The Sacramento State Jazz Singers will be featured on an a cappella album put together by Ben Folds from the group Ben Folds Five. The ensemble, an advanced vocal group in the jazz music department, was one of the 18 groups chosen out of more than 200 applicants.

Kerry Marsh, jazz music professor and the ensemble adviser, heard about the competition through professional singer Don Gooding. The album will be composed of various a cappella groups from different universities singing their own versions of his songs.

Marsh quickly made an arrangement of Folds’ song, “Selfless, Cold and Composed.” He slowed down the tempo and added some soulful flares to the original.

The 16 students in the ensemble practiced the song twice before recording it at their third practice. The vocal percussions, more commonly known as beat-boxing, were done by Antoinette “Butterscotch” Clinton. Clinton is the 2007 West Coast beat box champion, as well as a previous Sac State student. She was in the area to visit her parents from Los Angeles, and joined the group for the recording.

Kate Janzen, senior vocal jazz and classical composition major, filmed the recording and posted it on YouTube. She said she received many responses and even one from Folds himself saying he loved the rendition and asking for a contact number.

Word spread quickly through the jazz department. “We’re a pretty tight-knit family,” Janzen said.

Everyone was ecstatic. “It’s a special experience,” said Glynis Davies, senior vocal jazz major.

Davies sang with the group, but was pessimistic of their chances to win a spot on the album. A longtime Ben Folds Five fan, she couldn’t believe that Folds was reaching out in such a way.

“It’s so cool Ben Folds actually cares about these university groups,” Davies said.

The recording had no overdubs, and was very cut and straight to the point. Folds seemed to appreciate this, and kept the original recording instead of having the group re-record with him in the studio.

“The re-harmonization is insane!” Folds said about the group in a blog entry on his Myspace.com page. “I seriously doubt we could have improved on them to have come limping in with our equipment for re-recording,” Folds said.

The group was disappointed not to be able to meet Folds in person, but was more than satisfied with what they achieved.

Folds’ vocals were sung by female soloists to separate the group from others who generally had men sing Folds’ part. The singers were required to learn their parts before coming to rehearsal, so the group could focus on blending their voices together, and tackling the re-harmonization in the middle of the song.

“To my knowledge, no other vocal jazz ensembles entered the contest, and so we had sort of a special sound when compared with the field,” Marsh said.

Folds decided to put together an album after he saw various YouTube videos of different university students singing a cappella versions of his songs.

“Rather than strike out against them for copyright infringement, he embraced their performances, which he saw as coming from a place of appreciation for his writing and artistry….” Marsh said. The proceeds from the album will go to VH1’s charity, Save the Music.

Ian Brekke, senior vocal jazz major, was surprised at the feedback about the song and video. “For us, it’s almost a commonplace thing, a common arrangement,” Brekke said. He said it doesn’t feel like a big deal when you’re doing it; he was caught off guard by its popularity.

“It hits you more and more as people start to see it,” Brekke said, “It becomes almost viral.”

The Sac State jazz music department contains three groups, Vox 2, C-Sus (pronounced SEE-sus) and Jazz Singers. Each group practices three times a week for an hour a day. Vox 2 is the beginning group, C-Sus is the intermediate and Jazz Singers is the advanced group, usually composed of seniors about to graduate from the jazz music program.

All the groups, under Marsh’s direction, won the top three places at the Reno Jazz Festival for best college vocal jazz groups. Jazz Singers won first place, C-Sus second and Vox 2 third place. In addition, the Jazz Singers were chosen for the Down Beat magazine award for best college vocal jazz group in 2008. Down Beat is a premier jazz magazine.

The album does not yet have a release date, but is in the final stages of production.

To see the video of them performing, follow this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kB9hjYLkTMg.

Anne Morrison can be reached at [email protected].