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ironlips

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Everything posted by ironlips

  1. So far we've recalled Brubeck music in drum corps here: "Take Five" - Blessed Sacrament, Blue Devils, Skyliners "Blue Rondo a la Turk" - Sunrisers, Garfield Cadets "Unsquare Dance" - Boston Crusaders "Take Five Mambo" - (Tito Puente's version) - Bluecoats I'm certain there are others.
  2. The incomparable Dave Brubeck passed this morning, just a few hours short of turning 92. His influence on drum corps is well documented, from Gerry Shelmer's Boston, Garfield and Sunriser solos to a more recent Blue Devils show. He was hip to drum corps, of course. He was hip to everything. His mother was a piano teacher in Concord and once, when he was recording for the Concord Jazz label, I got a chance to interview him. He was most complimentary about the way corps were approaching jazz. If I can locate the audio, I'll include it in a segment of "Off the Record". Dave Brubeck was a brilliant and gracious man. We are fortunate to have shared the planet with him.
  3. I would suggest that the reason your brain makes those kinds of connections, Tom, is that you are a true Renaissance man. To someone like this, there is no such thing as "off topic".
  4. That G.P. guy...didn't he win a rather prestigeous Individual Contest?
  5. Try searching the sub-heading of this thread, in the usual places.
  6. It's not about technique, programming or performance, though they certainly bring all that. It's not about organization or management style or fundraising. This is about heart, big-time heart. You may have seen them at the parade after their 14 hour bus ride from Nashville and their 1 AM wake up call to march the 7 or so miles from Central Park West to Herald Square, playing constantly for the several hundred thousand bystanders. Everybody else then collapsed onto their busses and/or went to lunch. The Father Ryan Band went to Far Rockaway with a police escort and did a drive-by parade for people whose lives had been turned upside down by a hurricane. Many corps and bands are constantly asking for your support. They have no choice. How many will give this kind of support to others? Lesson learned...from a Nashville band. They have significant Drum Corps DNA, by the way. Former Madison Scout performer and Santa Clara Vanguard staffer, Damon Padilla, teaches their champion guard. News Center 4 in NY shot a feature segment, subtitled as above. It's worth viewing. It's about heart. PS. In delivering this lesson, it's a good bet the band members learned something about heart, as well.
  7. Harold, Issac and Melanie, Your friends wish you and SNJ a very successful season.
  8. Donny, Frank's solo is on the Fleetwood CD "Brass by Night", recorded in 1961 and available here: http://www.fleetwoodsounds.com/catalog/ I have heard alternate takes on a couple of Stetson Richmond discs years ago, but they will be very difficult to track down. FD
  9. The thing is, he was "a natural". I mean he had that sound (every musician recognizes it) that appeared to be absolutely effortless. The rest of us have to work our gonads off to achieve an approximation of it but some just seem to produce it witout any stress at all. Now, of course, that is not true but their struggle never finds its way into the sound. I often play Frank's solo in "Mardi Gras March" at the end of my warm up, just to make sure I'm ready to perform, but it always takes physical effort and concentration, and never sounds like him. Understand I have benn doing this since around 1964. Most people on DCP have never heard of him but his actual impact is enormous. He influenced everybody from the 1950's onward, whether they realized it or not. If Tommy Martin is the Harry James of Drum Corps and John Simpson and Billy Hightower were the Tommy Dorsey and J.J. Johnson, Frank Buscemi was the Doc Severensen. Anyone I ever taught got a taste of him if I was doing my job. Whenever any soloist is heard in drum corps, Frank Buscemi's spirit is there. That is his legacy.
  10. Re Cabs in Cuba: They were welcomed and had a ball, as well as lots of cigars and rum and Cokes. The US at the time was supporting a shady dictator named Batista until Fidel and the boys pushed him out. He was an SOB, but he was OUR SOB, as the prevailing Pentagon lingo went. Havana had been an American playground for years with plenty of booze and gambling. The Communist takeover changed all that and was the best thing ever to have happened for Las Vegas and the US money mob, not to mention the Rat Pack boys.
  11. Nothing gets by Keith. Yes, Satchmo refused to go to Russia, in protest for what he saw as Eisenhower's reluctance to stand up to southern racists. He had travelled globally for the State Department to several of the African nations who were emerging from the period of European colonialism. The Eisenhower administration was very anxious to befriend them before the Soviets did and sent massive foreign aid their way. Visits by American musical artists were visible symbols of this outreach.
  12. Steve may be onto something here. Narrowing focus is the key to a good thesis. Recall first that we are discussing the Eisenhower administration (1952-58), so Glenn Miller and Barry Sadler are outside the frame, as are Dionne Warwick and Burt Bacharach...etc. Also, the OP references "The Eisenhower administration's use of music to buttress domestic Americanism." Note "domestic". This implies promoting a patriotic agenda here at home, rather than burnishing America's cultural image abroad as the administration had actually done by virtue of sending Louis Armstrong, Dave Brubeck and others on a world tour as musical ambassadors. I would suggest a focus on that event and the deletion of "domestic" from the premise. Drilling a bit deeper, it might be scholarly to examine how these particular artists were chosen, and by whom. The State Department organized these tours, I believe. Was there financial and/or logistical support from the record labels? If so, what did they receive in return? What is contained in the documents pertaining to follow up discussions as to the residual impact in foreign lands on the image of America? Radio Free Europe's iconic host Willis Conover broadcast American music continually across the continent and over the "iron curtain". Did the physical presence of the musicians make a difference? If so, how could that be measured? That's enough for a term paper, if not a master's thesis. Aside: The OP has been conspicuously absent here and may have moved on to other things. If that's the case, I'll be on my way to the library to begin preparation for my dissertation on this topic.
  13. There is so little understanding of the basics of copyright, even among professionals. These pieces are "original" to the authors, as are all compositions. Those authors (the gifted Mr. Thrower, for example) are entitled to all the rights of the copyright holder, including the right to collect a fee for synchronization. These fees are negotiable.
  14. Frank left us a couple of days ago. Many of us had memorized his solos years before we ever met the man. Not that we could actually play them, even after we knew the notes, for only he could do them justice. We knew them by heart however, from the recordings we played endlessly. Even now these are sounding loud and clear in my mind. What a baseball bat was to Ted Williams, a sporano bugle was to Frank Buscemi: pure poetry. We thought of him as "the best of the best", as gracious and unselfish as he was gifted. Frank Buscemi and the beautiful sounds he created will be remembered by all who ever knew or heard him.
  15. I have it on very good authority that Jim Ott and the rest of the BD staff heard the Precisionaires and immediately flipped. They were a major inspiration for what followed out of Northern CA. The brass instructor for Osage was the charismatic Bobby Hagglund, a former St. Paul Scout who was playing trombone with a killer funk/R&B group out of Minneapolis called Haze. It's no wonder his hornline could bring it. (Bobby also ghost wrote for a very prominent drum corps arranger known for his 'groove' charts.) Haze has a website with some fine examples of their sound. They used to open for the Jackson 5 on tour. Sadly, Bobby passed on about a month ago. His legacy continues to this day however, through the classic recordings of BDs, VK, Bridgemen and Precisionaires as well as within the hearts of his former students and colleagues.
  16. Jim is right about Harry Truman's campaign song, but it was Adlai Stevenson who ran against Eisenhower in both '52 and '56. I have no recollection of either man's campaign anthem. As a youngster, knowing that my family had been dyed-in-the-wool New Deal Democrats, I asked my bartender father why he supported Eisenhower. On one level it made sense since I was aware that my dad and uncles had fought their way through Europe a few years earlier with General Patton and the boys but still, Ike was a Republican, and my older sister was adamant in her support for Stevenson. "What's the difference between Democrats and Republicans, Pop?", I asked at the dinner table one night. "Well", he replied, "the Democrats will take all your money and pretty much p..s it away, and the Republicans will take all your money and pretty much keep it for themselves." If he were alive today he'd make a great debate moderator, I think. And he might even be able to chime in on the original poster's premise. Bartenders know a lot.
  17. I am genuinely interested in the original poster's thesis topic: "The Eisenhower administration's use of music..." Can you elaborate a bit? Naturally, you don't want to provide someone else with a made-to-order precis given the competitive nature of academic research, but this subject piqued my interest, and I hereby relinquish any claims to the fruits of your above-mentioned project. As a college instructor, I am sometimes asked to evaluate both Masters and Doctoral theses, and would be more than willing to do so in this case should it be helpful. Feel free to PM me. Frank
  18. I have a degree in History and Government and a very good recollection of life during the Eisenhower administration. If you have any actual direct evidence of the executive branch using music in an attempt to manipulate public opinion this certainly could be a suitable thesis topic. McCarthyism was still a factor during Ike's early administration, and "god-less communism" a pariah. (I recall how ecstatic the good Dominican Sisters of Sacred Heart School were when "under God" was inserted into the Pledge of Allegiance as a direct response to those atheistic Russians.) There was plenty of patriotic music left over from the two world wars and it was certainly ubiquitous in drum corps. But on the popular commercial scene those commie lefty folk singers and hoodlum rock and rollers were starting to push Perry Como out of the way. Then that Little Rock thing happened and Ike got pretty busy. Did he have time to influence the playlist on "The Make-Believe Ballroom" or "Your Hit Parade"? Have you got any specifics? If so, I'm on your side.
  19. Al was one of the most respected elders in drum corps. Deepest condolences to his family and friends.
  20. That would be the incomparable John Simpson, the favorite baritone soloist of Truman Crawford (USAF D&B Corps) and Hy Dreitzer (Skyliners). Tommy Martin and he were colleagues in both hornlines.
  21. I'll second that. Arturo Sandoval will not disappoint. Expect soaring trumpet and punching piano, served with a generous helping of deep groove clave.
  22. Bob is the ideal person for this role. He combines experience and vision, both of which will be required for the Hall of Fame to move forward. This is indeed welcome news.
  23. Mike, I believe Dynasty was working on something like this a few years ago, but I'm not sure if it's in production.
  24. This summer being the 150th anniversary of the composing of Taps by Civil War bugler Oliver Wilcox Norton and Gen. Daniel Butterfield, it's the ideal time to volunteer for Bugles Across America: www.buglesacrossamerica.org Join the hundreds of other current and former drum corps buglers who have done so. Frank Dorritie (former) Sgt. E-5 C Company, 1st Bn., 142nd Armor Div.
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