Naturally 7 at the Playboy Jazz Fest Saturday

The 32nd Playboy Jazz Festival is this weekend and there are several big names playing, including George Benson, Chick Corea and The Manhattan Transfer.

Among the groups performing, is Naturally 7, which is something you've never seen or heard before. It's two parts Boyz II Men, two parts Take 6, two parts Bobby McFerrin and one part The Art of Noise.

The group is seven guys from New York led by a former English teacher, who all sing and harmonize, while some of them rap and beat box and others vocalize the sounds of actual instruments such as harmonica, bass, drums, percussion, guitar, clarinet, trumpet and scratching. They don't play those instruments - they sing them. It's McFerrin to the 7th power.

In their songs and on their upcoming album called "VocalPlay - also the adopted name of their music - you hear a amalgam of sounds that are all done by someone's voice. Sometimes effects are added to the voices in the studio for the album, but people who play instruments do that too.

"We treat our voices like an acoustic guitar," says Roger N'Glish' Thomas, the main spokesman for the group. "We treat them all naturally."

Each of the performers who imitate instruments actually listen carefully and study the sounds, so they can duplicate them either on record or live. They also take the instrument sounds that are closest to their own registers - i.e. the guy with the lowest voice chooses bass, not piccolo. In addition, for added visual effect, they sometimes also pantomime their respective instruments as they do them live, particularly Warren Thomas (drums) and Hops Hutton (bass).

"We study the sounds of the instrument," said Roger Thomas "One thing we do is learn how it (the actual instrument) moves from one note to another. Or get the idea of why it happens.'

The group started in 1999 and has been evolving ever since. Roger had developed an affinity for a cappella groups and sounds while living in New York City and with his brother and five other singers, the group won consecutive singing contests, including on a national level.

After they won, Roger was torn between being an a cappella group or a traditional band. Then he had the idea to be both. Warren - who had always want to play the drums - turned his attention to 'playing' drums vocally and the group started to gel.

The group has recorded four albums so far, and the newest is 'VocalPlay.' They have gained a wave a popularity after touring in Europe and with Michael Buble. Along the way, they have made several videos, including one for their remake of the Phil Collins 'In the Air Tonight,' - which has gotten considerably play on MTV Europe - and there are dozens of videos on youtube of them performing. One particular video shows the group sitting in a subway train in Paris and singing at full volume with each of the other travelers reluctantly around to watch them - one at a time.

Their album is a marvel to listen to, with all of the variety of sounds. The singing is stellar and. as you listen, its hard to imagine that all of the sounds on the album are done by a human voice - but they are.

Check out some of the videos on youtube here, here (that's the Paris one), here and here and if you're heading the Hollywood Bowl tomorrow, pay close attention to what they do. It's pretty amazing.