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michele manzotti
Michele is a leading Italian music journalist, based in Firenze (Florence) in Tuscany. A great friend of the group, MIchele has attended many shows and written some excellent articles. On the horizon is a much more expansive essay on the life, music and history of the swingle singers. |
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bh audio
When the swingle singers perform in Italy, we insist on the involvement
of BH Audio - Italy's premier sound company. With the best equipment and
a squad of fantastic and knowledgable staff, these guys are hard to beat. |
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a-cappella.it
Brand new portal in both Italian and English covering all things a cappella
in Italy.
Run by those wonderful people in Varese who organise the 'Solevoci' festival
each year. |
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a cappella news
This is a greatl blog launched in 2003 by John Neal, head honcho at Primarily
A Cappella (see the audio + video links, below). Updated daily, he
keeps an eye on the ever-expanding world of a cappella and keeps everyone
(including us!) up-to-date with news, views, reviews and commentary. Bookmark
it now!
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Michael Nyman
Oscar-winning composer commissioned to write a piece ('Balancing the Books')
for the Bach celebration year 2000
'Balancing the Books' is available as a score from
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Moritz
Eggert
Fun, striking homepage of the German composer commissioned to write a piece
for the Bach celebration year 2000 |
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Thomas Jennefelt
Composer from Sweden commissioned to write a piece for the Bach celebration
year 2000 |
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Hugh
Collins-Rice
Composer commissioned to write a piece for the Bach celebration year 2000
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Tonus Peregrinus
Vocal ensemble featuring the talents of Anthony Pitts (commissioned to compose
a piece for the swingle singers for JS Bach year 2000) and some familiar
faces |
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MOMIX
Dance company run and founded by Moses Pendelton and based in the US.
Specialising in athletic movement and 'dance-illusion', MOMIX collaborated
with the swingle singers during a series of live shows in Italy
in August 2000. Their shows 'MOMIX In Orbit' and 'Opus Cactus' feature
Largo from the swingle singers CD 'Keyboard Classics'.
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Apsley Tailors (Punjab House)
Apsley Tailors is the new UK-based wing of Punjab House/New Arshad, an
established and famous Hong Kong tailor. They have dressed people all
over the world and designed and fitted costumes for the swingle singers
in 2003. These amazing red and white outfits were unveiled on the Asia
tour at the end of the year and continue to be very popular with audiences
worldwide.
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AKG
The swingle singers now endorse the WMS4000 - the latest 'Wireless Microphone
System' from world-leading microphone manufacturer AKG. Every great singer
needs a great mic in front of them - get one! |
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Bullfrog Films
Video available from Bullfrog Films called Magnificat and featuring rare
footage of the group (in its incarnation as The New Swingle Singers) performing
with Bobby McFerrin |
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Lord of the Dance
CD of music by Sydney Carter, available from Stainer and Bell and featuring
the swingle singers |
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Bach for Bachelor Pads
Joint Universal reissue of classic swingle singers and Jacques Loussier
tracks, available from amazon.com
This oh-so-cool compilation is also at , as well as audio clips and a review.
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ebay search
Search for swingle singers articles available from 'the world's number one
auction site' |
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CD Universe
search
Look for commercially available swingle singers recordings at CD Universe
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Video
Vintage video of the swingle singers in action (introduced by none other
than James Galway) available through buyindies.com. Also available from
www.videoflicks.com |
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WorldWideWax.com
Search for those rare swingle singers recordings on vinyl |
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Recycled Music
Search for more classic vinyl recordings |
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DJ Records
swingle singers recordings and video available from this excellent site
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Primarily A Cappella
Englishman in L.A. John Neal has a great deal of swingle singers merchandise
nestled here in this wide-ranging site dedicated to all things a cappella.
Videos, CDs, sheet music and Ward Swingle's book 'Swingle Singing' for sale |
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Mainely A
Cappella
Flash-looking US site offering swingle singers CDs, videos and sheet music.
The 'Amazon' of the a-cappella community! |
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Virgin Classics
Browse the Virgin Classics catalogue for swingle singers recordings |
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amazon.com
Spend enough time here and you'll start believing that this IS the Internet.
You can search for and find swingle singers recordings, both new and second
hand, offered for sale and for auction, books, sheet music and a great number
of other references through this Leviathan of a site |
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Siesta Party
A lot of lounge compilations seem to slip in the odd swingle track here
or there. This one looks pretty interesting with a Bach fugue in some
groovy company.
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Operazione San Pietro
A little-known slice of classic cool from Ward Swingle and the original
French group. There are some great versions of popular Swingle standards
on this soundtrack from the sixties, and you just have to get it from
the inspirationally titled italiansoundtracks.com!
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60s/80s Swingle
MP3 downloads
A family-owned business in the USA, offering individual track downloads
for 99 cents from a couple of 60s and late 80s discs. Handy if you need
just the one track. You can also buy entire albums if you wish. |
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Berio on encyclopedia.com
The first place to look for a brief introduction to the composer. |
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BBC
profile of Luciano Berio
An excellent start page for learning more about one of the great composers
of the last century. |
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The Modern Word
Comprehensive description of Berio's masterpiece from this distinguished
site dedicated to authors and their works
for the site's reference to Outis, Berio's 1996 opera
featuring the swingle singers
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telegraph.com
article on Berio
The Daily Telegraph - a UK broadsheet newspaper - profiles Berio in
the run up to the 'Omaggio' festival in London, April 2004. |
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Royal Festival Hall Berio microsite
Produced to accompany the 'Omaggio' festival in April 2004.
This beautiful little site contains audio samples, a timeline of Berio's
life and work and a good profile of the great man.
Requires FLASH plug-in.
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amazon.com
amazon.com 'essential recording' featuring Sinfonia conducted by Pierre
Boulez and featuring The New Swingle Singers |
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Guardian Keynotes
on Sinfonia recordings
An insightful summary of what the many recordings of Sinfonia have
to offer. |
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A-Ronne
and Teatro Minimo
An interesting combination of puppet theatre and Berio's stunning a cappella
work, A-Ronne, recently revived by the swingle singers for performances
in Paris in 2004. A nice transcript of conversations between Berio and wordsmith
Edoardo Sanguineti is contained herein. |
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Centro Tempo Reale
Centro Tempo Reale was founded by Luciano Berio in 1987 with the purpose
of carrying out, as the articles of incorporation state, "the activities
of musical research, production, and education, the promotion of musical
culture, the organization of training and advanced courses in music in accordance
with the Association's objectives", as well as promoting "contacts with
other cultural centers, musical and otherwise, in Italy and abroad." |
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Five O'Clock
Shadow
We met these guys at the ACDA convention in San Antonio, Texas, March 2001.
A five-voice a cappella group featuring original material and some awesome
vocal percussion, Five O'Clock Shadow could educate as well as perform.
Sadly they have recently parted company, but their stuff is still checking
out and they promise there is a future for all of them... |
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m*pact!
This lot blew us away when they gave us an exclusive performance at the
aftershow party for Sing!, an A Cappella festival in Nashville, Tennessee.
This was in July 2001, and we had a great time exploring the finer watering
holes the Capital of Country had to offer and exchanging tour stories. |
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Ward Swingle
The homepage of our founder and friend Ward Swingle. We see him as often
as we can (he now lives in the sleepy village of Fere-En-Tardenois near
Paris, France) and rely on his constant support, advice and good wishes.
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zimbabel delatree
music:
web design:
Paul at zimbabel is responsible for all that is cool about our site. Always
coming up with new ideas, zimbabel has added stuff to swinglesingers.com
since its initial design - and when we get stuck, Paul gets stuck in! |
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Kikapust
Run by Jonathan Rathbone, one-time member and Musical Director of the
swingle singers, kikapust publishes a large number of arrangements by
Jonathan, Mark Williams and Ben Parry. Many of these were conceived for
the swingle singers and some are still regularly performed by the
group.
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Mike
Dore
Once a member of the swingle singers, Mike is an established and extremely
popular vocalist in his own right, as well as being a regular member of
and
a guest with many BBC musical institutions. |
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Solevoci - a cappella festival
This festival in Varese, Italy started in 2003 with an amazing line-up:
as well as the swingle singers they managed to get Take Six, m-pact!,
The Flying Pickets, The Housejacks and The King's Singers!!! A beutiful
festival in a beautiful part of the world - although how they'll ever
top that list of vocal gretas, no-one knows!
[photos copyright and courtesy of Andrea Ferrari -]
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E a cappella startpage
Flemish (and English) a cappella appreciation pages.
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Festival di Torrechiara
This wonderful festival takes place in a sleepy town near Palma in Northern
Italy. The page is a summary of the swingle singers show there in the
castello, July 2002 and has some great photos.
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Bigger
Bread
This is the online home of Andrew Chaikin, original vocal percussionist
with The House Jacks and one of the foremost and most active beatboxers
today. We first met him at the West Coast A Cappella Summit in 2001 (he
lives and works in the Bay area) and were struck by his attitude and skills.
There's great stuff here, including an updated list of great gigs in and
around San Francisco. |
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The Violets
Homepage of an Austrian 16-voice ensemble who we met in Baden in 2001.
They gave us "Steirische Roas", a styrian folk song arrangement which
always goes down very well at the end of our show in their particular
part of the world.
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HSV Woodlands Auditorium
In 2002 we visited Hot Springs Village - a glorious, spacious and friendly
retirement environment in Arkansas. It was a fun show and they took some
great pictures, which are all here on this page - including a psychedelic
backdrop and a lovely portrait of our Sound Engineer, Phil. |
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Bozo Mark
A guy called Bozo Mark picks Ticket to Ride as one of the sounds of Summer
2000 |
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musicweb
Online review of Jazz Sebastien Bach, the swingle singers' first release
which was reissued by Universal in 2000 |
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RARB review of 'Live in Japan'
www.rarb.org
A site dedicated to reviewing all things a cappella (the 'Recorded A cappella
Review Board') gives its views on the multi-faceted 2001 release.
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One real satisfied customer!
A cutomer review of Keyboard Classics which we just couldn't add any
more to.
"This must be one of the TOP Swingle Singers CDs out there: excellent
vocal sound, great pieces, and hilarious parodies all come together to
make this a heck of a fun ROMP to listen to."
Just make sure you buy it from swinglesingers.com after you've read the
review!
[There are some good quality audio clips on this page as well.]
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Sinaloa Festival, Mexico
A review, in Spanish, of the swingle singers show way out in West Mexico
in October 2002.
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Inauguration of Rome Music Park
The group had the great honour of singing at the inauguration of Renzo
Piano's fabulous Parco della Musica, Roma in April 2002. This BBC
review of the occassion credits the swingle singers with "...one
of the biggest ovations of all."
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allaboutjazz review of 'Mood Swings'
"Mood Swings is a welcome respite from life's stress!"
Nice review - though reviewer Russell Moon seems to think the group was
reassembled by Ward to record this album...!
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Momix e Swingle Singers
A review - in Italian - of the collaborative shows with dance company
MOMIX (see Associates, above) in Italy, 2000.
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The Story of Christmas
- Amazon customer reviews
Two lovely customer reviews of the holiday CD released in the early 90s. |
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Five out of Five
for Ticket to Ride
This jazzmusicnet/Amazon review is very touching. |
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Roccatedirighi
homepage
When we get some time off and we are nearby, the swingle singers
stay in this wonderful little Tuscan hilltop town for some R+R. |
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got spit?
The essential hub for all of you out there with a penchant for making silly
'click click' noises with your lungs and mouth |
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mouthdrumming
Wes Carroll of The Housejacks takes you through all the techniques involved
in making those silly 'click click' noises with your lungs and mouth. |
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USA Performance
Search
Use this to find out more about swingle singers performances in the US of
A |
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excuse me?
A review of a track by some bunch called The Gentle People which contains
the following indomitable classic: "...imagine Martin Denny and the Swingle
Singers munching mushrooms together, this is mellower than melted marshmallows
and I love it entirely." |
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IHT interview
Ward Swingle
An excellent interview with the founder of the swingle singers from the
archives of the International Herald Tribune |
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Bist Du Bei Mir
Learn more about the beautiful piece composed by J.S. Bach that appears
on the swingle singers' The Bach Album |
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The Style
Council
Believe it or not, Paul Weller cites Place Vendôme as one of his major influences! |
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The Sixties Pop Diary
Sneak a peek at the company the swingle singers were keeping when they released
their debut Jazz Sebastien Bach |
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Procul Harum
The original group's Christianne Legrand features on Procul Harum's Grand
Hotel LP. (The group currently performs an arrangement of their famous song
A Whiter Shade of Pale) |
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Secret Service
This one's a longshot and pretty tenuous, but we love it. Somebody contacted
us about a swingle singers tune they knew from the sixties and it turned
out to be this gem from a British TV show created by the legendary Gerry
Anderson - and not sung by the group at all!! It's still great, though.
Give it a listen.
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Bach-Cantatas.com
A profile of the swingle singers on a Bach appreciation page, complete
with some nice archive photographs and links.
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A Tribute to Ward Swingle
Leif and Johan's Vocal Hall of Fame (no less) holds a tribute to our founder
and friend - a little out of date but with some good photos and background.
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Fila Brazilia have Another Late Night
'Another Late Night' is a superior example of the chillout compilation
phenomenon and in this interview British DJ/programming duo Fila Brazilia
are quizzed about their inclusions, among them a Bach fugue by the original
Les Swingle Singers.
click
here to learn more about this disc from Artist Direct
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Comparison
"Thursday, June 29, 2000
THE SWINGLE SINGERS
cf. Stereolab thirty years ago."
Tanya Headon hates music. Go figure. This pearl comes from within a diatribe
in an anti-Stereolab part of her fantastic blog.
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The Swingle Singers Un-official homepage
A swingle singers fansite! It has some cool moving photos and four CD
releases listed with the recording personnel.
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Interview
with China Radio International
In Novemebr 2001 the swingle singers visited Beijing and Taiwan, where Jes
and Joanna were interviewed by China Radio International. You can read the
full transcript here as well as downloading the discussion as an audio file. |
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Hello Life!
A one-woman show written by Swingle collaborator Alexander L'Estrange,
'Hello Life' is performed by one-time swingle singer and extraordinary
vocal talent Heather Cairncross.
Watch the Hello Life! Google Video |
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Heather Cairncross' website
...and here is Heather's homepage, complete with a concert schedule and
some photos with other previous members of the swingle singers.
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mmm... silky!
[This was a performance in the Cyprus Music Days festival - the highlight
of which was the view behind the ancient Greek amphitheatre stage out to
sea. Breathtaking.]
Scroll down this photo gallery to '2000' and see a shot of us singing 'Mission
Impossible' in our raw silk blouses. |
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OH YES! Swingles
on Miami Vice!!
This episode, from the last season of the cult 80s cop show, heavily features
the music of the original Les Swingle Singers. Imagine car chases, rolled-up
jacket sleeves, Soul Glow afro perms... it's all here! Sheer class. |
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...and on The West
Wing
This is more of an 'honourable mention', seeing as the group is talked about
but not heard, but still...it's The West Wing. Come on. |
