platinum-selling Ben Folds Five, had stumbled onto a raft of YouTube videos of his songs performed a cappella. Impressed by what he saw, he announced his plan to showcase the often-overlooked genre on a compilation album.
He invited college groups to post videos of their performances online and send him the links. About 250 groups responded, and Mr. Folds painstakingly winnowed them to 14 — including one high-school ensemble. When his European tour with the Counting Crows was conveniently canceled, he scheduled a frenetic recording tour of the United States, stopping by each campus for a four-hour session.
The unyielding timetable, says Mr. Folds, meant that the songs “would have to be done extremely live and extremely real.” But live and raw was the quality he was striving for.
“There’s a feeling you get when it’s right,” says Mr. Folds, a tenor. “There’s just a golden light that comes off the record player, and that was hit making back when the recording industry started.”
The compilation, Ben Folds Presents: University A Cappella!, is scheduled for release in April. It will benefit VH1’s Save the Music Foundation, which seeks to return instrumental-music education to schools.
Among the groups that will appear on the CD is the University of Rochester’s Midnight Ramblers.
Early in December, Mr. Folds assembled a makeshift studio in Rochester’s student union and recorded the Ramblers’ rendition of his band’s 1999 hit “Army.” The session took place amid great secrecy so as not to attract a gaggle of star-struck fans — even though some of the Ramblers admit having felt that way themselves initially.
“We were sort of wigging out” upon first seeing the musician, says Asher C.N. Perzigian, the group’s general manager.
Nick J. Hamlin, the Ramblers’ soloist on “Army,” adds some perspective. “Here we are standing in this room performing for the person who created the song,” he says.
Mr. Folds was equally impressed with the students. His record company required him to contribute two songs of his own to the CD, and he admits that it took him “tens of hours” to accomplish what the students did in two.
“They were all totally pro,” he says.
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THE LUCKY 14
These groups will appear on Ben Folds’s album:
Jazz Singers, California State U. at Sacramento
Newtones, Newton (Mass.) South High School
Leading Tones, Ohio U.
Nassoons, Princeton U.
Voices in Your Head, U. of Chicago
CU Buffoons, U. of Colorado at Boulder
With Someone Else’s Money, U. of Georgia
Loreleis, U. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Spartones, U. of North Carolina at Greensboro
Midnight Ramblers, U. of Rochester
Fifth Element, U. of Wisconsin at Eau Claire
Amateurs, Washington U. in St. Louis
Mosaic Whispers, Washington U. in St. Louis
Gracenotes, West Chester U. of Pennsylvania
http://chronicle.com Section: Short Subjects Volume 55, Issue 27, Page A6