First of all, you can’t go wrong with a show that is produced by Jonathan Minkoff, Diana Preisler and Marty Gasper. Honestly, these folks know how to make a Summit happen! They assembled a wide array of groups and artists that made this Summit a huge success.
The men of Blue Jupiter brought an energy-packed show to the audience at every opportunity. Riltons Vanner flew all the way from Sweden to show us that a group of five college-aged young adults can sing with the best groups in the world, with almost every song deserving a standing ovation.
Vote for Pedro (a slightly changed reincarnation of All About Buford) teamed up with Wes Carroll to rock the house whenever their feet hit the stage. The Sons of Pitches paired with Dave Baumgartner to serve you anything from country to in-your-face rock.
The list goes on with the Round Midnight, the Showvinistics, and F’loom “representin’” barbershop, doo-wop, and language music—not to mention the professional caliber high school group 5 Alone.
WAIT! There’s more! Rene Ruiz and Diana Preisler shared their secrets on how to take your group’s stage presence from good to great! (If you’ve seen Toxic Audio or Blue Jupiter lately, you’ll know what I mean). Wes Carroll, Jeff Thacher, Marty Gasper, Freddie Feldman, Adam Matta, and Yo Yo Beats all had a little something to say about vocal percussion or beatboxing. Shoot…in one instance, five of them threw down an improv masterpiece of rhythms and textures so moving that Wes immediately jumped to his feet upon conclusion and embraced the other four one-by-one.
I could go on and on (and probably have already done so). But the point I’m trying to get across is that this year’s East Coast Summit was so good that it could have warranted 10 times the crowd that was there! Nationality, gender, young or old, inner-city or farm-grown (like myself)—it didn’t matter. CASA is making huge strides and doing amazing things in its efforts to bring a cappella to the masses. Get involved and you’ll be able to see firsthand how those masses respond!
I’ll see you at the next Summit.
Photo (c) 2006 Rachel Rodriguez, www.supersixone.com. More of these in the photo galleries. If you have summit stories or photos of your own to add, please send them to editor@casa.org.
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