It all started way back in January of 1995, when one man, William Friedman, had a vision. His vision was that of an a cappella group of monstrous proportions, pooling the talents of the most highly trained and well-seasoned performers of the U of M community into a flawless, unstoppable sound machine that would be destined to rise to world-renowned fame and fortune.

Well, that vision didn't quite work out exactly. Actually, the real vision was that of The Gentlemen: a group of spirited young men banded together in the name of strong sound, energetic performance and musical brotherhood. Advertisements and audtions yielded the group from which the nine original Gentlemen (Will, Chris, Bill, Justine, Wampa, Joe, Plev, Dan, Rem) would arise.

So there we were. Late in January of 1995. Our voices fresh, our minds ready, our entire future in our hands. And sometime around then, it was Will Friedman who stood before us and spoke: "Guys, we have a concert scheduled for March 17th." Our voices barely introduced, our minds empty, and our entire future in our hands. We worked hard, rehersed often, and nailed down a 9-song set for the show. With the help of some friends and our sisters in a cappella, the Harmonettes, we got it together.

March 17, 1995 - St. Patrick's Day - the first Gentlemen concert, 7:30pm in the Union's U-Club. The Harmonettes, having recently rocked their own Winter '95 concert, performed an opening set for our show, and together we played to a packed house. The crowd gave great reviews... for a month and a half and a new name, it was an amazing start. Auditions in April brought us four new Gents: Andy, Matt, Chris Conrad and Scott. We hung out, made some plans, and broke for the summer, bidding farewell to the first of our Founding Alum, Willy Will, Chris, Bill and Justine, who promptly spread to the four corners of the earth (sort of). When we reconvened, 5-arrangements-by-Sizemore later, we held Fall auditions to find the last few keys to our sound: Jason, Dave and Ian. That brings us to...

Fall of 1995. 12 members strong and continuing our ascent, The Gentlemen took the next big step: a joint concert with The Harmonettes - in the 1200-seat Rackham Auditorium. December 1st was the night, and the ladies and gents played to a larger-than-expected crowd - with another great review of both groups.

Winter 1996 - Bidding farewell to Dave Lai, who was scheduled to transfer from U of M, the remaining Gents gigged and rehearsed onward. With a few more gigs under our belt for the term and a plethora of new music, we geared up for our first solo ticket in Rackham. The U of M Law School's Headnotes, a sweet-sounding co-ed a cappella group, appeared as special guests, adding their wonderful sound to the evening. Hard-core fans and a cappella compatriates made up the Sunday-night audience who turned out to enjoy the show, calling for two encores. One year and 1 week after the first Gents concert ever, we had come far.

Fall 1996 - Departing Founding Alums Rem, Paul and Joe bid us good luck, having helped select the 3 newest G-Men, Ben, Brad and Patrick, in the spring of '96. With a record crowd gating the 2nd Annual Joint Concert with the Harmonettes on Nov 2, the Gents prepare for new gigs, potential recording projects and next term's Winter Concert.

Winter 1997 - In their pattern of breaking a cappella trends, the Gents decide to forgo a major Spring Concert in the interests of pursuing gig work, concentrating on other campus appearances and entering the studio to begin recording for the first Gentlemen CD. On Valentine's Day of 1997, the Gents make their debut appearance at the 7th Annual "Monster's of A Cappella", the major annual a cappella event on campus.
Of course, plans change, and the Gents decide to do a Spring Concert of sorts, anyway, this time as a joint venture with the Harmonettes. The Gents are 6 men short after Winter 97 as we bid our goodbyes to our *sob* loving Dave Plevan, Andy, Jason, Matt, Dan Sarya and Ben Salisbury. But never to fear ... from the wilderness of buffaloland, they rampage on! From our April auditions, Evan, Dan Moon, Ben Freed, Mark, Jim and Will were recruited as we prepare for our 3rd Annual Joint Concert with the Harmonettes on the 1st of November.

Fall 1997 - Further exploits of the Gents this semester include opening up for Michigan State's Acaffellas and performing at the Annual SADD (Students Against Driving Drunk) convention following our joint concert with the Harmonettes, "South Parkapella".

Spring 1998/Fall 1998 - "After completing the winter 1998 term, there came what was known as the "great exodus from the plain." Only Pat Burns, Evan Scalzo, and Ian Tan remained members of the great Buffalo herd. In their search for fresh blood to revitalize the group, they stumbled upon Corey Slutsky and Alex Yeo in the Spring of 1998. The following Fall, Greg Frischman, Jeremy Geltman, Rob Humbracht, and Ben Rocher were indocrtrinated and consecrated and so forth. Dubbing the new members Masters of Vocal Magic in their own right, the proud 9 set forth to bring a new Golden Age of prosperity to the Gentlemen and a cappella all over the world. So it is written, and so it has been. The group performed at Rackham for their '98 Fall concert with the Harmonettes, and finally produced their first CD, "The Power of 100 Raging Buffalos."

Winter 1998 - We say goodbye to our beloved Patrick Burns after the League Underground Concert, and later we bid adieu to Ian "Tequila" Tan, as he goes off to work more with the Kopitones and his life. Alex Yeo also goes his own way... We welcome in newbie Kelson Smith, a freshman tenor in LS&A. Life continues...

Spring 1999 - Auditions come and auditions go, the Fall Concert "A Cappella Wars Episode 1: The Gentle Menace" goes on with great success, and with great work by our guests, the MSU Accafellas. Time passes, auditions end. Out of the woodworks comes a request by Nick Yu to audition - we think - and think - and think - and say okay - and voila! The newest Gentleman is recruited. We go our seperate ways for the summer, promising to hang out and drink tequila together over the summer, and we arrange music... forever...

Fall 1999 - Pre most of school - We arrive back in style and with fire as we perform during welcome week, for A Cappella rush(what a great idea - thanks Kym!), not to mention Tailgreat, a HUGE function! Gigs start lining up, and rehearsal is upped to 7... what... 9 hours a week! Holy cow! In light of this new schedule and determination, we change our name the GMEN, and we've got jerseys to prove it. We hold another set of lovely auditions and out of the fray comes new members sophmore Brent LaRowe(Bari/T2), freshman Jeremy Chassen(Bari/T2), freshman Kalman Nanes(T1), and freshman Dave Zohrob(T2/T1). The future of the group is now assured. MEANWHILE... Rob pulls out of his pocket - like 10 arrangements from the summer! We are really rollin now...

TIME PASSES

Fall 2004 -  Here's the rundown for the past 5 years. As much as a guy from 2003 can write it. Rob Humbracht totally rocked out the arrangements and with additions of Matt George, Thom Omar, Travis Hobrla, Aaron Perlman, Doug Swarts, et. al for all those we forgot, the Gentlemen, aka the G-Men...Gentlemen for formal, G-Men more informal, have been rollin'. Many years of great G-Men have come and gone, and 2004 became a year of rebirth. Kavin Chung's on hiatus for academia, Matt went to Amazin' Blue, as did Aaron, Trav is working for the Man (Microsoft) out in Seattle, and Thom's bummin' around his old hometown after being in the group FOREVER. So now the old guy is Joe Zanger-Nadis, G since Fall 2002. Michael Adams, Dustin Shea, Ruben Adery, Ty Reynolds, and Eugene Yip were inducted to G-ness in Fall of 2003. Ty then left to persue a solo music career (how rock 'n' roll is that?) and the 10 strong of Trav, Matt, Doug, Thom, Joe, Kavin, Eugene, Michael, Ruben, and Dustin all led the Gentlemen to qualify for their first ever ICCA competition in Winter 2004. (It was an honor to get nominated...needless to say the Dicks and Janes totally rocked it out as did AB, and the Accafellas of MSU rounded out the top 3. They didn't rank the rest, but we put it on our good, unbiased authority that we finished a strong 4th in a field of 6.)

Now comes NEW. We have a new class of Gs: Colter Starr, Ryan Huang, Kai Wang, Andrew Do, Alex Parsons, Mitch Voss, and James Kelly III. We have since been chosen back into the ICCA competition for the SECOND YEAR IN A ROW. We totally rock. Now the full dozen, we will be crazy cool for our upcoming concert, "The Va-GMen Monologues." Sporting new jerseys (same color scheme, though different style) we are headed to the next Era of the G.

Some members will be leaving after this semester, Joe to study in Italy for a semester, Michael is putting all his effort into Solar Car and their upcoming races in 2005, and Colter will be on to bigger and better things as he pursues his dreams at a different school. Michael will be back after his tenure elsewhere...we hope.

Fall 2005 - The G-Men have undergone many changes. Joe Zanger-Nadis has been chosen to lead the group as music director, whereas Dustin Shea has become the new President. The group now has another asian named Richard Li who is not serving as the website chair. The G's are preparing their newest arrangements and plan to unveil them throughout the semester. Last Spring break the G's traveled throughout the East Coast performing at various college campuses with local a capella groups.

MORE TIME HERE

Fall 2006 - Ruben Adery takes over as Music Director as we welcome in two new Gs: Gavin Chensue and Steve Kim.