Pitch Perfect now to be a movie

Hollywood Reporter:

Universal hopes to hit just the right note with "Pitch Perfect," acquiring the rights to a nonfiction tome by Mickey Rapkin for Elizabeth Banks to produce. Kay Cannon ("30 Rock") has been tapped to write the adaptation, which Banks will produce with her Brownstone Prods. shingle partner Max Handelman.

Rapkin, senior editor at GQ magazine, spent a season covering competitive collegiate a cappella. He followed the teams from Tuft University, the University of Oregon and the University of Virginia, writing about the singing, groupies, partying and rivalries.

"Pitch" is intended to be a comedy set in that world. Rapkin's book is due out this month via Gotham Books.

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Here's more info about the book from Mickey Rapkin's web site.

Pitch Perfect, written by GQ senior editor Mickey Rapkin, is a behind-the-scenes look at the bizarre, inspiring, and hilarious world of competitive collegiate a cappella. Pitch Perfect (Gotham Books) is on sale May 29th.

A cappella has come a long way in the last one hundred years, evolving from glee clubs into a tradition that is hugely popular, considerably profitable, and much publicized. There are more than 1,200 collegiate a cappella groups in the United States alone. And the good ones, well, it’s not what you think.

Pitch Perfect will take readers inside the a cappella subculture and explores what the proliferation of these amateur—but phenomenally accomplished—groups says about us, our quest for fame, and our taste in music. The story unfolds over the 2006-2007 school year and concerns three groups, each at a crossroads: the legendary Tufts Beelzebubs, the upstart Hullabahoos from the University of Virginia, and the ladies from University of Oregon’s Divisi.

Along the way we’ll run into boldface names like Jessica Biel, President George W. Bush, David Letterman, Nick Lachey, Merv Griffin, Jim Carrey, Harvey Weinstein, Microsoft’s Paul Allen, Prince and more. We’ll meet the father of contemporary a cappella, investigate a New Year’s Eve incident that sent members of a Yale a cappella group to the hospital and made international news, and find out what made Ed Helms from NBC’s The Office quit the Oberlin Obertones after just one semester in college.

"considerably profitable" - I enjoy good spin but Mickey, although I know a lot of folks making a living in a cappella, none is exactly rolling in the dough. Of course I don't know how much you just sold the rights for ;-)

The17 choir

Evening Telegraph (UK):

Petty criminals and prostitutes will be among the first members of the public allowed into Derby's new showpiece arts complex Quad. They will be part of a 1,700 group of city people recruited for a unique performance art project, which will have its premiere at Quad, then be destroyed.

The 1,700 will be split into 100 themed groups, each representing a cross-section of the community. The kind of people the organisers are seeking to fill the groups include petty criminals, sex workers, sumo wrestlers, lawn mower enthusiasts, ghost hunters and Liverpool fans.

Each 17-strong group will go into a studio to record a single note - these will be put together to form a piece of choral music which will be played once in Market Place on August 22 - then deleted.

The 1,700 people will then be invited to step inside the new £10.8m Quad building and enjoy a tour before it opens to the public later in the summer.

Quad is commissioning the work - called The17 - from controversial performance artist Bill Drummond, formerly of pop band KLF.

Read more here

Naturally 7 on Ellen today

Press Release:

Naturally 7 will make their national television debut on ELLEN this Tuesday, May 13th. The Atlanta based, award-winning group have been on tour in the US for the past two months, opening for Michael Buble. Following a short break, the entourage will continue on to Australia, the UK and Europe with solo performances at the renowned Montreux Jazz Festival in July as well as festivals in Canada, this summer.

The performance comes shortly after their appearance at the NARM (National Association of Recording Merchandisers) Gala Dinner, May 7th in San Francisco. The much coveted opportunity put the group before music and entertainment retailers, wholesalers, distributors, record labels, multi-media suppliers and other music industry professionals.

The a cappella/vocal play group did not disappoint. In an audience brimming with industry leaders who have 'seen it all', they quickly rose to their feet, giving Naturally 7 a rousing standing ovation!

It has been a remarkable year and a half for the group. Since the fall of 2007 and the start of the Buble tour, they have performed for over 1.2 million people in Europe, Canada and the US, receiving rave reviews night after night. The Florida Times Union called them "simply superb". The Fort Worth Star-Telegram labeled them "sensational". The Vancouver Province declared they "dazzled the crowd with seemingly supernatural a cappella".

Having attended the NARM GALA dinner in the past I certainly agree that it is a most coveted spot to perform and could well pay major dividends down the road. Roger Thomas called me today and told me about the ELLEN gig and things are going very well indeed for the group. We are so proud of our Sweepstakes champs..

IAJE folds

The International Association for Jazz Education (IAJE) has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and will be turned over to a trustee, its assets parceled out to creditors. This is a blow not only to Jazz educators in this country but around the world, not to mention musicians, others in the music business and fans who derived pleasure from attending the annual IAJE conventions.

At least a part of the problem was an ill-advised return to Toronto in January, where attendance was barely above half the average for conferences in New York City and other venues. Faced with a large cash shortage, the IAJE sent a last-ditch fund-raising letter to its members but brought in only about $12,000, which hardly made a dent in liabilities estimated at more than $1 million. Some are now saying that the IAJE, which held its first conference in 1973, overreached itself, especially with a Campaign for Jazz program that never got off the ground.

In a letter to the membership, IAJE President Chuck Owen wrote in part:
”In the next few days, a Kansas bankruptcy court will appoint a trustee to oversee all ongoing aspects of the association. This includes the ability to examine IAJE's financial records and mount an independent inquiry into the causes of its financial downfall as well as disposing of the remaining assets of the association with proceeds distributed to creditors in accordance with Kansas and Federal law. The board will no longer be involved in operation of the organization and will at some point resign. IAJE as it presently stands will no longer exist.”

Chanticleer tours California's mission era music

Los Angeles Times :

Most California schoolchildren learn the basic facts about the state's mission history in the fourth grade. Established from 1769 to 1823 by Franciscan monks from Spain to spread the Roman Catholic faith among the area's Native American population, the series of strategic-religious outposts spanned 650 miles of California coastline, from San Diego to Sonoma, providing Spain with a powerful presence on the Pacific frontier. Today, these monuments are among the state's oldest buildings and most popular tourist destinations.

Yet despite the importance of the missions to California's development, relatively little is known about the music that formed the backbone of Franciscan rituals and teaching. "The repertoire that was jotted into the mission choir books still remains largely unknown, even to musical historians," says Craig Russell, an expert on Mexican Baroque music at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. "Similarly, the musical archives in Mexico City Cathedral preserve stacks of gorgeous and erudite sacred music that are largely neglected but worthy of professional attention and performance."

This month, however, many Californians' knowledge of this music is due to expand, courtesy of Chanticleer, the San Francisco-based 12-member male vocal ensemble. Beginning Thursday in San Luis Obispo, the Grammy-winning group is undertaking a tour of eight of the 21 missions on the California coast's legendary Camino Real, including two concerts in San Francisco's Mission Dolores, where it made its inaugural public appearance in 1978.

"This music is part of both our history and California history. It forms the artistic and musical fabric of the West Coast," says Joseph Jennings, who joined Chanticleer as a countertenor in 1983 and became its music director in 1984. "The mission composers were way ahead of their time," says Chanticleer vocalist Eric Alatorre. "While on the East Coast people were writing hymns and part songs, in the Latin parts of the country they were composing full Masses and venturing into Classical terrain."

Continue reading this fascinating article.

Jay Leno with BNO

Here's Boyz Nite Out in a photo with Jay Leno from a show this week in Phoenix. The Alley Cats still perform their regular weekly gig with Jay at The Mirage Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas which must mean Jay enjoys a cappella.

A cappella is piping up everywhere

Vanity Fair

A cappella singing flowered during the Renaissance, and it’s been beloved by barbershop quartets, doo-wop daddy-o’s, and collegiate songsters off on a spree since Cole Porter was one of the first Whiffenpoofs at Yale. Today, this silky subgenre of vocal music (performed without instrumental accompaniment) has an ever bigger foothold in the culture, from pop to rock, to classical, and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing arts, in Washington DC, is honouring that reality with a 10-day festival, “Singing Solo,” May 28 through June 6. The series includes free concerts on the Center’s Millennium Stage by the likes of Sweet Honey in the Rock, the U.S. Army Chorus, and the U.S. Navy Sea Chanters.

The highlight is a June 1 Show led by Bobby McFerrin and featuring a range of topflight groups including Ladysmith Black Mambazo, the Grammy, Emmy, and Academy Award-Winning South African ensemble that shot to fame on Paul Simon’s Graceland album. Meanwhile, Mickey Rapkin is coming out with a book, Pitch Perfect: The Quest for Collegiate A Cappella Glory (Gotham), which chronicles a year in the life of three ensembles around the country, interwoven with decades of lore (Jessica Biel was rejected by the Tufts Amalgamates, Brooke Shields by my alma mater’s group, the Princeton Katzenjammers). Even Hollywood is blowing its pitch pipe: J.J. Abrams, the hotshot writer-producer-director behind Alias and Lost, has an untitled a cappella project in the works.

Germany's Vocaldente wins the Harmony Sweeps

It was a truly glorious evening of unaccompanied vocal harmony singing at the National Finals of the Harmony Sweepstakes this past Saturday evening. Each and every group were in top form and who, perhaps because of the added excitement of the competition, sang and performed surely one of their best sets ever. Plus our knowledgeable, appreciative and supportive audience certainly added to the electricity that ran throughout the auditorium that night.

The 2008 National Champs are Vocaldente, winners of the Mid-Atlantic regional, who hail from Hanover, Germany and are now the second international winners of the event (2003 winners The Idea of North are from Australia). And what great champs Vocaldente are as they epitomize all the qualities we so enjoy in our winners. They are talented singers, have a great arranger in Tobias Kiel and are some of the most natural and entertaining performers (of any type) I have seen in years. They are also very, very funny! The Sweeps tradition of discovering a relatively unknown, immensely talented vocal harmony group continues and one who we will help make the most of this opportunity to build a large fan base and create more performances opportunities in the US.

The various camera crews and producers from Intuitive Entertainment, who are creating the “sizzle reel” for Sony, were a delight to work with and they were most pleased with the footage they shot (over 15 hours worth throughout the day).

Congratulations to all the performing groups who to a person were fun to work with and all of whom had the spirit that helps make the Harmony Sweeps so special. Next year is the big 25th anniversary season. We hope to see you all there!!

National Champions - Vocaldente
2nd - Where's Gesualdo?
3rd - Legacy

Audience Favorite - Vocaldente

Best original arrangement - "High and Dry" Lee Abe, Syncopation
Best original song - "Ain't had None of That Yet" - Stephen Saxon, Where's Gesualdo?

See the complete set list.

Music from Baudboys, Microsoft's a cappella group

Seattle Times (WA):

While it may not score them points at their next performance review, the men of Microsoft's a cappella group, the Baudboys, have met their goal. About five years ago, the programmers-cum-pop singers started reinventing their sound with an eye on the Harmony Sweepstakes, billed as the "premier American showcase for vocal harmony music."

"We kind of got the idea that we could, if we dedicated ourselves, compete with this," said Dave McEwen, the group's president and a bass/baritone (and a content project manager in Microsoft's Developer and Platform Evangelism group). "So we wrote down our goals, in typical Microsoft fashion, and used it as a cyclical iteration to make ourselves better." They won the Northwest regional event and will compete Saturday in the national tournament.

The group, which split off from another company singing group called the Microtones in the early 1990s, performed to a packed atrium on the corporate campus Wednesday. "How cool for Microsoft to have something like that coming from within the ranks," said Shari Fowler, an employee who spent her lunch hour watching the concert.

The Baudboys, whose name is derived from a measurement of modem speeds, played a set ranging from serene Ladysmith Black Mambazo to a brazenly geeky arrangement of "Gonna Make You Happy (Tonight)," written by an Australian comedy trio called Tripod.

A few of the lyrics:

Before we get down to love, before we get down
I just gotta finish this level
You see I got a high score tonight
And I just wanna save my game
Well I'll be with you in a minute sweet darling baby honey
I love how you dance for me
Could you move a little to the left baby
I can see the TV, oh, hey
Baby I can't wait 'til we start
Its just that the safe points are quite far apart, in this game baby
Ooh la la la la la la la
This parts got a multiplayer section honey
Maybe you could operate a taurant with me, would you like that baby?
Games give you hand-eye coordination especially intelligence together with map reading skills, oh sugar

Fowler and the rest of the audience cracked up. "It's perfect for the Northwest because there's so many gamers here and everybody knows that scene if they've got a husband that's into the gaming world," she said.

The Baudboys practice once a week, sometimes more when they're preparing for a performance. They know the conference rooms around campus with the best acoustics (and with no neighboring offices). They sing to their fellow employees about twice a year and do many more concerts in the community at senior centers, schools and sports events.