Four Freshmen’s Identity Resides in Collective Sound

By John McDonough I Dec. 8, 2017

The members of the Four Freshmen are Tommy Boynton (left), Bob Ferreira, Stein Malvey and Jonathan Gaines.
(Photo: Ryan Merrill Photography)

The star system in the music business resists longevity because there are no replacement parts for stardom. But with the right custodians, a brand, like a song, can live forever.

This is why the Four Freshman, which began its career as a barbershop quartet in 1948, is still on tour today. From the beginning it avoided the curse of stardom by becoming a musical apparatus whose parts could swapped and switched without disruption. Its identity was based on a collective sound, never on a single charismatic soloist. Like the New York Philharmonic or the Glenn Miller or Count Basie orchestras, it has become an authentic institution because its brand lives in a special place, above its components.

Its founding voices were Dan and Ross Barbour, Hal Kratzsch and Bob Flanigan. But unless you’re a longtime Four Freshmen fan, it’s unlikely you know them. None ever saw his name outgrow the group, even Flanigan, whose career with the Freshmen ran 44 years.

“I guess you could say that Flanigan was the star in the sense that his lead voice was the most recognizable,” said Bob Ferreira, who is today the Freshmen’s most senior member. “I joined when he retired in 1992. When we found someone who could do his lead parts well, that’s when we realized that the group was its sound and could continue without him.”

The groundwork was laid early, on Capitol Records. The group had a great variety of vocal qualities, Ferreira noted. “Dan Barbour and Hall Kratzsch could easily have had a solo careers, and each later released a solo album through Capitol,” he said. “But neither man had a vision of himself as a soloist. The shared identity of the group galvanized this collective talent.”

Together they created a sophisticated palette of colors whose layers produced a pillowy, often luminous vocal texture. Influenced initially by the Modernaires, the Mel-tones (with Mel Tormé) and Stan Kenton, their innovations set the bar for a handful of jazz-influenced vocal groups at mid-century. In 1950 Kenton discovered them and brought the group to Capitol, where they struggled for three years before being dropped.

Kenton intervened again, and they scored their first important seller, “It’s A Blue World.” Starting in 1954 they began turning out a series of albums that were collected in 2002 on The Complete Capitol Four Freshman Fifties Sessions on Mosaic (currently commanding a high price on eBay). It started with Voices In Modern, then The Four Freshmen And Five Trombones, which became their biggest seller.

“There was a purity about that one,” Ferreira noted. “The trombones were basically Kenton’s trombone section. That’s really where the Four Freshmen got their sound and that’s what set the group apart. They didn’t sing like vocalists. They sang like instrumentalists and that’s how they would approach it—instrumentally.” It prompted a series of LPs with five saxophones, five trumpets, five guitars and more trombones. By the late ’50s the Four Freshmen was considered a jazz vocal group.

The Four Freshmen today is not a “tribute band” to the original lineup. Rather, it’s an entity that has evolved, with 22 singers who have worked in the group since its original members.

The present lineup includes Ferreire, Tommy Boyton, Jon Gaines and Stein Malvey. They are the official inheritors of a musical idea that began 70 years ago.

“There are certain characteristics that set us [apart],” Ferreire said. “We don’t dress up in letterman sweaters and slicked-back hair and do ‘Graduation Day’ and ‘Blue World.’ We are our own people and not trying to impersonate anyone. We continue the legacy by doing new work. Half of our arrangements are things we’ve created in the last 20 years. We acknowledge our past by moving forward.”

Each member of the current lineup has a specific role: Boyton plays bass and sings the lead vocals; Malvey sings the second part and plays guitar; Gaines sings the third part and plays trumpet; Ferreira sings the bass vocal parts and plays drums.

Today’s combined members represent many styles of music, and a couple of generations. Gaines was born four days after Ferreira joined the group. “I’m a product of the ’80s,” Ferreira said. “I played AC/DC and Judas Priest in a rock band and had a mullet. But when I grew up, my fondest memories were listening to Frankie Laine, Nat Cole, Julie London and Peggy Lee.”

The Four Freshmen used to interpret pop and rock material by artists such as Christopher Cross, Simon & Garfunkel and Steely Dan. But about 20 years ago it decided to dive more into the Great American Songbook.

“If you cover a rock classic like ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit,’ you run the danger of being compared to the original,” Ferreira said. “You have to be careful when you approach pop tunes that are so iconic. Yet, we have an upcoming project where we’re challenging ourselves and doing dedications from our fans. I did an a cappella arrangement of ‘You Are So Beautiful,’ [which was popularized] by Joe Cocker. And ‘Song For Susan” by Crosby, Stills & Nash used a string quartet in the middle.

“We’re not just covering these songs. We’re trying to reinvent them in a fresh context. The idea is to stay relevant without compromising the core identity of the Four Freshmen tradition.”

The Four Freshman continues to work more than 80 dates a year. The band will perform its holiday-themed show on Dec. 16 in Hopkins, Minnesota, and on Dec. 17 in Oakville, Ontario.

The group’s 2018 tour includes concerts at the Smothers Theatre in Malibu, California (Jan. 28), the Dirty Dog Jazz Cafe in Gross Point, Michigan (Feb. 23–24), the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts in Cerritos, California (March 11), the Broward Center for the Performing Arts in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida (April 11), and the Wagner Noel Performing Arts Center in Midland, Texas (May 1).

For more info, including other tour dates, visit the Four Freshmen website. DB