people:
Four Freshmen
Founded in 1948 by four students at Butler University in Indianapolis, Ind., the Four Freshmen were a vocal group whose harmonies embraced the Barbershop Quartet tradition and took it a step further, adding Jazz influences and ultimately exerting an influence on Rock and Roll. The Freshmen started as a barbershop quartet called Hal’s Harmonizers, founded by brothers Ross and Don Barbour, who were enrolled in the university’s Arthur Jordan Conservatory of Music. After morphing into the Four Freshman, the members – all of whom doubled as instrumentalists, some playing several instruments — began performing in venues around the midwest, honing...