The Bowties, a local six-person a cappella group, will premiere their new CD “Black Tie Optional” at 8 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 20, at a CD release party at the Lovin’ Cup near RIT in Henrietta.
The CD is a compilation of 15 songs from their repertoire, which covers doo-wop to rock to jazz, many in five or six-part harmony. It includes their popular live version of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” performed in February 2011 at Kodak Hall at Eastman Theater.
The Bowties started singing together as an all-male a cappella group in 1997. Originally the group had eight singers, but reduced the size to six in 1999. In 2006 they released their first CD, “Untied.” Over the past few years, two of the founding members moved from the area.
After an extensive search the group added two new members, Brighton’s John Langfitt and jazz vocalist Madeline Forster, a Fairport native who also sings in clubs around Rochester and Toronto.
The group regularly sings at local events like Pittsford Candle Lighting, Fairport Canal Days, the Clothesline Festival, and the Park Ave. Festival. In July, they performed before an audience of about 7,000 at Perinton’s Center Stage for Perinton’s 200th anniversary, opening for the RPO. They are also a favorite act at the Little Theater Café in Rochester, and will be featured on Oct. 23 at the Little’s annual Fund Raising Gala.
Langfitt, who is a neurosphychologist at Strong and professor at the University of Rochester’s River Campus by day, talked about being one of the group’s newest members over coffee during an Oct. 4 interview.
Why is the CD called “Black Tie Optional?”
The group started out as an all male sextet. The person who joined right before me is a young local jazz singer named Madeline. All the rest of us are in our 50s and 60s. Maddy is young, 24 or 25. As a soprano, she completely changes the range of arrangements we can do.
The idea behind “Black Tie Optional” is that the cover is this cartoon graphic of five black bow ties around a microphone, and then we have one shorter pink bow tie, just to acknowledge her addition to the group.
How did you get involved with The Bowties?
Every two years they have a big concert here in town at Eastman called the Prism Concert, where there are about 20 different vocal groups that perform, and they scatter them all over the Eastman Theater. There are no introductions or anything like that. One group just gets up and sings. When they sit down the next group gets up and sings.
The Bowties, a local six-person a cappella group, will premiere their new CD “Black Tie Optional” at 8 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 20, at a CD release party at the Lovin’ Cup near RIT in Henrietta.
The CD is a compilation of 15 songs from their repertoire, which covers doo-wop to rock to jazz, many in five or six-part harmony. It includes their popular live version of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” performed in February 2011 at Kodak Hall at Eastman Theater.
The Bowties started singing together as an all-male a cappella group in 1997. Originally the group had eight singers, but reduced the size to six in 1999. In 2006 they released their first CD, “Untied.” Over the past few years, two of the founding members moved from the area.
After an extensive search the group added two new members, Brighton’s John Langfitt and jazz vocalist Madeline Forster, a Fairport native who also sings in clubs around Rochester and Toronto.
The group regularly sings at local events like Pittsford Candle Lighting, Fairport Canal Days, the Clothesline Festival, and the Park Ave. Festival. In July, they performed before an audience of about 7,000 at Perinton’s Center Stage for Perinton’s 200th anniversary, opening for the RPO. They are also a favorite act at the Little Theater Café in Rochester, and will be featured on Oct. 23 at the Little’s annual Fund Raising Gala.
Langfitt, who is a neurosphychologist at Strong and professor at the University of Rochester’s River Campus by day, talked about being one of the group’s newest members over coffee during an Oct. 4 interview.
Why is the CD called “Black Tie Optional?”
The group started out as an all male sextet. The person who joined right before me is a young local jazz singer named Madeline. All the rest of us are in our 50s and 60s. Maddy is young, 24 or 25. As a soprano, she completely changes the range of arrangements we can do.
The idea behind “Black Tie Optional” is that the cover is this cartoon graphic of five black bow ties around a microphone, and then we have one shorter pink bow tie, just to acknowledge her addition to the group.
How did you get involved with The Bowties?
Every two years they have a big concert here in town at Eastman called the Prism Concert, where there are about 20 different vocal groups that perform, and they scatter them all over the Eastman Theater. There are no introductions or anything like that. One group just gets up and sings. When they sit down the next group gets up and sings.
I sang with another group, then it was The Bowties.
I had never heard of them. They were five people, stage front. They opened their mouths, and out came the opening chords to Queen's “Bohemian Rhapsody.”
First of all, the reaction of an experienced a capella singer was "Oh my god, you're seriously going to try to do this arrangement?" It's operatic. It's got guitars in it. The notion that five people would even have the guts to try something like that... Of course the opening of the song, "Is this the real life," is so recognizable. My head whipped right around. They followed it with a jazz arrangement of the theme song from “Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood.”
I had done a lot of that kind of singing in college, and it was the most fun I've ever had. But then you leave and you live your life and you think that stuff only happens in college. They announced in the concert that they were looking for a tenor. I thought it was too good to be true.
How has your time been with them so far?
It's been fantastic. It's kind of hard, because in the last year I've had to learn 40 songs, but when I was doing this in college, maybe there was a record of the song. Mostly it was an arrangement someone wrote and you'd play it on the piano and learn your part that way. These days you can plug the arrangement into a computer program and it'll spit out a learning track that I can stick on my iPhone and drive around and learn the parts that way. It's a lot easier.
When did you start singing?
I've been singing since I was 8 years old. I sang in a church choir. I was a boy soprano. I tell people I've sung every part there is: soprano, alto, tenor, and bass.
Why have you stuck with it over the years?
It’s just something that, particularly close harmony singing, gives this incredible feeling of joy. I think the thing that's particularly neat about close harmony singing is that you can just be four or six people standing around, but when you open your mouths, suddenly there's music.
There's a certain magic to it.
There's also a very tight personal connection that you develop with people when you're working together. I'm sure it's not limited to music, but in particular just creating something together that sounds beautiful.
