I was (and still am) bummed that Matt hasn't been with them, but that Ike dude sounds really good on those numbers. He does sound like early era Brian (and Matt) in that he has a nice, full "lead" voice and can also do the falsetto parts and move seamlessly between the two. Sometimes there are falsetto guys who are there more because they can hit the needed notes, but the actual "lead" voice and the tone are grating, but this guy has it nailed pretty well. Which makes sense if he has been doing Four Freshman stuff for years.
I wonder if Ike digs doing non-jazzy Four Freshman stuff like "Marcella."
Well, (and I wish Josh Hoisington would explain this because he does a great job of explaining it) Brian never really a true falsetto singer. It would only make sense that someone from the current Four Freshmen would come very close to how Brian used to sing.
I think we just use “falsetto” colloquially in discussions of the BB’s. Particularly when it comes to the live touring bands, the “falsetto” role essentially just means the guy doing the high/top harmony part, and singing the 60’s Brian leads that require notes in the higher register.
The live band had an interesting evolution when it came to this part. There was a period of time in the late 70’s and early 80’s when they barely had anyone doing those falsetto-ish bits. Before Foskett joined at the end of 1981, they really only had Al doing some of those parts (“Barbara Ann”) and then Bobby Figueroa (“I Get Around”), and even their bits were not always done in full, robust voice. I’ve heard some examples from 1979-1981 of “I Get Around” where the “Brian” part of the lead basically isn’t there, either because Bobby was singing it very quietly or they never had his mic mixed up enough.
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