[Dixielandjazz] The Four Freshmen previewed

[Robert Ringwald]

Forever Young Freshmen Bring Their Touch to Legacy
by Lawrence B. Johnson
Detroit News, July 14, 2011
Watching the Four Freshmen in their timeless act, you'd never guess they've been
around for three generations. These guys look so, um, fresh.
The Fountain of Youth joke is something the current Freshmen hear a lot, says drummer
Bob Ferreira, 41, who appears with the endlessly young, ever-popular group this weekend
at the Dirty Dog Jazz Cafe in Grosse Pointe Farms.
The current quartet continues a lineage from 20 previous singers who have sustained
the Four Freshmen without interruption since the group was organized in 1948. The
last original member to perform with the group, Bob Flanigan, retired in 1992. He
died in May at age 84.
"It's a great legacy," says Ferreira, "but we never think of ourselves as a nostalgia
group. While we stick to the great American songbook, the dynamic changes. We are
who we are, and we're not trying to be the original Freshmen."
A self-contained vocal band, the four singers also provide their own instrumental
accompaniment. Beside Ferreira on drums, it's Brian Eichenberger on guitar, Curtis
Calderon on trumpet and flugelhorn, and Vince Johnson on string bass.
Critics have long debated what label to stick on the Freshmen. They are typically
tagged as a jazz group for their sophisticated arrangements and close harmonies.
What they are not, says Ferreira, is easy-listening.
"There's nothing easy about what we do," the drummer says with a laugh. "We sing
very complex harmonies. We don't really fall into any one category. Maybe we're a
sub-idiom of jazz."
Call it by whatever name you like, says Ferreira, the music of the Four Freshmen
is best experienced live. "The dynamic is always different on stage, as individuals
and for the group as a whole," he says. "People tell us we're as good as the original
Freshmen, but that's really apples and oranges. We have our own youthful energy.
"But we also take pride in the legacy. We still work from the American songbook and
classic jazz standards, songs that never go away, from (composers) like Cole Porter.
Great artists have validated the beauty and permanence of these songs -- singers
like Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra and Julie London. These songs have something
magical about them, something that has lasted through generations."
This is the Four Freshmen's fourth appearance at the Dirty Dog, and Ferreira says
the club's intimacy is ideal for their show.
"It's a beautiful club, very classy," he says. "It's like some clubs we play in Japan
where the people are right in front of you and you feel that direct connection. But
we work everything from the smallest jazz clubs to concert halls with symphony orchestras.
If people come and enjoy, that's all that matters -- for any artist."


--Bob Ringwald
www.ringwald.com
Fulton Street Jazz Band
530/ 642-9551 Office
916/ 806-9551 Cell
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