ironlips

Congratulations to the entire class!

The other Legacy Inductee is Emil Pavlik, an icon among bugle arrangers, and best known for his work with the Racine Kilties and Scouts, dating from the early '50s. He is truly a drum corps patriarch at 90 years of age.

There is a wonderful DVD of the Bengal Guards from Orange, Texas. They were on the field from 1936 until '54. The photos are stills but there is some music and a great narration, not unlike a Ken Burns documentary. Contact the Lutch Family at PO Box 1567, Orange, Texas 77631 and research the corps on the web: www.bengalguards.com

All opinions are subjective, thus equally valid. When a performer gets to a certain level, he/she enters a realm of peers. There is no "best", only different specialties. (Of course, that's just my opinion.) I grew up listening to Hightower, Simpson, Gaff and Chalmus and you can add Dave Lang to that peer group, along with Doug Kenyon and Ray Fallon. For the record, I wrote a couple of Colt's charts, with solo features for Dave Lang. (Jim M. didn't do all the arranging.) It was wonderful to know there was a cat who could play just about anything emanating from the end of a pencil. Dave was an arranger's dream.

Pete China? Is this a confirmed Pete China Sighting?

Yes, and the 4 of you were excellent performers and high achievers in an extremely challenging show and year. Without the buy-in and strong performance by the Cadets drumline that year, my brass charts would have had little impact. I am forever in your debt, and so is the corps. Frank

I'm glad to see Lil Lindy and Judy Foster getting props here. I recall another duo of superior sopranos from the late '60 and early '70s: Ada Di Marco of the St. Fidelis Majestic Knights, and Laura Schractner of the Miraculous Medal Orbits. Ada was a world class player, and Laura made a habit out of beating all the boys at I&E, including a young gunslinger named Wayne Downey. She's now a professional trumpet player in PA, and whenever the BDs come to town she stops by to keep him honest. Another notable is Diane Nicholeris, principal second violinist of the San Francisco Symphony and alumna of St. Thomas Moore Drum Corps. Cognescenti will recognize her surname from her brother Ted's DCA percussion adjudication. Diane is featured in a recent PBS special on Aaron Copland, judging brass at Pacific Procession and explaining the relevance of Copland to drum corps, and vice versa.

As many know, the challenge for arrangers of one-valve brass was to disguise the limitations of the horn by some form of musical deception. When Angelica arranged West Side Story material for the first time for the Cadets in 1961, he had to find creative voicings to achieve all of maestro Bernstein's tritonic melodies and wicked modulations without sacrificing voice leading or paying the ultimate price to the intonation harpies lurking in the tubing. He did a masterful job, as you will hear in a future episode.

That would be Larry Schillings, Glen Ridge HS band director, and another guy, some upstart, hot-head rookie instructor wanna-be.

When Cal Tjader won his Grammy in 1980, he was on tour in the Phillipines so I accepted it for him as his producer. I remember thinking to myself, "This is great, but I'd rather win the Dream." I still feel that way, but none of this is about me or you. It's about how great drum corps is as an entity, and how incredibly important it is in the lives of so many people. It's truly the best thing of which I haver ever been a part, and I hope it goes on forever.

Puppet points out precisely why the re-release of the entire Fleetwood Catalog is of such importance. Kudos also go to John Donovan of DCP for his committment to the history of the activity. Many who played on these classic recordings browse the DCA and Alumni Forums, but it'sequally vital to keep discussions of this type going on this side of the house as well. That's how we'll pass along the gift of their history to today's drum corps performers.

I'm trying to confirm the identity of the soprano soloist from the Sarnia Sertomanaires who played that swingin' feature in "Days of Wine and Roses" on the '66 Shriners Invitational CD. It's hip-ness in the extreme. Perhaps Sarnia Sam can help.

Eric is indeed a fine arranger, and that was a mighy fine horn line. Thanks for the suggestion.

Will do. There are so many incredible performances in this re-issued Fleetwood catalog: Legion and VFW Nationals, several years of "Evening With the Corps" at Carnegie and Symphony Halls, great Canadian corps, US and World Open, All-Girls corps, dynamite drum solos for days, legendary corps, neighborhood corps...it just goes on and on. I am so grateful to Glenn Kubacki for having the vision and passion to re-master over 300 recordings so the history of this wonderful activity can be passed on.

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It's true that the "Stardust" solo was written for Gene Bunting, arranged by Bobby Adair. According to my sources in Reilly, Gene had to miss the show at which the Fleetwood "Off the Line" recording was made, and it was Bobby who played it that day. There seems to be some question here which will be resolved via phone calls to both men. It's important to get the history right. There is NO question that both are legendary buglers.

Listener suggestions for future programs are always welcome, as are all additional stories and details related to "Off the Record", Fleetwood Recordings, and such. Keep them coming.

What a great photo of Dreitzer and Genero, two of the true icons of Drum Corps. Their arrangements shaped the entire direction of the activity, and the influence of both is still resonating. According to Tommy Martin, Hy was a soprano player who stepped in on French Horn for that season only, then devoted himself entirely to arranging. What an incredible talent!

I have it on good authority that upcoming episodes will include: "Life is but a Dream' "The Drum Speaks" "The Great Arrangers" "Legends of the One-Valve Bugle II"

Tom, That "slide" business was a real trip. We tried everything from sewing machine oil to vaseline in various emulsions. For my money, you couldn't beat my mom's cold cream. There are a couple of theories about who was the first to use the tuning slide for accidentals. Some say Jim Donnelly, others Scotty Chapelle. There may be a few other claimants, as well. I'll bet Kenny Norman knows. I can say with some certainty, however, that when James Murphy played "Sweet Georgia Brown" on the very first Fleetwood recording, "The Princemen" (1958), there was some slick slide manipulation going on.

The next edition of "Off the Record" will feature many of the great soloists mentioned here, directly from the Fleetwood archives. Putting it together was not only fun but inspirational. The program will be available on DCP in about a week.

Park City's "Ragtime Medley" consists of: So. Rampart Street Parade Tiger Rag Robert E. Lee Alabama Jubilee and Alexander's Ragtime Band (It's "Truman Crawford-meets-Hy Dreitzer, at-Buzzy Bergdoll's house". Very old school and very swingin'.) In addition, Johnny Oddo wrote a killer drum solo based on Santana's "Incident at Neshabur", complete with brass parts and auxiliary percussion. It rocks hard.

That would be The Dusseldoff Fanfarenkorps, in the 1964 Columbus Day Parade on 5th Avenue in NYC. They were appearing at the German Pavilion at the World's Fair. They performed on natural valveless horns and Renaissance drums, and featured a color guard who threw weighted banners higher than you can imagine, in a strong wind. They positively rocked.

Dan, The main connection was on the staff level. In the '60s the top juniors and seniors were generally taught by the same people, folks like Angelica, Arsennault, Dreitzer, Sasso, Genero, Radford, Cluna, Perriloux and a few others. Throughout that decade, the senior corps were the trend-setting giants. They had the more experienced members, for one thing. Santa Clara pretty much turned that tide, starting around 1971, and once the juniors figured out how to tour for weeks at a time they quickly began to out-perform their older brothers and sisters. After all, they were rehearsing many more hours per week and quite efficiently at that. Still, today's best DCA corps would hold their own against the DCI kids, except for the top 5 or so. Given their limited rehearsal time, that's pretty amazing.

Louie was a wonderful man who always had time for those he met. His incredible talent and wide-spread fame never masked his beautiful humanity. God bless him. We were lucky to have lived during his life-time.