Rockapella

Rockapella
Rockapella performing in Clearwater, Florida on December 20, 2013.
Background information
Origin	New York City, U.S.A.
Genres	A cappella
Years active	1986–present
Labels	Shakariki Records / PAID, Inc., Amerigo Records, J-Bird Records, Rentrak Records, ForLife Records
Website	www.rockapella.com
Members	Scott Leonard Jeff Thacher Calvin Jones Mitchell Rains Bryant Vance
Past members	Sean Altman Elliott Kerman Steve Keyes David Stix Charlie Evett Barry Carl Kevin Wright John K. Brown George Baldi III Steven Dorian Ryan Chappelle

Rockapella is an American a cappella musical group formed in 1986 in New York City. Their name is a portmanteau of "rock" and "a cappella". Rockapella sings original vocal music and a cappella covers of pop and rock songs; over time, their sound has evolved from high-energy pop and world music toward a more R&B-style sound. Rockapella originally found their biggest success in Japan during the early 1990s, while in the United States, they are best remembered for their role as a vocal house band and resident comedy troupe on the PBS children's geography game show Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?. Rockapella has released 19 albums, both in the United States and overseas, and 3 compilation albums in Japan. The text "All sounds provided by the voices and appendages of Rockapella", the central idea of the band, has appeared on all of their CDs since the addition of their vocal percussionist.

The founding members of Rockapella were consisted of Brown University alumni Sean Altman, Elliott Kerman, Steve Keyes, and David Stix. They had each been in an a cappella group at Brown called High Jinks, but not all at the same time. Having been in High Jinks the longest, Altman was the only connection between the other three members; when they found with each other in New York City following their graduation, they decided to form Rockapella. The band began performing on New York City street corners in 1986 with a hat at their feet and a song repertoire that consisted of a mix of barbershop arrangements and a cappella renditions of classic doo wop pieces that evolved to focus less on oldies and barbershop and more on contemporary rock music. Passers-by began to drop business cards into the hat, and these street corner performances led to private party and club performances around NYC.

Stix left the group in 1987 to pursue his artistic career and was replaced by Charlie Evett. That same year, a dinner party performance for television personality Kathie Lee Gifford led to Rockapella's 1988 appearance on the WABC-TV show The Morning Show, Regis Philbin and Gifford's NYC morning talk show before it went national. Their performance of Altman's signature arrangement of the calypso novelty standard "Zombie Jamboree" caught the eye of producer Gerard Brown. He invited Rockapella to perform on the PBS "Great Performances" TV special Spike Lee & Company – Do It A Cappella, which would put them into the national spotlight. However, Evett left the group to continue a career in software design in 1988 before the special's taping, and Barry Carl was hired to take his place.