Now You Know: The Story of the Four Freshmen

Rating:
Summary: Four-ever
Review: I never want to have to stop reading this book. I love it

Rating:
Summary: Four-ever
Review: I never want to have to stop reading this book. I love it

Rating:
Summary: BETTER LATE THAN NOT KNOWING
Review: My copy was the first edition, published 1995. Since then there have been two or three MORE Freshmen personnel changes, resulting in (sez Bob Flanigan, and he ought to know)"the best vocal blend in our(Four Freshmen)history." This is both the strength of the book and the weakness of any 52-year-old vocal group: the almost mandatory changes, and the tough task of keeping track of the whys and wherefores. This Ross Barbour does to perfection.

Barbour also intends "Now You Know" as a personal paean and thank-you to the late Stan Kenton, and this he brings off with class and accuracy. Life on the road for a jazz group, a necessary evil if they want to maintain recording contracts and sales, has eaten up the best, Kenton included. (The joker in the deck is, jazz itself does not "sell" in America, at least not in sufficient strength to afford its musicians more time at home with families.)

The Four Freshmen, we learn, were free of drugs, although booze is hinted at, and both certainly were problems with Kenton and his bands through the years. The FF, like the Kenton outfits, have largely been white guys (and girls) singing and playing for mostly white fans, and this has been a knock over the years, at least on Kenton. None of this is touched on in "Now You Know," perhaps wisely.

But no matter. As a chronology of the sound and the songs, "Now You Know" is must reading for every serious jazz fan.

Rating:
Summary: BETTER LATE THAN NOT KNOWING
Review: My copy was the first edition, published 1995. Since then there have been two or three MORE Freshmen personnel changes, resulting in (sez Bob Flanigan, and he ought to know)"the best vocal blend in our(Four Freshmen)history." This is both the strength of the book and the weakness of any 52-year-old vocal group: the almost mandatory changes, and the tough task of keeping track of the whys and wherefores. This Ross Barbour does to perfection.

Barbour also intends "Now You Know" as a personal paean and thank-you to the late Stan Kenton, and this he brings off with class and accuracy. Life on the road for a jazz group, a necessary evil if they want to maintain recording contracts and sales, has eaten up the best, Kenton included. (The joker in the deck is, jazz itself does not "sell" in America, at least not in sufficient strength to afford its musicians more time at home with families.)

The Four Freshmen, we learn, were free of drugs, although booze is hinted at, and both certainly were problems with Kenton and his bands through the years. The FF, like the Kenton outfits, have largely been white guys (and girls) singing and playing for mostly white fans, and this has been a knock over the years, at least on Kenton. None of this is touched on in "Now You Know," perhaps wisely.

But no matter. As a chronology of the sound and the songs, "Now You Know" is must reading for every serious jazz fan.

Rating:
Summary: Music of 50's-60's
Review: This is the book for you if you first fell in love in the 50's or 60's. It gives you a time line, from the perspective of one of the original Four Freshmen, of what went on in those great years. Love songs were really love songs. The Four Freshmen have put together a book of music that covers the whole spectrum - not just 50's & 60's, but right into the year 2000 with the 21st group combination still out there singing (they are a lot younger now - 20's & 30's - but haven't lost the blend of voices that made them a favorite on jazzman Stan Kenton). Ross Barbour chronicles the whole thing and, if you were there, you can't help thinking back to what you were doing at a particular moment. It's not fancy writing, but hits home - hard.

Rating:
Summary: Music of 50's-60's
Review: This is the book for you if you first fell in love in the 50's or 60's. It gives you a time line, from the perspective of one of the original Four Freshmen, of what went on in those great years. Love songs were really love songs. The Four Freshmen have put together a book of music that covers the whole spectrum - not just 50's & 60's, but right into the year 2000 with the 21st group combination still out there singing (they are a lot younger now - 20's & 30's - but haven't lost the blend of voices that made them a favorite on jazzman Stan Kenton). Ross Barbour chronicles the whole thing and, if you were there, you can't help thinking back to what you were doing at a particular moment. It's not fancy writing, but hits home - hard.