Checking through the guestbook, I see that Monica, from Eugene, comments, "So now that you're all settled in together, will you please give the people what they want?....a freakin CD!"

Well, Monica; market research clearly indicates that what people really want is to see Rezonate perform wearing early 90s NFL Zubaz pants.  Seriously, according to their website, they made a comeback in 2007: http://www.zubaz.com/

Actually, we laid down some tracks and are working on coming out with an EP very soon for our fans to purchase cheapity-cheap!  It will feature a couple of our award-winning arrangements and some original stuff, a kind of "Tall" sampling of Rezonate, to use Starbuck's method of size labeling. 

Hey, we're in the Pacific NW - everything relates to coffee....

-Jason

Jason, here;

Wow, did we have fun at Nationals.  I love being in the Pacific Northwest Region, because as soon as we won the regional, other PNW groups who had been to the Finals began emailing us with advice and insights based on their experiences.  This advice was indispensible, particularly the bits of wisdom offered us by The Baudboys and V-Chords, as they have had the most recent experiences.  Thank you to all of you for your help! 

Also of incredible help was the Masterchorale and Gary Witley and his crew from Olympia.  These guys run the smoothest-running show I've ever been to.  The ducks are always in a row, and the attitude is always one of gracious hospitality.  They just do it right.

The other groups blew us away with their talent, but they were even more impressive as people backstage.  The atmosphere was one of complete support for the artform of vocal music.  We were able to watch the show on a closed-circuit feed in the common area by the dressing rooms, and there was genuine applause, shout of "yeah, sing it!," spontaneous outburtsts of "WOW!," that made us feel like we were all in the audience just enjoying a great show with some great singers.  We all laughed and joked with each other, learned about each other's kids and families, and swapped stories of fun gigs and great audiences.  If you ever get a chance to hang with cartoon Johnny, ask about their way of doing karaoke...

Backstage, we felt that the judges would have a very difficult time deciding the winners and placements.  Having been to many different kinds of festivals as a performer and as an adjudicator, I have come to the conclusion that judging sheets and tallies are much like Douglas Adams's Bistro Mathematics: the numbers don't add up, and one cannot accurately quantify the entire experience on any known scoring sheet.  As a judge, I more enjoy being at non-competitive festivals, where I can point out ways for a group to improve upon an already good performance.  I can give my opinion, and they can use what they feel applies, and chuck the rest.  At competitive festivals, I've been in a situation as a judge in which the group that scored the most points on the tally sheet was not my favorite group of the night, and I start to understand figure skating and gymnastics a bit better.  Sure, the group that scores higher ends up winning, but I will end up becoming a fan and attending concerts of the groups I liked most from the viewpoint of an audience member :-)

I only bring this up because I enjoyed hearing different audience members after the show discussing who they thought should have won.  They all made very good cases for their opinion.  I can guarantee each group had a pretty even chance of winning had we merely selected judges at random from the audience.  As we were getting ready to go on stage for the awards part of the show, I remember one member from another group saying, "Geez, guys, I have no idea who will win an award; it could be any of us.  Good Show!"  And that pretty much sums it up.  We don't envy the judges their difficult decisions.

To give you an idea of how far off I was from the official results, I was thinking we would be in a four-way race for 5th place.  Granted, we could only judge based on what we saw from the wings or on the TV in the dressing area, but I had guessed the top three would include Maxx Factor, 3 Men and a Melody, Love Notes, or Cartoon Johnny.  My taste runs more toward the soul and rock end of things, so I kind of thought 3 Men and Cartoon Johnny would be duking it out for a top spot.  I thought that the rest of us were pretty much guaranteed even shots at the remaining slots, with maybe a slight edge in favor of Mouth Beats, who deservedly won Best Innovative Composition, which means the best I had hoped for was 6th place.

Needless to say, I was somewhat shocked when our name was called twice for awards!  In fact, I was told by many people that I looked shocked.  We couldn't even hear the announcement very well for best arrangement, so I thought Chris had won for his awesome arrangement of "Ghost Train,"  like he did at Regionals.

This year saw mostly barbershop and contemporary pop-style groups.  I would love to see more folk and madrigal groups, as well as jazz and doo wop, and other a cappella forms, competing at the regional level.  I think the audience would love the variety, and the singers, too.

I guess one more superlative won't matter:  Thanks for an incredible, stupendous, awesome, hugemongously cool experience, and we hope to see everyone supporting your local regional competitions next spring.

I'll try and post a few photos later.

-Jason
"The Old One"
Rezonate

and our name is engraved upon it.  It is both exciting and awe-inspiring to share a trophy with such incredible groups.  Most of the guys in our group grew up on the Coats, listing them among the top of their heroes.  M-Pact, Eclipse, Groove for Thought, and our friends, The Baudboys, all have held this award.  The 2005 World Barbershop champion, Realtime, won it the first time we competed, and they were amazing!

The permanence of having our name attached to this award has imbued us, to an even greater extent, with a sense of the rich a cappella tradition in the Pacific Northwest, and compels us to do our best to uphold that tradition, that we may compete with class, good sportsmanship, and to the best of our ability, all for the betterment of the art we share with so many other incredible folks. 

We rehearsed last night with the trophy front and center, right there on the stage apron.  It was pretty cool.  I still moved early in Ghost Train, but that will come along, and Finals should be a great experience.  Many groups have sent us friendly greetings, and we look forward to meeting them and hanging out :-)  We'll keep everyone posted as best we can.

-Jason

 What a fantastic gig!  Thanks go out to The Classics and Mind The Gap for rockin' the house and really firing up the audience.  Everyone did an awesome job - even two-year-old Taran sounded great on stage.  See the video of Taran on our video page   His 5YO brother is the boy in the striped rugby shirt you see dancing across the screen occasionally.

What an INCREDIBLE audience.  Truly.

In every way, the gig was a success.  Jon Diller and Cate Caffarella did a great job behind the sound board, Tova Opsal had the world's best ever refreshment table (with chocolate chip and snickerdoodle cookies,) and Jay Simms and Stephanie Diller sold a BUNCH of Rezonate T-Shirts.

I think David gets the award for standout performer of the evening.  He did a truly wonderful job as emcee.  Oh - and our new jeans and white sleeves rock.

Thanks to all,
Jason

WOW!  Last Saturday's concert was great!  The NVP really is amazing.  They have it all going on and know what to do with it.  The variety and quality of each group was simply astounding, and the audience got quite a show.  We almost didn't want to go on; we just wanted to sit and listen some more to the other groups!

A Rezonate first:  A man informed us that we caused him to cry during three out of our seven songs, and not because they were horrible :-)  This involvement with the audience is why we do music they way we do it, and this is by far the greatest compliment we have ever gotten.  BTW, he was front and center at the second show because he enjoyed the first show so much.

Great job to all the groups involved, and we cannot thank the NVP enough for inviting us to experience the day with them.

-Jason

The first post!  Thank you for visiting.  We will be posting blogs here, and maybe even some podcasts, so check back in every so often.

-JTC