Acappella Greasy Granny by Charlie Hunter

Sorry for the horrible graininess of this video. It's been converted to different formats several times, and gets worse and worse. But finally it's in an uploadable format thanks to movtowmv.com

Recorded at the outdoor stage of the YMCA Jones Gulch Camp in La Honda, California. Sometime around 1999 or 2000, I attended Jazz Camp West, a fantastic week of camping, jazz education, jamming, faculty concerts by jazz legends, ping pong, and open mics. My intention was to get a sextet of singers together to sing an arrangement of Charlie Hunter's great tune, "Greasy Granny," that I wrote for acappella group RoShamBo, especially since Dave Ellis, the saxophonist on the original recording, was teaching that year. Luckily, I knew all these singers from their reputations, although I'd only sung with Paul Daniels (my roommate at the time) and Will Flash before. We rehearsed a couple of times, and sang it on Tuesday or Wednesday, fairly early in the week. It was an incredible honor to sing with these vocal hotshots. A moment I'll never forget was getting congratulated by an ecstatic Dave Ellis himself at the end! Soundman is the great Jeff Cressman.

From left to right:
Paul Kim - arranger, and I reserved our open mic time
Will Flash - tenor and the voice of Microsoft LiveMeeting, helped get me interested in jazz
Paul Cingolani - tenor, and local acappella super-stud
Denine Monet - soprano, songwriter, and sadly has only recorded one (albeit fantastic) CD
Paul Daniels - falsetto champ, asst. conductor of the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir, amazing songwriter, and also sadly has only recorded one (also fantastic) CD
Jay Quibodeaux - outstanding bass singer, outstanding bass player, I wanna be like Jay

also: woman's voice at the end of the video - Ellen Hoffman, composer, teacher, prolific jazz and classical pianist, co-founder of RCI which produces Jazz Camp West, co-founder of the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir, and a major influence on my pursuing a music degree. Thanks Ellen!

Category:

Music

Tags:

• jazz
• camp
• west
• charlie
• hunter
• dave
• ellis
• cingolani
• quibodeaux
• acappella
• paul
• kim

[Kelrizzo]

That's pretty amazing. Well done guys!

[crosswick]

Awesome! :-)

[KBlazer7]

Nice!!! Long live Jazz Camp!!!

[snaarky1]

wow

[jimlapbap]

That was like the ASIA of a cappella, great stuff.