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Freddie Mercury (Michael Kluch)
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Freddie Mercury was born as Farrokh Bulsar on September 5, 1946, in Stone\nTown in Zanzibar. At the age of less than nine, in 1955, he left his native\nZanzibar, when he was sent to St. Peter's\u00a0boarding school in Panchgani\n(Mumbai), where he received classical English education as well as his first\nmusical background in the form of piano lessons. It was there that the\ntransformation of his name from \u201eFarrokh\u201c to \u201eFreddie\u201c took place, as\nhis classmates and teachers began to call him so for practical reasons. The name\nalso stuck among friends and family members, so the famous singer accepted it as\nhis own. While at St. Peter's, he also founded his first group, The Hectics, in\nwhich he played the piano. However, not much is known about Mercury's\u00a0musical\neducation. Reportedly, his musical talents enchanted several professors at the\nboarding school, so they made a point of supporting them. It is likely that he\ngot a certain vocal education as well, although it is also said that Freddie had\nnever studied singing\u2014but we'll focus on this later on. In 1963, he left the\nboarding school and returned to Zanzibar, where he completed the last two years\nof studies at St. Joseph's\u00a0Roman Catholic school. Freddie's\u00a0father, Bomi,\nworked in Zanzibar in the British Colonial Administration as a judicial clerk.\nThanks to that Freddie got a relatively good background, and maybe also for this\nreason the family left for Great Britain after the Zanzibar Revolution in\n1964.\u00a0However, little is known about this event's\u00a0circum\u00adstances as well, and\nthere are several different versions of the story. In any case, the family ended\nup living in the London suburb of Feltham, and in 1966\u00a0Freddie began to study\nat London's\u00a0Ealing College of Art, which further shaped his artistic life and\nwhere he met Tim Staffell. Tim and Freddie became inseparable friends and\nengaged in making different kinds of music together. Freddie never neglected\nmusic. During this period, he got involved in the bands Wreckage and IBEX, and\nduring the same time Tim Staffell, back then a member of The Smile band,\nintroduced him to Brian May and Roger Taylor. In Freddie's\u00a0opinion, The Smile\ndid not use their full potential, and so Freddie proposed that he could become\nthe frontman. Tim did not like it though, so he left The Smile. And that's\u00a0how\na new group formed, the one that would later be called QUEEN!\u2028\u2028
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Freddie Mercury = Queen, and Queen = Freddie Mercury\u2014at least this is how\nthe frontman of the legendary British band is perceived by the general public.\nAnd it's\u00a0not a coincidence. Freddie Mercury was undoubtedly the most\nextravagant, the most versatile and the most gifted band member. Although his\nmain domain was singing, one may not leave unmentioned also his tremendous\ncomposing talent, ability to play the piano, movement skill, sense of detail, as\nwell as his overall desire to always go further and be one step ahead of the\nothers. It was him who proposed the band's\u00a0name and logo, and it was also him\nwho always had something to say in any matter. Freddie Mercury together with\nBrian May determined Queen's\u00a0main course\u2014not only through the vocals and Red\nSpecial, but also by defining the melodic procedures, vocal layering, etc. He\nwas a gifted composer\u2014notice some Mozart elements e.g. in the Love Of My Life;\nhis Bohemian Rhapsody became the most successful song of the millennium.\nAlthough he played the piano often, Freddie Mercury was not a particularly\nsuperior pianist. Still, he was able to captivate the audience with his\nextremely accurate playing style. Roger Taylor claimed that he was more precise\nthan a metronome. One can suppose that if he had devoted himself to the piano,\nhe could have become a great pianist too. For instance, his wrist was very\nrelaxed when he was playing, which one can notice listening to the introductory\ntunes of the Seven Seas of\u00a0Rhye.
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\u2028Is it possible to break down Mercury's\u00a0singing technique at all? In part\nit is, but this would require certain context. First of all, I\u00a0would like to\nbring up the very discussed topic of whether Freddie was a tenor or a baritone.\nAt first glance, all this is a very relative thing, since individual voice types\nare graduated according to the ranges. How to measure it for a singer who is so\nvocally endowed, able to cover the normal baritone range as well exceed into the\ntenor range, though? I\u00a0am inclined towards the opinion that Freddie was a\nbaritone with tenor overlap. That is, his voice when speaking normally does not\neven remotely resemble Karel Gott's\u00a0well-known high-pitched voice, which is so\ntypical for the tenors. And although Freddie was not a big man for\nsure\u2014especially not in the 1970s\u2014his voice was very strong, supported by\nmany factors. The wide-open mouth, stuck out chest, body cavities, and, of\ncourse, his jaws were what gave his vocal that amazing strength, extent and\ntimbre. The teeth, for instance, played an important role in the color of\nMercury's\u00a0voice. The teeth, after the cavities, are the last resonator in the\nhead and face that affects it. Freddie had a total of 36\u00a0teeth, which is\n4\u00a0more than what is normal for an adult. In one part of the oral cavity, he\neven had two rows if them, which was also the cause of his noticeable overbite.\nNo wonder he refused any surgery\u2014he feared for his voice just like Barbara\nStreisand for her nose.\u2028 So even though some might claim that a\nsinger's\u00a0instrument are the vocal cords, it is actually the whole body. It must\nalways function well. Any inflammation or swelling of the cavities directly\naffects the overall result. It is similar to how a guitar works, where the pitch\nis determined by how the string is tuned (in case of the voice, these strings\nare the vocal cords), the sound color depends on the body of the guitar + the\nmaterial from which it is made (body cavities + constitution of the human body).\nAll in all, I\u00a0do not want to go into much detail here, but to understand\nFreddie's\u00a0style, one should realize this. The masterful technique and the\nability to work with the tone were essential for his bel canto singing (in other\nwords, with minimum effort for the maximum effect\u2014or the exposed singing, not\nthe exposed roaring) and huge vocal extent. Based on the studio recordings, his\nchest/head range can be measured from \u201ebig F\u201c to \u201eF2\u201c, and when using\nfalsetto he gets as far as to \u201eD3\u201c. Technically speaking, his range covered\nalmost 4\u00a0octaves, and we don't know for sure whether perhaps there would not\nstill be reserves for more. When necessary, Mercury modulated his voice to such\nan extent that it went from the velvety, delicate bel canto color into the\n\u201echainsaw\u201c mode. Another excellent technique in his case was the smooth\ntransition between individual vocal registers (chest tone, head tone, falsetto).\nThis really added a special kind of magic. It is worth pointing out that some\nsingers cannot master this technology during their whole lives, while others\nneed to keep learning it for years. Mercury was able to move from one register\nto another, even in the most exposed moments, just like that. Some say that\nFreddie never studied singing, but I\u00a0personally do not support this point of\nview. I\u00a0believe he must have had at least some basics of classical singing. I'm\nnot talking about taking classes with a mentor systematically. He could have\nlearned something during his studies in India (as I\u00a0have hinted in the\nintroduction) and later just pick up something here and there occasionally. On\nthe other hand, he had a huge talent, so everything is possible. His way of\nsinging and leading the tone in any case bordered almost with the opera\ntechnique, and so the fact that he flirted with this area is not surprising.\nThis, of course, does not mean that he could sing the opera just like that\u2014it\nis a different way of singing\u2014but he definitely had a very good foundation and\ndisposition for it.\u2028\u2028
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Subjectively
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\u2028\u2028And how do I\u00a0perceive the frontman's\u00a0role in our Queen tribute band?\nAs far as I'm concerned, being in Freddie's\u00a0position is nothing easy. It is not\njust about the expression and the color of the voice. All this is naturally also\nabout meeting the huge expectations I\u00a0get from the audience. Moreover,\nFreddie's\u00a0singing in studio songs was different from live performances. In the\nstudio you obviously have an endless number of attempts to sing a high key, you\nhave your time and you can come in well rested, while on a tour performing live\nin front of people the singer always has only one attempt. Therefore, Freddie\noften sang the songs at concerts differently than in the studio. He even\ntransposed some songs lower (for example, Queen played Who Wants To Live Forever\nlive one tonality below the studio recording\u2014we also have this song transposed\nlike that); other times Roger Taylor took over the main vocal line instead, so\nthat Roger was amplified and Freddie put in the background. But this is not\nsurprising. In Queen's\u00a0case, the songs are highly exposed from the\nsinger's\u00a0perspec\u00adtive and they require really high concentration to stay in\nthe optimal shape (especially during a tour). It is understandable, however,\nthat the audience wants to hear the songs just as they know them from the radio.\nThis is a credo not only for me, but also for our whole band. Since we play and\nsing all the songs in the same keys as Queen did, I\u00a0make a point of following\nstrict voice hygiene before our performances\u2014avoid smoking, drinking or\nstaying in a smoky environment, sleep a lot, inhale Vincentka (highly\nmineralized natural mineral water with beneficial effects on mucous membranes of\nthe respiratory tract). Of course, it is also necessary to continuously work on\nthe technique and I\u00a0also orient mine towards bel canto. Fortunately, my voice\nrange (chest/head register from \u201ebig G\u201c to \u201eE2\u201c + falsetto to \u201eD3\u201c)\nand disposition allow me to sing the songs in their original keys and\ntechnically approximate Freddie. It is therefore always a huge challenge for me\nto face the audience and meet their expectations. Freddie, however, was a\nshowman, and on the podium, he really went wild. I\u00a0always seek a compromise\nbetween parodying (which, in my opinion, nobody really wants) and complete\nmovement passivity (which is also not interesting for anyone). On live\nperformances, in the Crazy Little Thing Called Love Freddie played the\nguitar\u2014from the beginning a twelve-string acoustic guitar, later a white\nFender Telecaster, which, by the way, got stolen after the Magic Tour in\n1986.\u00a0If the technical conditions allow so, I\u00a0also play a white Fender\nTelecaster and in some other songs accompany the band on the\u00a0piano.
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\u2028\u2028Freddie Mercury was undoubtedly one of the greatest personalities of\nthe modern art, and it is a tremendous honor for me to sing and play the songs\nwhich he and Queen composed. Getting to know them was one of the last factors\nthat all together influenced my relationship to music and subsequently my whole\nfuture life. I\u00a0do my best trying to transfer the energy that I\u00a0feel when\nsinging to the audience, and if this happens, the harmony is perfect. Although\nI\u00a0do not want to grow old as a singer in a tribute band, I\u00a0firmly believe that\nwe will be able to shift this genre further, beyond the limits of its\nconventional perception by the audience. This has always been our goal, although\nthe journey is long and challenging.\u2028
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