Nachfolger Christi Posted August 10, 2014 Share Posted August 10, 2014 NAILED IT again IMcomguy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
general_tsos_chicken2 Posted August 10, 2014 Share Posted August 10, 2014 hoping to see a different brass arranger at Phantom Regiment. My vote goes to frank sullivan! But another logical choice might be someone currently on their staff page who has arranged a championship program before... Would also see michael gaines return to cavaliers if not anywhere else... I really miss being wowed by his drill! 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
84BDsop Posted August 10, 2014 Share Posted August 10, 2014 Fairly safe in saying the top guys at BD aren't going anywhere. Some of the techs, yes...real life and such...but Downey, Meehan, Chandler, Johnson, etc? Nope...why mess with what's been working for decades? There ain't no revolving door at BD....never has been, 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nachfolger Christi Posted August 10, 2014 Share Posted August 10, 2014 Agreed 84BDsop...other corps need to learn from this team! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kdaddy Posted August 10, 2014 Share Posted August 10, 2014 Absolutely not. But it needs to be addressed. When you have a double digit subcaption in that department from very reputable guy like Jeff Prosperie during Finals week, that is a huge clue that something is awry. They've been 6th or lower for FOUR consecutive years now... 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014. This does not equate to a championship program. They were still only just 5th in 2010.... 5 years is enough in my book to make better choices. Current staff has been in place for three seasons, right? I'm not taking up for the percussion staff, just that it took from 2003 until 2007 for Crown's brass to be strong. Of course, the corps should naturally be able to attract more talent due to overall corps success than those mid-00s corps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lincoln Posted August 10, 2014 Share Posted August 10, 2014 (edited) You know, I wonder how much effort goes into staff development. I love cars. My dad worked for Ford and as a result, I grew up associated with their brands - hence the "Lincoln," moniker. I have been fortunate to watch the workings and management style of Ford's recently retired CEO Alan Mullaly. He came in and fired few people as part of the reworkings of Ford yet his management style changed a corporation and will for years to come be noted as a template for organizing a group of people. The solution is not always to fire or replace people. Alan changed the attitude of Ford. Sometimes the right people are there but the right atmosphere isn't. What prevents being effective? Is it something within other people? I sincerely believe in the philosophy that everyone has something to give. I hope some corps learn from this and learn to enhance the staff they have. I hate the "fire them" attitude. I absolutely hate it. Edited August 10, 2014 by Lincoln 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamMan Posted August 10, 2014 Share Posted August 10, 2014 I wouldn't be surprised to see a change in percussion staff at Crown, although I said the exact same thing last year. That's a strange beast, as the shows are clearly designed to showcase a fantastic brass section with percussion generally being an afterthought. This points more towards needing a better music designer. The pit gets almost no time to carry a melody or even play some riffs. Their "big moments" this year was playing 8 beats of triplets in the opener and then the "Jupiter" intro. They pretty much sat out the muffler feature (except for some synth chords and bowed vibes, if I recall). I don't know how those decisions were made, but I think we can agree they weren't the right ones. Re: your bolded quote above. With 3 distinct percussion features already taking place before the BALLAD in this year's show, this was clearly not the case. Design choices were off the mark this year, I don't think many people would dispute that. No corps, at least in my memory, has ever featured their weakest section as much as Crown did this year. That cost them a lot of points not just in percussion, but GE and for much of the season, Music Analysis, which eventually caught up a little at the end. But likely a bit too late at that point. Yes, a change needs to be made not just in percussion, but perhaps on the creative end of things as a whole. While last year was superb, it could have easily ended up differently. Their inability to maximize their creativity to produce an effective ending (2010 was a total failure, for example) has really been their second Achilles heel for so many years. You can only make so many Crown sets during your closer before it becomes overdone. And we're already there. If they would use it earlier on in the show one of these years and devise some sort of a creative closing segment that didn't include a morphing crown segment, I think they'd not only push themselves further ahead, but they'd win over a lot more of the fans that have seemed to grow tired of the shtick by now. Obviously, they shouldn't change a thing in their brass department. Harloff, Klesch, and co. are absolute masters at what they do. They're simply being held back by creative choices and other performance weaknesses that aren't their responsibility. Exactly. They through too many small features when they should have just had the percussion ensemble continue the song in a less-challenging way. They seem to think that "Oh the brass isn't playing...RAM NOTES!" (Which a lot of other corps do as well). So we're still left with a pit that rarely carries the musical responsibility and a drumline that plays only decently (compared to the other top lines). So their shows have been coming to grinding halts when the brass cuts out. For a good example of what I think a good mix of features and such is, just listen to their 2007 show! The pit gets their fair share of sharing the melody, playing fast runs, playing the intro of songs, etc. The drumline gets some good fills, some features, etc. It's a wonderful blend! Now their pit is too focused on stuff that works for WGI (ramming notes, creating effects) and forgetting that they have to support a top hornline. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chaos001 Posted August 10, 2014 Share Posted August 10, 2014 hoping to see a different brass arranger at Phantom Regiment. My vote goes to frank sullivan! But another logical choice might be someone currently on their staff page who has arranged a championship program before... Would also see michael gaines return to cavaliers if not anywhere else... I really miss being wowed by his drill! Bring Gordon Henderson back to DCI!!! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emc2 Posted August 10, 2014 Share Posted August 10, 2014 Bring Gordon Henderson back to DCI!!! Would like to see M Gaines and Tommy get together at Boston. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
c.l. Posted August 10, 2014 Share Posted August 10, 2014 For a good example of what I think a good mix of features and such is, just listen to their 2007 show! The pit gets their fair share of sharing the melody, playing fast runs, playing the intro of songs, etc. The drumline gets some good fills, some features, etc. It's a wonderful blend! I loved 2007-2009. Sure there were a few years afterwards where they got similar scores to what they're receiving now, but I never really questioned some of the work or tuning that Beddis and co. did. Maybe someone else can speak on this, cuz I got nothing, but guys like Hannum (just one of many) have been doing this for a long time with previous success. What gives lately, is it members or techs or just plain tuning? I can't help but think that the sound they had this year magnified mistakes more than others, but I could be wrong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.