ironlips

I can't speak for the other branches of the service, but Army Basic Training at Fort Dix in the winter of 1968 was tougher by a factor of 10 beyond anything I have ever witnessed to this day in drum corps. Understand, today's corps are conditioning musical atheletes. The military is training folks to endure much more rigorous challenges. There is simply no comparison. The "running block" in drum corps did come directly from Army/Marine Basic, however we did it in full field gear. It served Garfield well in preparation for '77 Denver, and the Blue Devils and others thereafter to the present.

Post Script: This "beast" can be tamed rather easily if you play it with a trombone approach. It's all about tone. In fact, it was originally marketed as a "Baro-tone" Bugle. The bell is trombone shaped and does not respond well to overblowing. Think "Tommy Dorsey" or "Kai Winding". The horn will center well and resonate.

Yes, it was the best of times. It was the worst of times, the end of Drum Corps for some, a fresh beginning for others. But it constituted a great opportunity for young self-taught corps brass instructors to work out all the various permutations and combinations, on the job. Most of the little parade corps I taught then had a mixed bag of G/D valve/slide, F# and F rotor, filed down tuning slide, sopranos, tenor sopranos, long French Horns (some with rotors, some with slip/ring slides, some with frozen tuning slides), small-bell baritones(like the one pictured, which incidentally, has a half-step F# rotor), and the occasional bass baritone. Nobody had a matched line. There were Ludwigs, Getzens, Conns, Slingerlands, Rogers, Holtons, Whayey-Royces, Kings, Queens and Jokers. After 1967, one can add some G/F/F# horns into the mix. It was the Tower of Babel in Brass, and the best thing that ever happened to me.

Charlie Groh(Anaheim, VK), chopper pilot in Nam, now visual instructor with Thousand Oaks and the Anaheim Alumni, not to mention prominent corps photog. Thanks for rescuing all those troops, Chaz.

The Archer/Epler Musketeers are named for two WW! veterans whose portraits hang over the bar (where else?) at the post in Upper Darby. Lefty Mayer, Jim Donnelly, Billy Cobham, Ray Fallon, Mickey Petrone, John Simpson, Tommy Martin, Rodney Goodheart, Johnny Olivieri...(hand-off......)

If you are interested in the roots of contemporary drumming, permit me to refer you to this program.

Bob Zarfoss was part of that extraordinary Air Force Drum and Bugle Corps line that also featured John Flowers, Rodney Goodheart an so many others who went on to instruct and judge an entire generation of percussion specialists like De Lucia and Sanford, who passed the torch to Cassella, Hannum and the other contemporary masters. In fact, John Dowlan, who is prominently featured on the program, was the AFD&B Corps percussion instructor during those years. Rudimental? Yes, and then some.

If you have an interest in this, permit me to recommend: Off the Record - "Give the Drummer Some"

CorpsReps data on theTroopers for 1975: Aug. 8 Bellfontaine, OH Aug. 8 Marion, OH (US Open Prelims) Aug. 9 Marion, OH (US Open Finals) Aug. 13 Philadelphia (DCI) It seems unlikely they did 2 shows on the 8th, but it's not impossible. Marion to Bellfontaine is about 70 miles, and Jones might well have been trying to pick up some additional cash to augment the tour. Are there any other corps on that video? A cross-check of line-ups would be helpful.

Can you decipher the regional accent of the person who yells at the top of the show? What sounds like "ace" could be "East" in Back Bay pronunciation. Send me an mp3 of the audio and I'll do some forensic analysis.

If I'm not mistaken, that "missing patch of grass" is actually a pole vaulting pit which suggests a college or municipal stadium since most high schools didn't offer that sport as part of track and field. Are those actually light towers at backfield, or just lens reflections? I'm assuming the camera was tripod-mounteed and didn't move during the performance.

HB, The Brassmen were a wonderful and influential corps in so many ways. In my view, they represented the finest work in the history of that remarkable team of Perriloux and Dreitzer. I'm glad you liked the program. Best, Frank

I think there actually are some judjes lurking out there, in white shirts and black baseball caps. There also seem to be some runners and/or guests on the sideline. If this is the beginning of the show with the corps setting up, that would explain why the judges are at or near the sideline. The horns seem too far back to be in a "concert arc".

Scott, At first I thought "Manning Bowl", but the front sideline seems too far from the stands. Still, the photo says "East coast" to me. DCI Nationals were in Philadelphia that year, and it's likely the Troopers did a few shows in that part of the country. This looks like a college or municipal staduim, rather than a high school field.

To beat the Yankees, one has to make a deal with the devil . (cf. Broadway show, "D... Yankees".) Something like that may already be in place in Concord. After all, he seems to have secured the naming rights.

Vic is correct. It's not me you want to touch, it's those other guys, and while you're at it, see if you can brush up against Murray Gusseck, Jimmy Cassella, Danny Raymond, Jr. and Thom Hannum. That list is by no means inclusive, incidentally. And if you really want to fire up the Way Back Machine...Wm. F. Ludwig, Earle Sturtze, Bobby Thompson (and the rest of the Sons of Liberty), as well as Arsennault, Markovich, Dowlan, Marrella, Flowers, Goodheart, Perriloux, Parks, Danny Raymond, Sr.,...and on and on. Great percussion teachers are worth their weight in gold, even the beefy ones, and even at today's prices. As for me, I've just been lucky enough to have been thrown into the mix with some of them. They always made my charts sound far better than they had any right to.

Hey, what do I know? I'm just a horn player.

I suppose one could be forgiven for thinking that all hornplayers are "brass-holes", but this one had the good fortune to have Billy Cobham as a seat partner, Jerry Shellmer, Dennis Delucia and Charlie Poole as collaborators, and both Fred Sanford and Ralph Hardimon as room mates. Even a dullard like me was bound to learn something from those cats. I'm glad you liked the piece.

Dedicated to all my drummer friends: Inside the Arc - Issue 11 http://www.drumcorpsplanet.com/content/view/5526/53/

Hearty congratulations to Jeff Weir and the Naval Academy Corps. I had the great pleasure of judging this show last year in Colorado when the Navy and Air Force went head to head. All the service corps are always a gas to see. Frank Dorritie (former) Sgt. E-5 C Company 1st Battalion 142nd Armor

That's the one, Scooter. Thanks for the photo.

There were also (c.1966) some over the shoulder G/D Euphoniums made by Whaley Royce, used by the Bronx Kingsmen and one or two others around that time. I have one in my collection. Perhaps Holton made a version of those. The horns I refer to look more like bass trombones and have a good deal of tubing protruding out in front of the bell. I'm fairly certain that John Simpson and a few of the other Air Force folks told me they were in C when we looked at some photos last summer at the AFD&B Corps reunion in York, PA, though I could be mistaken.

I am quite certain that the Air Force and Marine Drum Corps both had some C Bass baritones in the late '50s. There is a photo showing some of these on the cover of an Eastman Wind Ensemble LP titled "Ruffles and Flourishes", released around 1962.

The G/F horns were field tested in '67 by the Velvet Knights and a couple of others, but weren't "legal"until '68. It took a few years for the majority to adopt them. Those Bucanneer two-piston horns were legal in VFW and DCA, but not at Legion events, I believe. Thumb valves always were so ergonomically counter-intuitive: push the horn away from you while you try to maintain a good embroshure set. Still, those Reading boys played the dickens out of them.

Single valve G bugles come in several varieties. The G/D species fingering has been listed above for the "C" (concert G) scale. Chromatics can be accessed by pulling out the tuning or "slip" slide, or using the half step rotor. All yeild a semitone lower than the fingered pitch. Be careful though. There are some full step rotors out there, especially on baritones. Regardless, all these systems will leave gaps in spots. Other major scales can be played on these horns: (top line)F = v, o, v, o (a slightly flat Bb which can be played in tune as vs), o, o (or v), o, v (on the staff)Bb = vs, o, v, os, v, o, v, o (or vs) (on the staff)D = v, o, s, o, v, b, s (or vs), o (or v) (above top line)G = o, v, v, o, o (or v), o, s, o The other type of single valve G bugle emerged post 1968. The open tones are the same. The rotor lowers the pitch by a half step, the valve by a full step, as if the horn were a G trumpet with only the first and second valves. The 2 valve G behaves the same way, with the second valve replacing the half step rotor. All of these horns are fun to master.