ICCA and ICHSA Finals Results
By Mike Chin on Apr 22, 2007 in News
Phenomenal show in New York last night. A full review will be up in the coming days, but for now, here are the meat and potatoes results (it was difficult to hear some of the specifics on awards over the crowd cheering, so I’ll apologize for the incomplete or potentially inaccurate reporting on some of those):
Official Results
ICCA
Outstanding Soloist: All Night Yahtzee, Christopher Diaz, for Rufus Wainwright’s “Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk”
Outstanding Vocal Percussion: All Night Yahtzee, Travis Smith (I believe it was for the whole set)
Outstanding Choreography: Noteworthy, (again, I think for the whole set)
Outstanding Arrangement: Rocktavo, (I think for Figaro)
Overall Placement:
3. The Zumbyes
2. Rocktavo
1. Noteworthy
ICHSA
Outstanding Choreography: Crimson
Overall Placement:
2. Crimson
1. Men of NoteÂ
Meanwhile, just to stir the pot a little, here were my personal picks:
ICCA
Oustanding Soloist: The Zumbyes, Marvin Gaye’s “I Heard It Through The Grapevine”
Outstaning Percussion: All Night Yahtzee, Travis Smith, whole set
Outstanding Choreography: (I’ll list all of three of my top picks for this one, because all three were truly outstanding)
1. Noteworthy, Stevie Wonder’s “Signed, Sealed, Delivered”
2. The Crosbys, Spencer Davis Group’s “I’m A Man”
3. The Zumbyes, Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”
Overall Placement:
3. All Night Yahtzee
2. Noteworthy
1. The Crosbys
I know (and welcome) the fact that I’ll have plenty of folks disagree with my final placement, but to clarify, I have absolutely no problem with the fact that Noteworthy won or that Rocktavo and The Zumbyes placed. This was a truly competitive show, and I was left scratching my head and rearranging my final rankings all throughout the deliberation process.
ICHSA
Solo: Men of Note for “Mary Don’t You Weep”
Choreography: The A Cappella Group for The Animaniacs song set to the tune of “Can-Can”
Percussion: Crimson for the whole set
Overall Placement:
2. Crimson
1. Men of Note
Unfortunately, no photos from this event. Please do check back for the full review, though.
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so in your assessment, crosbys were robbed of a place?
John | Apr 22, 2007 | Reply
Not just a place, FIRST PLACE!! As a Mom of a Crosby alumni, I appreciate the support from a cappella blog - I know how hard these guys work to put on a great show. I wasn’t there, but Scout says it was truly a great performance.. WE LOVE YOU, CROSBYS!!!
Scout's Mom | Apr 22, 2007 | Reply
The Crosbys were definately robbed of place. I agree with the rankings on this blog for sure!
Chris | Apr 22, 2007 | Reply
John, I think the word “robbed” would be too strong on this one. Yes, as my rankings show, I would most definitely have placed the Crosbys. At the same time, as you will see from my subjective ratings when I post the review, I found the Crosbys, Noteworthy, All Night Yahtzee and Rocktavo to be in a virtual deadlock for the top spot, with The Zumbyes very close behind (and at the risk of sounding too wishy-washy it’s not as though The Gargoyles or Deep Treble were too far behind that). The Crosbys have every reason to be proud of their performance, and I was sorry to see them go unrecognized–but at the same time it would be a disservice to the other top notch groups to say Binghamton was robbed.
mikec | Apr 22, 2007 | Reply
Was never really a fan of a cappella. My son joined a group his freshman year. I attended his first performance last year and realized how far acappella groups have come.
I am a big fan of “Classic and Prog Rock” and was really amazed to hear a group of vocalists perform this genre of music. I began to follow their progress and attended many of their shows.
I was thrilled when my son told me his group was going to compete in the ICCA. My wife and I traveled on a blustery evening to Potsdam for their first competion. We found it very exciting and could not wait to go to Stamford for the second round. Again a tremendous evening.
Had to get tickets for the Finals in NYC. Couldn’t wait to see the 7 best acappella groups in the country and UK.
Have to tell you though, we were a little disapointed. I was not sure after seeing the first 1/2 of the collegiate show, if I was at a musical competion or a talent, comedy, skit show. When a Banana shows up on stage and has nothing to do with any of the songs and vocals are weak and groups compensate for their lack of vocal strength with crappy comedy skits, I felt that I was at a high school talent show. Oh what a beautiful morning.. are you kidding me? Blackbird? And a rendition of Thriller that was flat.. Funny but Flat. This was supposed to be the best of the best? Are you kidding me?
After intermission things got better. The BYU Noteworthys were a fantastic group of talented young ladies with great vocals and choreography. I also thought Rutgers Deep Treble did a fine job. The Binghamton Crosbys closed the show. I thought their version of Pinball Wizard seemed rushed and pitchy but when they performed” Hey You” by Pink Floyd I finally realized why I enjoyed modern day a cappella. They closed with a great version of Spencer Davis “I’m a Man” with excititing footwork and a great arrangement. Very Powerful.
It’s funny, the Gargoyles sang songs written by Americans and the Crosbys sang songs written by the British.
I thought that it would be a close vote. Noteworthy and the Crosbys ,I thought for sure would vie for the title. One for polish and one for power.
Congratultions to Noteworthy they did a fine job. But for the Crosbys not to place was a disgrace. I now realize why I was never really into a cappella and the judges decision will make it hard for me to follow it in the future. Congratulaions to the Zumbyes and Rocktavo.. Thought I was going to musical show and a comedy show broke out… Musta got lost.. somewhere down the line. J Giels.
Xristo | Apr 22, 2007 | Reply
Xristo, you’re letting your clear parental biases completely pollute your overall impressions of the show.
First off, yes, you were attending ICCA Finals, but it’s far from a simple musical competition. If it were solely based on music you’d see probably 5 different groups there out of the 7. I’m sure your son has mentioned scoring to you before but 75 points come from sheer music, AND 50 come from performance. That’s right, only 60% of the raw score comes from balance, blend etc. But lets talk about music for second. Rocktavo’s musical repertoire far surpassed most other groups in its difficulty and their singing was rich with blend. What a Beautiful Morning was such a fantastic arrangement, sorry it was Van Halen so it would have been more to your liking. I’m sure the judges were impressed by their ability to sing more than tonic and dominant power chords like a lot of other groups do and scored them extremely high on music.
On performance, there was no group on stage that had better performers than the Zumbyes. You think it’s easy to get up there, perform a full rendition of Thriller with choreo and still sing? Give them credit. And being a fan of classic rock, shouldn’t Blackbird have pleased you rather than turned you off? What the Zumbyes lacked musically (and I fully agree with you that they lacked some musicality, especially during choreography) they made up for quite well in the performance category.
And of course, BYU was a fantastic combination of both musicality and performance. Congratulations to Noteworthy, it was a very well deserved win, and I’m pretty sure when the scores are released on varsityvocals, we’ll see it wasn’t even very close.
But people are right when they say how close the talent level of groups are. I’d be willing to bet 4th and 5th place groups were maybe within 20 points of the Zumbyes, and that it shouldn’t discourage anyone that they got to sing to the cheers of 1000 fans in New York City.
To blatantly disrespect other groups in that competition who poured as much blood sweat and tears into preparing for each round as your son did is disgraceful. I have my own biting comments to make about some of the other groups I saw but I’m reserving them because of the respect I have for every single person who took that stage, HS and college. Don’t smugly congratulate Rocktavo and Zumbyes when you bashed them 2 paragraphs ago. The groups were there to compete, yes, but also to have a blast on a huge stage and take away memories they won’t soon forget. It’s not all about points, and I sincerely hope your son isn’t too upset he didn’t place/win/whatever his goal was.
What? | Apr 23, 2007 | Reply
Sorry, forgot to sign my post.
–An Amherst student. Though from Amherst and therefore clearly biased in favor of the Zumbyes, I came into the show with an open mind in terms of groups and musical styles, and tried as objectively as possible to write the previous post. In defending both the Zumbyes and Rocktavo (who I thought were absolutely amazing as well) I don’t intend to put any other group down. Honestly, I think the judges got it right in terms of the Zumbyes. They were great, not the best, and if you talk to the guys you’ll hear they aren’t disappointed with 3rd in the least. Congrats the Rocktavo and Noteworthy, and every other group as well for being able to sing in NYC. But don’t call my friends cheap high school talents, they deserve more respect than that.
Previous Poster | Apr 23, 2007 | Reply
what? there was a banana?
brendan | Apr 23, 2007 | Reply
Noteworthy was amazing! Definately deserved first place. As an entire package, no one else came close. I have to support my boys from the Midwest and say that Roctavo was a lock for second. Their musicianship was only surpassed by the ladies. As for third place, I was shocked! I definately agree that the Zumbyes sound suffered when they went full out into their choreography (although the choreography was great!) I think it should be music first, everything else second. I had All Night Yahtzee picked for third. They did a great job and had some fantastic soloists. Then I had the Crosby’s for fourth. They were great, but lacked a little something at the finals. I did absolutely love their body percussion- how unique and it really had a great effect in the song. If they keep their record up they’ll be back in the finals next year anyway. Great show. And I absolutely loved Julie- the emcee. She was genius.
Susan | Apr 25, 2007 | Reply