Music: Kevin Olusola's Cello-beatboxing; a member of the acapella group Pentatonix

Cafe Society
1

I did a search on his name and didn’t come up with anything other than the rock star IQ thread from some time ago.

I pay no attention to singing contest TV/Reality shows. I pay no attention to the Pitch Perfect/acapella craze. I am aware of some of the folks involved via the media when they do something that crosses over.

But I read about Pentatonix - maybe they have a new album coming out? - and remembered the refernce to him speaking a few languages and playing cello and a wind instrument and decided to check out a YouTube video - here: Kevin Olusola's Amazing Solo Cello Beatbox Combo VIDEO - YouTube

It is him “celloboxing” - playing the cello and beatboxing. It is excellent. He has a wonderful groove - similar to Ed Sheeran when Ed is looping. It is one thing to do a couple of things that allow you to accompany yourself; it is another to really set up a great groove and move the audience. Olusola does the latter.

I am not a cellist, but I love his tone - round and warm. I would be disappointed if knowledgable cello players judge his technique to be flawed somehow (i.e., fine for a non-symphony person, but…); it sounds great to my untrained ear. The fact that he uses it like a chordal rhythm instrument at times is wonderful - very Beach Boys’ Good Vibrations-ish and supports the beat boxing well.

What do folks think?

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I quite like Kevin and think he has a beautiful voice. His beatboxing skills are phenomenal, and provide a really great grounding for group works, but I’m always happy to hear him sing.

Unfortunately, I only barely play piano, so I can’t professionally judge his cello abilities, but I love the sound of that instrument, and I think it sounds lovely when he plays.

You might enjoy a video that Pentatonix did with the violinist Lindsey Sterling - she does that same sort of dubstep/beatboxing with her electric violin, and they did a video cover of the song “Radioactive” featuring her violin and Kevin on cello, which I actually prefer to the real version.

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Thanks - I will check it out.

4

Not a string player, but I think he’s fantastic. He got into Yale as a music major and was accepted at a few other places (Princeton, Stanford, Brown…), so yeah. Pretty phenomenal musician.

5

That man appears to be a bad ass on cello. My very limited knowledge of cello technique, gathered by helping my exe’s daughter with violin bowing, makes me think he has the chops to play pretty much whatever he wants and play it well.

And, oddly enough, given mine and Wordmans differing views on guitar technique in the past, it seems to me that his technique doesn’t really matter. He sounds awesome and that is all that matters.

Slee