Reprinted from the November 15, 2001 Inland Valley Daily Bulletin "Living" section.

Joyful Song

A cappella music fest expands range with help of determined student

Three-and-a-half years ago, Oregon native Jake Oken-Berg arrived at Pomona College as a freshman. During the buzzing confusion of orientation week, something caught his attention that would become his passion for the next four years.

It was the Claremont Shades, a coed, a cappella group made up of students from the five Claremont Colleges. What immediately struck Oken-Berg was the group's repertoire, which favored contemporary radio hits instead of a capella standards like "Sweetheart" or "Lyda Rose." The Shades' performance of the gritty Fiona Apple song "Criminal" stuck in his mind.

The Claremont Shades, consisting of students from the Claremont Colleges, practices in preparation for an upcoming concert. President Jake Oken-Berg stands at left holding a book.

"They brought a tremendous amount of color to it, without wrecking the feeling of the song," he said. "I knew right then and there, that was the group I wanted to try out for."

Oken-Berg did try out his freshman year, but he didn't get in. Determined, he honed his vocal chops with Donald Brinegar, a vocal coach whd directs the Donald Brinegar Singers. After getting rebuffed again his sophomore year, Oken-Berg's hard work finally paid off last year with a spot in the group.

Now a senior, Oken-Berg serves as president of the Shades and student body president of Pomona College. He's in a position to make this year's SCAM fest the largest yet.

For the first time, the festival will be in Bridges Auditorium instead of the much smaller Garrison Theater. In addition to a cappella groups from USC, UCLA, UCSD and Cal Tech, the program will include a group from New York University and professional a capella fingers Five O'Clock Shadow.

Justin Halliwell, 20, sings as music director, Trevor Gile, 20, conducts the a capella singers during rehearsal.

Like the Claremont Shades, Five O'Clock Shadow concentrates on a cappella arrangements with a contemporary sound. The Boston-based quintet sings through guitar pedals and effects processors to sound like real instruments.

The SCAM Fest marks Five O'Clock Shadow's West Coast debut, and the group will perform some high school shows in Las Vegas during the trip. Many of Five O'Clock Shadow's gigs are concert/workshops in schools aimed at increasing students' interest in vocal music.

However, the group also aspires to crack the Top 40. Its 2000 album "Wonders of the World" caught the attention of VH-1, which named the band one of its Breakthrough Artists of 2000.

"As of about three years ago, we really changed our sound and our approach to our music," said Five O'Clock Shadow member Oren Malcha. It's still all vocal, but it's very much pop-rock. It's the kind of music we enjoy, and we hope it gets played on the radio."

The Shades just released their 2001 album "Colors." Recorded at Asylum Studios in Los Angeles, the album uses electronic effects to make voices sound like bass, drums and strings.

It includes such diverse offerings as Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean," Guns 'N Roses'"Sweet Child of Mine" and "It's Gonna Be Me" by 'N Sync. The album also includes a delightful rendition of Claremont native Ben Harper's "Steal My Kisses" and "Never," an original tune by Shades alumna Libbie Shrader.

Oken-Berg is more excited about what the Shades can do live, and the group's SCAM Fest set will include two premieres. "One thing we're going to be debuting Friday, which we're really excited about, is what we call "Techno Fusion,'" he said.

"We're taking three different techno songs and basically doing what a DJ would do at a club, which is take them and mix them all together."

"Techno Fusion" was arranged by the Shades' newest member, Pomona College freshman Rob Breahrs. The piece makes liberal use of vocal percussion and combines Paul Oakenfold's "Ascension," Alice Deejay's "Better Off Alone"and Sonique's "It feels so good."

"I realized there are a lot of parts in the background we could write, and a lot of things going on in the middle parts that make it more interesting," Breahrs said. "Then, I also realized that one song would be too boring: techno's kind of repetitive, so I decided to takethree different songs that most people know and then put them all in the same key and then kind of go back and forth between them during a medley."

--Rick Mortensen,
Staff Writer
Mortensen can be reached by phone at (909) 987-6397 Ext. 218
or by e-mail at r-mortensen@dailybulletin.com