Uh-oh, there's my former piano teacher, Phil Kesler thought as he looked out from the stage at the Midvale Senior Center. He hadn't practiced in . . . um . . . awhile. But his teacher, exacting Mrs. Kofford, looked entirely pleased with Kesler's new kind of music.
Kesler and five of his friends sing and create vocal percussion as Voice Male, an a cappella group that wowed the crowd in Midvale last fall. Their return engagement is set for 7 tonight, and this time the men will give a free concert in Midvale City Park, 400 W. 7500 South.
"Everybody was raving about them last time," concert organizer Wade Walker said.
This time, he added, you should come early, between 5:30 and 6:30 p.m., for hamburgers, hot dogs and cold drinks. Dinner will be inexpensive, and a group of local school administrators will start the evening with some Dixieland jazz, Walker promised. The jazz band will start at 6 p.m.
"Being outdoors is great, especially on a summer evening. People are more relaxed, and we can see their faces," said Kesler. Voice Male has performed at colleges, stadiums and event centers from California to Kansas City. But Kesler has a particular feeling for Midvale, the place where he grew up.
"It's coming home for me," he said. "It's good to see my piano teacher."
Kesler, 31, started his singing career in the Salt Lake Children's Choir. "I was an 11-year-old soprano," he said. "Things have changed since then."
The Midvaler met his future bandmates at Utah State University in the mid-1990s, and Voice Male has since recorded five CDs. The group's Christmas CD, "Jingles," won 1999's Contemporary A Cappella Society award for best holiday album. In Midvale Saturday night, the men will offer songs from their latest CD, "Hooked," to be released in mid-July.
"We're pretty spontaneous. We don't have a set list," Kesler said. But chances are good Voice Male will sing the Rascals' "Good Lovin,' " James Taylor's "Only One," the barbershop chestnut "When Ma Was Courtin' Pa," Katrina and the Wave's "Walkin' on Sunshine" and "Breakfast at Tiffany's," a more recent hit from Deep Blue Something. But don't expect to hear the usual versions. "A cappella gives you a different feeling from when you're listening to the radio," Kesler said.
In 1994 John Luthy, the force behind Voice Male's vocal percussion, wanted to enrich the group's singing. He'd been listening to Dave Boyce and Bob Ahlander, singers who formed the groups Vocal Point and Extempo at Brigham Young University. They were producing all kinds of sounds — bass and snare drums, trumpets, cymbals, clarinets — via their mouths and vocal cords. Luthy was intrigued.
"I started out just drumming along with the radio, or while I was walking across campus" at USU, he said. "At first, it sounded pretty dumb. But in the six years since, "it's gotten better." Now Voice Male sounds like a band, but the band needn't haul anything heavy up on stage. Their drums, reed and wind instruments are self-contained.
The best part of performing, for Luthy, is stepping down off the stage after singing Voice Male's trademark finale, the 1961 Tokens hit "The Lion Sleeps Tonight."
"I really like talking to the kids after the show," he said. "I think people enjoy us because we try for a real rapport with them. It's a down-home thing."
Voice Male chooses its songs with care, added Kesler. "We want to be good entertainment for families." The singers also strive to keep the crowd laughing. "We have some pretty big hams in our group," Kesler said. Luthy added that the concerts quickly turn into comedy shows, with the singers inventing new songs based on suggestions from the crowd.
Luthy just graduated from law school at BYU and is living in Midvale while preparing for the bar exam. Kesler and fellow Voice Malers Mike Bearden, Richard McAllister, John Huff and Mike Willson are scattered around Utah, working in real estate, computers and graphic design. The six meet one night a week in Salt Lake City to rehearse and record.
"We all love music enough that we manage to make time for it," said Kesler.
Admission to Voice Male's concert is free, thanks to Salt Lake County's Zoo, Arts and Parks fund. The fund, approved by voters in November 1997, supplies the Midvale Arts Council with $7,500 per year for local events.
Midvale has three community concerts every year plus three musical theater productions in fall, spring and summer.
E-mail: durbani@desnews.com