I'm not terribly familiar with Ben Folds' work, though I have enjoyed a couple of tracks that his group, Ben Folds Five, has contributed to compilation albums over the years. Yesterday, Folds released a striking approach to his past work with BEN FOLDS PRESENTS: UNIVERSITY A CAPELLA! It's exactly what you would expect from the title: a bunch of university a capella choirs performing his music. While I haven't finished listening to the entire thing, there is already one performance that has literally rocked my world--The Sacramento State Jazz Singers performing "Selfless, Cold, and Composed." It's a brilliant choral performance, and happily you can catch it on YouTube here:
Perhaps it's not for everyone--I'm admittedly a huge fan of choral music and have always been entranced by the power of harmonizing voices writ large--but I can't imagine failing to recognize how kickass this rendition is, between the insistent sung percussion lines and thick, gorgeous unison chords backing really lovely featured vocals. Simply astounding!
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