Colorado University Buffoons
The Buffoons are a top-notch all-male group out of The University of Colorado. Buffoons Business Manager Joe Howard took the time to answer questions from The A Cappella Blog.
The A Cappella Blog (ACB): The Buffoons garnered a lot of attention last year upon being selected to be a part of the Ben Folds Presents: University A Cappella compilation. What did this mean for the group, and what can you tell us about the experience?
Joe Howard (JH): This was a huge honor for the group to be selected out of over 200 groups to represent one of Ben Folds biggest hits. I think the biggest thing for us was the national recognition which is something we have never been exposed to before. The Buffoons have been around for 47 years now, so we are already very well established in the Denver-metro area, performing around 50 shows a year, but it was our chance to show all of America what the Colorado a capella scene is all about, and to be that representative meant a lot to us.
ACB: As an all-male group, what advantages do you enjoy? What challenges does the nature of the group present?
JH: Obviously, the biggest challenges we face as an all male group has to do with range. Without soprano voices, we miss out on a lot of beautiful opportunities that co-ed groups can create in their arrangements. For example the song “Magic” on Ben Folds Presents performed by University of Chicago’s ‘Voices in your Head’ is something we regrettably will never be able to pull off. That song has such beautiful moments in it throughout the entire piece that was made possible by the range of notes that they can utilize, and that is shown in the first 10 seconds of that piece.
Some advantages I feel that we are able to enjoy in the all-male group setting is the brotherhood that we form with each other. For many of us, this is our replacement for a school fraternity. I feel as if we have all formed an extremely strong brotherhood that will never fade.
ACB: How do The Buffoons go about recruiting new members?
JH: We hold auditions twice a year; once during the first week of classes in the Fall and once during the first week of classes after winter break. During the recruitment stage, we advertise all over school with posters and chalkings all over the sidewalks, and we usually have a great turnout. But because there are 5 a capella groups on campus, there is a lot of competition for the talented freshmen so we make it very clear to the group that during auditions, we are auditioning for them just as much as they are auditioning for us.
ACB: How does your group go about deciding which songs to add to its repertoire? Who is responsible for arrangements?
JH: We release a new CD about once every two years or so, and we try to make every CD have fresh tracks on them which involves taking on about 12 new songs. We decide on this by devoting one rehearsal to just choosing new songs. Everyone in the group is required to bring in 2 songs they would love to see the group do, and they have to be 2 opposite genre songs. We then go through a painful voting procedure, that takes about 2 hours, where we narrow our choices down to about 5 or 6 new songs and we then delegate members in the group to arrange them. This is one thing we look for when taking in new members, is if they can arrange music, and we’ve been fortunate enough to pick up some really talented arrangers. Our version of Ben Folds ‘Landed’ was arranged by our very own Misha Levental, which was good enough to give us national recognition.
If you would like to learn more about The Buffoons, you can visit them online here.