Featured Columns
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Written by Courtney Brandt
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Saturday, 12 January 2008 |
 DCI – Back to Basics
“As the audition dates grow near and you're having doubts, go for it! You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Nothing is impossible.”
Irina Gonzalez
So…you’ve been to the shows and competitions, you’ve tracked your favorite Corps all over the States and beyond and you have decided that this is the year that you audition for Drum Corps International. First of all, let me say a big “congratulations.” No matter what the outcome, you’ve committed to something bigger than yourself, and you’ve gone farther than a lot of people ever will. Sure, there’s always a lot of talk about auditioning, but you’ve actually chosen to follow through. So, even though you might be from one of the smallest bands in your region, or have to travel miles and miles to get to the audition site, you’re not going to let that stop you, right? At the end of the day there are numerous excuses you could give, but if you don’t audition now, then you are one more season closer to aging out, and then you’ll always wonder what might have been. When the next season comes around, you want to be on the field performing and not watching from the sidelines, right?
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Written by Cozy Baker
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Wednesday, 12 December 2007 |
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 Heave to and trice up for the holidays! The scuttlebutt regarding DCAssociates in aught eight appears Bristol with clear horizons and sizzling hot entertainment. The 22 corps which attended the DCA Championships last Labor Day weekend will probably grow a bit, add new names and one old one, the Kingston Grenadiers.
22 is a unique number of late. The DCInternational Championships last August at the Rose Bowl had 44 corps, 22 Division I corps (now labeled World Class) and 22 DII/III corps (Open Class). While DCI will begin 10 years at the new Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, DCA will host Labor Day weekend festivities at Paetec Park in Rochester, NY, for the third consecutive year, and '09 will make the fourth year. Both circuits may have slightly higher numbers at finals in '08.
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Written by Cozy Baker
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Saturday, 08 December 2007 |
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 Happy holidays to all. Since the holidays, to me, mean Christmas, I'ma gonna say: Merry Christmas. Ho ho ho! Happy New Year, whether it's Jan. 1, Feb. 23, or otherwise for you and yours.
Stewart Law, WI...To get into the corps holiday spirit, Steve "Hairbear" Masters and I Ipassed up to Racine, WI, through the Windy City, uphill both ways, for the Kilties open house and banquet Dec. 1-2. Well, actually, I forgot my Ipass, leaving it in my trusty Cowboy Cadillac, pickup. Thanks to a pirate's chest full of 80 cent doubloons, we made it pronto. As Scott Stewart, the famed Madison Scouts director, had taken the reins of the Mad Plaid, we were anxious to experience the Stewart Stage of the Kilties firsthand. Enduring a snowstorm that began at the Wisconsin state line, we trudged through the sludge to attend Stewart's initial Kiltie open house. I'd be remiss to not mention that Jerry Kelsey, '06 Hall of Famer, had done a phenomenal job with the Kilties as program coordinator, horn arranger and brass cap head. Kelsey continues to do a fine job for the Empire Statesmen.
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Written by Frank Dorritie
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Thursday, 06 December 2007 |
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 “Vocals, Narration, and the Trouble with Amps”
To begin with, full disclosure: some of this is my fault.
In 1977, Rich DeCola and I heard Joel Kaye’s New York Neophonic Orchestra (a kind of Kenton-meets-Maynard group) perform “I Don’t Know How to Love Him”, the signature ballad from Jesus Christ Superstar. It rocked, and seemed a natural for Garfield’s book as we sought to elevate the corps’ musical style to a hipper place.
Kaye’s version ends with the entire band singing a full-out plagal cadence “A-men”. This made perfect sense to us, and we tagged it to the finale, debuting this at a contest in upstate New York before a panel that included two of the most progressive and open-minded judges, Jerry Kelsey and Shirlee Whitcomb. Their reactions, and that of the audience, were overwhelmingly positive, bordering on the chaotic. Those adjudication tapes are among my most cherished possessions. We were all ecstatic and quite full of ourselves for being so very clever and cutting edge. And then the trouble began.
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Written by Jeremey "Spike" Van Wert
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Thursday, 29 November 2007 |
 It was late May of his age out year. Ray Valarde was marching his second year in the Vanguard snare line. His identical twin brother, Art, was the top bass drummer. Art and Ray were inseparable, living a drum corps dream they never thought possible back in their days with the Sound Machine Youth Marching Band. Their proud parents glowed with enthusiasm for the success of their boys. They were always in the front row screaming so loud the entire drum line shared quiet chuckles in full uniform standing in their opening sets ready for the drum major to count them off before a hometown crowd.
The news of that fateful night in late May of 1999 hit the corps like a tidal wave. Art was dead, Ray was severely burned - the victims of a freak car accident on a local freeway that tied up traffic for hours. The corps in mourning, Ray requiring skin grafts, the summer was off to a tragic beginning. Ray’s future was uncertain at the time, but following a heartbreaking funeral, he made a choice and walked back onto a rehearsal field after only three weeks in the hospital, wearing bandages and carrying unspeakable grief.
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