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''For the Irish showband, see The Freshmen (band)'' The Four Freshmen is an American male vocal band quartet that blends open-harmonic jazz arrangements with the big band vocal group sounds of The Modernaires (Glenn Miller), The Pied Pipers (Tommy Dorsey), and The Mel-Tones (Artie Shaw), founded in the barbershop tradition. The Four Freshmen is considered a vocal band because the singers accompany themselves on guitar, horns, bass, and drums, among other instrumental configurations. The last original member retired in 1993,〔"A Visit with Bob Flanigan of The Four Freshmen" with Sun City Anthem's Channel 99's music editor, Yvonne Cloutier〕 but the group still tours internationally and has recorded jazz harmonies since its late 1940s founding in the halls of the Jordan School of Music at Butler University (Indianapolis). ==Beginnings and early success== In early 1948, brothers Ross and Don Barbour, then at Butler University's Arthur Jordan Conservatory in Indianapolis, Indiana, formed a barbershop quartet called Hal's Harmonizers. The Harmonizers also included Marvin Pruitt—soon replaced by Ross and Don's cousin Bob Flanigan—and Hal Kratzsch (1925–70), replaced in 1953 by Ken Errair. The quartet soon adopted a more jazz-oriented repertoire and renamed itself the Toppers. At first, they were influenced by Glenn Miller's The Modernaires and Mel Tormé's Mel-Tones, but soon developed their own style of improvised vocal harmony. In September 1948, the quartet went on the road as The Four Freshmen, and soon drew the admiration of jazz legends such as Dizzy Gillespie and Woody Herman. On March 21, 1950, The Four Freshmen got a break when band leader Stan Kenton heard the quartet in Dayton, Ohio's, Esquire Lounge. He "had been told at his own show earlier that night about a quartet in town that sounded like his 43-piece ensemble",〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=The Four Freshman - Inductees - The Vocal Group Hall of Fame Foundation )〕 and was sufficiently impressed that he arranged for an audition with his label, Capitol Records, which signed them later that year. The demo included "Laura", "Basin' Street Blues", "Dry Bones" and two other songs.〔 Later in 1950, they released a single, "Mr. B's Blues", and appeared in their first and only film, ''Rich, Young and Pretty''.〔 The Freshmen released another single in 1951, '"Now You Know", which was not a commercial success. Later in the year Capitol rejected their proposed next single, "It's a Blue World", and dropped them from the label. In May of the following year, a furious Stan Kenton demanded that the record company send them the demo tapes so that they could promote the song themselves.〔 They managed to get the song onto the radio, and in 1952, "It's a Blue World" became their first charted single, and Capitol re-signed the group in July of the same year.〔 In 1953, Hal Kratzsch, tired of touring, asked the group to replace him, and they selected Ken Errair. Their single to chart was "It Happened Once Before", and the year ended with them winning the Down Beat poll as Best Jazz Vocal Group of 1953.〔 In 1954, the Freshmen recorded their first album, ''Voices in Modern''; "Mood Indigo", a single from this album, charted.〔 The following year, they released "How Can I Tell Her" and "Charmaine", followed by "Graduation Day" in 1956.〔 Their album ''Four Freshmen and 5 Trombones'' "set the standard for modern jazz vocal groups" and reached number 6.〔 After only a short time with the group, Ken Errair left the band to get married, and was replaced by Ken Albers.〔 Around this time, the group also started playing at college auditoriums and pursuing a younger audience.〔 In 1960, the Freshmen recorded "Their Hearts Were Full of Spring", a song which, with different lyrics, later became The Beach Boys' "A Young Man Is Gone"〔 in 1963. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Four Freshmen」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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