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Catch Stan Kenton's Cuban Fire Suite series Kenton a Four Freshmen fan favorite 11/20/2009

The Four Freshmen today!

THE UW BIG BAND WILL BE PERFORMING STAN KENTON'S famed and challenging 'Cuban Fire' suite in a series of performances between Nov. 24 and Dec. 8 in the Madison area.

Kenton and his music are favorites of many Four Freshmen fans, in part due to Kenton's critical role in bringing the Freshmen to widespread public attention as the Freshmen began their career.

Wayne Corey reports on the series and schedule here.

IF YOU MISSED OUR FOUR FRESHMEN FAN GATHERING NOV. 19 at Madison's Brink Lounge, you'll also another chance in the next few months. As soon as we have a date confirmed, we'll announce it here.

We'll again schedule the party when the Madison Jazz Orchestra, which includes a number of Stan Kenton band arrangements in its book, will be appearing in its monthly Thursday night series.

Short of an appearance by the Freshmen themselves, this is sufficient reason to get together and be entertained while we have our own "Freshmen Talk" session.

ORDER YOUR FOUR FRESHMEN SOCIETY CAR WINDOW DECAL and help bring the Four Freshmen and their fans to more public attention. Send $3 for each decal ordered to Four Freshmen Society, Attn: Decal, 6900 Hunters Knoll NE, Atlanta, GA 30328-1763. Make checks payable to Four Freshmen Society. Include your mailing address. (Photo courtesy of Ray Gardner)

THE 2009 FOUR FRESHMEN SOCIETY'S FAN CONVENTION AND FOUR FRESHMEN ALUMNI REUNION in Atlanta now is history, but fans can still share in the music and fun.

-- Read our extensive recount of many of the highlighs during the Aug. 20-22 gathering at the Crowne Plaza Ravini on Atlanta's northeast side. Click here.

-- Read Wayne Corey's review of the memorable Friday night Four Freshmen concert when, backed by a big band, they recreated many of the songs on the Freshmen's best-selling album, "Four Freshmen and Five Trombones." Click here.

-- Explore a treasure trove of video and still photos from the convention, the best documented in sight and sound ever. Click here.

-- Longtime Freshman fan and convention attendee Ray Gardner shares his own report on the convention here.

NOW YOU CAN GET NEWS AROUND THE FOUR FRESHMEN AT TWITTER! Check out FFFANFARE for brief messages -- some of them exclusive -- about all things Four Freshmen. You don't need a Twitter account of your own to access them (but those on Twitter can have messages sent automatically to them at time of posting.) Visit, then bookmark, twitter.com/fffanfare.

READ ABOUT BRIAN EICHENBERGER'S OWN JUST-RELEASED ALBUM (cover at right) here!

SING ALONG ON A FRESHMEN SONG. If you like to sing and sometimes wonder what it might be like to sing with the Four Freshmen, with you covering one of the parts, now you have your chance.

Four Freshmen "superfan" and musician Yas Ichiura has set up an online studio where you can pick both your Four Freshmen song from a list he provides as well as the part you want to sing, download the sheet music to refer to, and then join in the other three voices (with Yas covering all of the parts).

Even if you don't sing, you may get a kick out of hearing a Four Freshmen arrangement with one of the parts missing.

Yas explains how to do it here.

What a great gift to Four Freshmen fans from Yas!

THE LATEST ISSUE OF 'FRESH NEWS' NOW IS AVAILABLE ONLINE. To read the July-September 2009 edition of our international Society newsletter (and others issued since January 2002), click here.

JOIN THE FOUR FRESHMEN SOCIETY! Click here for more details.

We still have more information for you on our second main news page. Click here.