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Four Freshmen

The Four Freshmen
Origin Indianapolis, Indiana, United States
Genres Jazz, classic pop, barbershop
Years active 1948–present
Labels Capitol, Liberty, Pausa Records, Coronet, Stylist, Creative World, Kahoots, Phonorama, Pickwick, Sunset, Crystal, Four Freshmen Society
Website http://www.4freshmen.com/
Members Tommy Boynton
Stein Malvey
Jon Gaines
Bob Ferreira
Past members Ross Barbour
Don Barbour
Hal Kratzsch
Bob Flanigan
Ken Errair
Bill Comstock
Ken Albers
Ray Brown
Autie Goodman
Dennis Grillo
Mike Beisner
Rod Henley
Dave Jennings
Newton Graber
Kirk Marcy
Gary Lee Rosenberg
Greg Stegeman
Kevin Stout
Alan MacIntosh
Vince Johnson
Brian Eichenberger
Curtis Calderon

The Four Freshmen is an American male vocal band quartet that blends open-harmonic jazz arrangements with the big band vocal group sounds of The Modernaires (Glenn Miller), The Pied Pipers (Tommy Dorsey), and The Mel-Tones (Artie Shaw), founded in the barbershop tradition. The Four Freshmen is considered a vocal band because the singers accompany themselves on guitar, horns, bass, and drums, among other instrumental configurations.

The group was founded in 1948, and reached its peak popularity in the mid-1950s. The last original member retired in 1993, but the group still tours internationally and has recorded jazz harmonies since its late 1940s founding in the halls of the Jordan School of Music at Butler University (Indianapolis).

In early 1948, brothers Ross and Don Barbour, then at Butler University's Arthur Jordan Conservatory in Indianapolis, Indiana, formed a barbershop quartet called Hal's Harmonizers. The Harmonizers also included Marvin Pruitt—soon replaced by Ross and Don's cousin Bob Flanigan—and Hal Kratzsch (1925–70), replaced in 1953 by Ken Errair. The quartet soon adopted a more jazz-oriented repertoire and renamed itself the Toppers. At first, they were influenced by Glenn Miller's The Modernaires and Mel Tormé's Mel-Tones, but soon developed their own style of improvised vocal harmony. In September 1948, the quartet went on the road as The Four Freshmen, and soon drew the admiration of jazz legends such as Dizzy Gillespie and Woody Herman.


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