Longtime Harmony Sweepstakes fans like us experienced a curious sense of deja vu while watching the Finals of NBC's "The Sing-Off." This was not surprising, of course, because the show was directly inspired by the Harmony Sweeps, but watching the first Champions, Nota, some of the singers looked very familiar. Searching the Sweeps website, we had to go back to the 2004 Finals, where a 7-man group from Puerto Rico named "Alpha", winners of the L.A. Regional, failed to place but impressed a lot of us in the audience. Since that evening "Alpha" members Edgar Rios, Johnny Figueroa and Ludwig Henderson joined with friends Jose Angel Rodriguez, Juan Eli Diaz and David Pinto to form the beautifully-named Nota, and the reaction of the tv audience, studio audience and judges underlined what everyone could tell from the first few notes-Nota ranks among the best, most entertaining a cappella groups in the world! There are 11 cuts on "Nota," covers of Lil' Wayne's "I Gotta Feeling," Jay Sean's "Down" (which has a marvelous salsa segueway), William "Smoky" Robinson's "Track of My Tears" and "My Girl;" Marc Anthony's "I Need to Know" and Maroon 5's "This Love;" and originals such as "You Own My All," by group member David, "Con mi nota en do" and "Solo sin ti" by Edgar, Ludwig, David and Eduardo Reyes, "Que tengo que hacer" and "Todo cambio." We're going to list the first cut, "I Gotta Feeling" as our favorite because listening to it we knew how good Nota is, and, as we expected, the other 11 cuts are all joyous, bilingual musical treats. Listen to the faux harmonica on cut #7, "My Girl," the faux electric guitar solo on cut #6, "This Love" or the faux horn section on "I Need to Know." Look and the amazing performance photos of the group in the liner notes, or go to YouTube and check out a couple live Nota performances. Then, like us, you'll be a huge Nota fan, turning on your friends to this sweet-singing, big fun group of a cappella champions! |
