On a perfect May Saturday night in San Rafael, CA, the sold-out audience witnessed another unbelievable evening of unaccompanied vocal harmony singing. Eight Regional winners were up on stage, singing their hearts out for the fans and the judges, with the National Championship on the line. The best 18 songs of the night, including from local favorites the folk/world female ensemble Solstice with "Wade in the Water" and the dynamic "Kappee." A pair of songs from Audience Favorites Denver's "Face," includes the gritty, powerful rocker "Home," that won them 2nd Place. Three tracks from the evening's winners National Champs from Los Angeles, Moira Smiley & VOCO with the folk tune "Bring Me Little Water, Silvie," "Szerelem" and the lovely, moving "Stand in that River." Other favorites are New York's The Fault Line's "Some Kind of Wonderful;" the Pacific NW's V-Chords' "Don't You Worry 'Bout a Thing', Boston's Men in Black's "Run Around" and Chicago's Nightwatch's very funny "Defying Gravity." And let us not forget host group 2006 Champions Hi-Fidelity (hey, that's 2 in a row for L.A.!), whose "Enterprise/Sulu Medley" reminds us how brilliant and funny they can be.

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The sound of Lubbock, TX-based Contemporary Christian all-male a cappella quartet has been compared to groups like Take 6, Acappella and Rockapella. Particularly fine among these 10 songs are three written by group member and producer Josh Wheeler, "Preach the Word," "Make a Difference" and the inspirational "I Will Praise Your Name" and group member Jake Lierman's "How Can I." Other favorites are the upbeat "Livin' on the Edge," "Who is Here" and "Without Love;" the moving "Beautiful Lamb," "Beautiful Like This" and "Now to Him," with music by Keith Lancaster. Every cut of "Legacy" is strong, sung with power and feeling by this talented, committed quartet. One of the best we have heard this year!

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2008 Chicago Regionals winner, all male Contemporary quintet 5one (which refers to the strongest cadence found in Western music), hails from Decatur, Illinois' Millikin University. We just had the pleasure of seeing 5one's dynamic set at the Harmony Sweeps National Finals, and the crowd gave a strong ovation to songs like the Animals' "House of the Rising Sun," which is here on "Get It." Other favorites among these 10 songs are a sweet cover of the Beach Boys' "Surfer Girl," Lennon/McCartney's "Come Together" and "Drive My Car," Roy Orbison's "Pretty Woman," "Stand By Me," "People Change," "Fallin' Over You" and "Up The Ladder." 5one puts their personal stamp on each of these covers with cutting-edge arrangements, tight vocal percussion and spirited harmonies. This fast-rising group gained many new fans at the Finals, and "Get It" is a strong, head-turning debut CD for them. Good stuff, guys!

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Founded in 2002, all-women Dutch Vocal Jazz quartet Velvet Voices has been appearing in some serious European and international events, like the 2003 Voice Mania in Vienna, the Jeunesse‹the largest German a cappella festival in Munich), and they won the Jazz Gold at the international "Ward Swingle Awards." There are 11 finely-crafted tunes on "Essence," the group's 5th excellent album, some wonderful covers like Lennon/McCartney's "Come Together," Duke Ellington's "Don't Get Around Much Anymore," Cy Coleman's "With every breath I take," Freddie Mercury's "You take my breath away," Brown, Sutton and Brody's "Stop," a fine faux trumpet solo on Harold Arlen's "Somewhere over the rainbow," Jones and Wilder's "A child is born," and Paul Jabara and Paul Shaffer's "It's raining man." There's also a pair of very nice originals by group member Gerda, the moody "Try to remember" and "Quarter to five," and one original by group member Monika, the title tune. Each of these beautiful young women can easily sing perfect solos and leads, so even a difficult, dissonant piece like "A child is born" comes off as effortless, and the harmonies are clean, sharp and on perfect pitch. Even a powerful rocker like "It's raining man," which is reprised as a surprise bonus cut with amped-up vocal percussion, is cleanly nailed both times with no sweat. The voices here are so perfect, the sound so effortlessly clean, we had to listen to it again just to fully appreciate it. "Essence" is a gift for the ears by the Velvet Voices, who have, in a very short time, risen to a level attained by only a few elite Vocal Jazz groups, like the Real Group, Vox One and the Swingle Singers. Treat yourself to one of the best of the year!

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Surprise National Champs of the 2008 Harmony Sweepstakes Finals, all-male German quintet Vocaldente, appearing last after very strong sets by the previous seven Regionals winners, quickly got the crowd laughing and on their feet applauding at the end. They easily won Audience Favorite, and it was no surprise when the judges awarded them first place. The title tune of this excellent CD, Cole Porter's "Let's Misbehave," was their opening number, is beautifully done here, as is Kenny Loggins' "Footloose," the group's encore performance. Other winning covers are Vanessa Carlton's "A Thousand Miles," George Michaels' "Faith," the Rat Pack favorite "Everybody Loves Somebody" (here mimicking Dean Martin's rendition of the song), Freddie Mercury's "Don't Stop Me Now," a silly faux-ukelele version of Dion's "The Wanderer," and a tongue-in-cheek spoof of Abba's deathless "Mama Mia." Vocaldente sings all these songs (with the exception of "3-Tage Bart," which is in German) in very good English, but their strength is in their innocent, non self-conscious humor, which is not at all harmed by their unexpected and charming German accents. The sweet, pure falsettos, faux horns, strings and other instruments, comic asides and samples (like one from Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" at the end of "Mama Mia") combined with their totally deadpan posing and pretending to play their faux instruments, are all, quite simply, hilarious. While we're laughing at this, we're noticing that their stuff is amazingly arranged (by group members Tobias and Oliver) and that they are top-drawer professional singers and vocal percussionists. From seeing them live, it's also clear that they are having big fun up there, and so are we. Two kinds of genius come together here, comic and musical, to award-winning effect!

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Naturally 7 brought their unique style of Vocal Play to Montreux in 2007. These seven incredibly talented singers from New York manage to sound like a full band without the use of any instruments other than their voices and have been wowing audiences around the world. This concert marked Naturally 7's first appearance at the festival and their distinctive arrangements of tracks such as :In The Air Tonight", "Broken Wings", and "Sounds Of Silence" marked a new chapter in their ongoing success story.

Individually, they are five phenomenal and distinctive vocalists: Theo Bleckmann, the effusive German-American Meistersinger known for his brilliant collaborations with Meredith Monk; Peter Eldridge, a eclectic vocalist, composer, and member of the New York Voices; Lauren Kinhan, known for her charismatic voice, genre bending originals, and her dedicated years as a member of the New York Voices; Kate McGarry, a vocal polymath at home with the folk tradition and the Big Apple bandstand; Luciana Souza, the Brazilian whose repertoire ranges from bossa novas and Elizabeth Bishop to Steely Dan. Together, they are MOSS, A vocal supergroup that intertwines jazz, classical, pop, folk, electronica, world music, and poetry into an arresting and unique sonic species of art. A typical vocal jazz record follows a formula: some up-tempo tunes, plenty of moody ballads and a vocalist reaching for the unique without leaving the familiar. The vocal dream team Moss has thrown out the old formula on their new self-titled CD. Not to be pigeon holed, these master vocalists supply their own unique originals along with a bevy of thoughtful arrangements of not so standard tunes (including pieces by Tom Waits, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and e.e. cummings). Throughout this exceptional recording, the vocal quintet's contrapuntal harmonies, silken phrasing, and soulful improvisations, traverse and morph genres with ease and invention. 'Hopefully, each song reveals the curiosity and uniqueness of each voice," Luciana Souza writes in the CD liner notes, 'and the wonderful and intangible thing that happens when a group of friends blend their voices and sensibilities into one."

Mixed Vocal Jazz quartet Syncopation represented Boston well at the recent Harmony Sweeps Finals in San Rafael, CA, winning a strong ovation from the sellout crowd for songs like the sweet, soaring "High and Dry," which is here on "Wonderful You." There are 9 songs here, our favorites are the a cappella songs, Joni Mitchell's "Both Sides Now" and the aforementioned "High and Dry." Of the others, "Invisible War," lightly piano-accompanied, is very nice, as are the more heavily accompanied songs "Breakout," "I Can Fly," the title tune (from The Big Chill), Lennon/McCartney's "Broken Wings" the Motown tune "Betcha By Golly, Wow" and "Getaway." Beautiful leads, harmonies and arrangements, but let us once again make it clear that "Wonderful You" is mostly an accompanied album.

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The Notre Dame Glee Club is a music tradition that began at the University in 1915. Since 1993, Daniel Stowe has led the Glee Club in world-wide tours with great success. Today, Glee Club repertoire is not just football songs, sea shanties and the alma mater theme. In recent years, the choir has been trimmed in numbers to 55 select singers, and their repertoire now focuses upon a wider range of styles: from German art songs, American spirituals, Russian Orthodox, Baroque and Renaissance sacred music, to Barbershop harmony and folk music from nations of the world. The Glee Club's versatility is showcased in the wide variety of genres on this disc.. The musicianship of the Glee Club is all the more remarkable when considering that the Glee Club is a volunteer ensemble, operating independently from music degree programs. Recorded in spring 2007, in the finely-tuned acoustic of Leighton Concert Hall in the newly-finished DiBartolo Performing Arts Center on the campus of University of Notre Dame.