rayfallon

I'd like these if the shipping isn't crazy.

Absolutely - it was a partial stream of semi-consciousness list at best. The thing is that everyone called it as they saw it back then, but the folks I mentioned, now including Rick as you point out, saw it a little better than some of the others. My opinion, of course. And there were lots more - I was a young (26 yo) brass instructor back in those days when you maybe had 2 total brass guys or girls on tour - before "brass staffs" You'll see I don't mention the great percussion or visual folks.

Rick - One of the factors back then (I think) came from the personalities of the folks with the pencils - or maybe it simply hadn't been coached out of them (although there was an urban legend that Donald Angelica controlled the judging community like marionettes). I'll use a personal recollection to illustrate - Bayonne in '78 (my first year) was rolling into Denver with a pretty good brass line during a year when there were a lot of really good lines. We'd been head to head with Spirit on tour going through the South and both lines were averaging about a 14.0 (out of 15) in field brass. The corps had to go on 24 hours before the block in prelims due to the 1977 DQ. To say it made us nervous was a bit of an understatement - it's hard to maintain spreads during a 2 hr show when lines are good - maintaining for 24 hrs is tough. Sandra Opie, probably my personal favorite brass judge (of all times) when it came to performance and Musical Analysis, gave the line a 12.6 at prelims. I was ready to throw myself off the wall at Mile High Stadium (I think prelims may actually have been in Boulder so forgive me). I figured we were toast. 24 hours later? BD had the same 12.6. What one person thought was a tic back then wasn't always consistent with other people's tics, and I think there may have been less pressure for the same results over and over again. I was judging a band show in Eastern Md a couple of decades ago and the chief judge came to me with the recaps of the previous night and started talking to me about which spreads he considered accurate and which he thought were less so. I politely asked him to get away from me. You can coach for consistency, or in Sandra's case (or Roger Olsen, or Cecil Austin, Dr. Baggs, Jim Prime Sr, et al.) you can get out of the way and observe greatness (no, I'm not including myself with those folks - in my case you could just get out of the way). It was tougher to predict, but a young brass guy could learn a lot talking to those folks. Still have great judges out there on tour today - but I wonder if they're allowed to express themselves to the degree that existed BITD, and if we would be okay with it if they were. Great topic. BTW my daughter is aging out with Crossmen this year - she wasn't born yet when Kevin started there in '91. The time do fly...

Sounds like someone's cranky about "announcer's fees" huh?

My (Crossmen) daughter called from UNT in Denton to tell us she had ice like the big storm in 2013 (in DFW they called it "Icemageddon" in December 2013 - in Boston we would have called it "Tuesday") My 10 year old granddaughter wrote me from Ft Worth - "We had 2 centimeters of snow so school was cancelled today and tomorrow" Cultural paradigm shift is how I choose to look at it, in between shoveling tons and tons of snow.

I guess at that time there were two possibilities for that level of musical impertinence - State Champs or jailed for 30 days. Glad the authorities chose the former.

Like most of the really great players, no one played just like Clark Terry. There was a little Diz in there, and passing similarities of style here and there to other greats, but on the whole Clark (Mr Terry) had a distinctive sound and style that you could pick out of a line-up. Never met him - never got to see him live - but listened to hundreds of recordings and many videos. Gotta admit Andy I didn't know about the Tonight Show connection. My closest tie was studying with Sonny Costanza, Clark's lead trombone, while I was in CT during the early '80s. He really got me interested and turned on to the whole Terry mystique. Our activity produced some amazing talents - many of them made giant names for themselves without the rest of the world knowing about their "humble" beginnings. 94 is a pretty good run. Thanks for the great music and the honor you did buglers everywhere.

Lots of '84 Bridgekids went to Star - with lots of influence - Drum Major Karen Rushman; Contra/Tuba Stevie Jones (who went on to win 2 I&E awards with near perfect scores at Star - can you tell I'm proud?); The Keays brothers (might have screwed up the spelling - sorry Joe); and more. I really don't think that the Star emergence had a big effect on '85 Bayonne, and while they got some tremendous members I don't feel that Star benefited hugely from the kids that emigrated from the corps. [i read this and realized it was sort of BS - of course they benefited tremendously from that kind of talent and performance experience - I just mean it wasn't like a merger where the Bridgemen kids served as 1/2 of the new product - they had a great influence, but I think Star was going to blow the top off the Universe pretty much no matter what]. When '84 Bayonne missed finals, they were financially strung way out, and had already lost much of the staff and even kids that went on to Indiana the following year. Many of those '84 kids were simply not ever going to go through a tour like that one again. The '85 Christmas in July corps was a brave and tenacious group - a group worthy of that Bridgemen name - but between the lost staff and kids that had aged out or moved on after a disheartening '84 (I don't mean that in terms of the missing finals, although no one enjoyed that - it was the general financial gloom that plagued that team throughout the '84 season that dampened the joy for many) there was just not nearly enough talent to support a whacky show like "Christmas in July". - Plus in my opinion, as great as Larry Kerchner's charts were, it was the Delucia drumline that made the Bridgemen run from '76 through '83 so remarkable, including the fabled blind-folded solo in '83 when Frank Dorritie pulled some musical changes out of his errrr pocket, and Dennis pulled out all the stops to push them across the finish line into finals during a tough season. Bayonne - Great corps - Star - great corps. I think the connection, beyond Dennis, is over-hyped (to use a uniquely Bridgemen word).

Or Elbonia... http://dilbert.com/strip/2015-02-19

Sure, you do this 4 months AFTER I move back to Boston...

I didn't say "liquorative" MC jobs...

You'll never get an argument from me about the VA. Even today, young men and women trying to go to school on the GI Bill regularly experience waits of up to 12 weeks per semester waiting for their first check. That wait is what took me out of school in 1977 - back then it was $400+ a month - that was rent at the time. Brutal. I used to have a "Rambo" movie planned out in my head (back when Rambo was still happening). It was going to be called "Rambo - Last Blood" when John Rambo actually gets to attack the enemy with his M60. That being the VA Office on Broad Street in Newark. I've mellowed over the years, but I'm pretty beaten down about using them for health care, but WTF, right? We earned it, it's out there, and it's saving us money, if making me a little nuts. This retirement game isn't so easy. Not all of us have lucrative MC'ing jobs like Andy and Fran (if you've heard my voice you know why). I can fly anywhere for free, but can't afford to stay anywhere but in a park, on a bench.

I went back and looked it up - it was the 1998 Chieftans. Thanks Jim. My wife's first two exposures to the activity were the Chieftans at the Grand Prix and the Sky Alumni at the Lodi I&E show. Took me years to get her to another show.

Classic coldest ever (besides the showers at the YR show at RFK field) was 1976 DCA at Rochester. God that was cold - on top of everything - John Flowers was ###### off about something and had the YR play their whole show on the track instead of marching off at the end. I'm already miserable as DM of the disappointing (to us) 3rd place finish with Sun. 42 degrees on the field. Phoenix guys are back whizzing on the back fence (from what I'm told). It was one of those Calgon Take Me Away Moments... Being a drum major pretty much sucks*, but never worse than it does on retreat. *pretty much sucks if you pretty much suck as a drum major, which I did.

OK, "length of service" is code for "really ####ing old" I think....

They were at the Clifton show that year. Did the Sentinels change their name in the late '90s?

See? Those of us "of a certain age" have this "kids will work" illusion, or even better "kids will work for money" illusion. Kids no longer work - period. They play the saxophone. We pay for the lessons, drive them there, and lobby George Hopkins to accept them into DCI. They work at rehearsal, and soccer, and school (sometimes). And I'm not going to have a heart attack - I was raised working, and NOT playing saxophone. I get achy, but I don't have to worry about co-pays, or expensive surgery because after I gave up my Blue Cross / Blue Shield at retirement I turned my health care over to the Veterans' Administration (gasp) - the positive spin of which is that I'll never need complicated surgery because the VA practices a one size for everything Euthanasia. So - shovel on, Motherf*ckers!!! Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow. I'm made of wrought iron. Old, bent, creaky, rusting. Not even close to dying of a heart attack or anything else. I despise the VA way too much for that.

I honestly can't remember the name of the corps - it was "all-age" although they're members were wicked young - the time was about '98 or '99 as it's the last time I got fired from the Yankee Rebels that day - can't remember which time. Think I offered to pop someone at rehearsal - it was the right decision. I would have fired me too. Anyhow - the senior corps from the ABE area with a Clarinet player that taught the brass line. That's all I remember.

My wife, Carolyn Lamont - like the Loch Lomond Lamonts - is descended from the Scots - and is the cheapest living human being. I'm pretty sure that her philosophy is a) keeps me out of the house; b) she doesn't have to shovel it. c) maybe I'll die and things will be quieter. d) She won't have to keep going to drum corps things. She's one of those "Classically trained" musicians with her MMus in Composition from Boston U. First time I took her to a show she said "that's pretty interesting. Can't those instruments be tuned?" (in this particular case the answer was no, as it was that little senior corps from Easton). She claims the Blue Devils, the year Kevin or Danny aged out, are the only drum corps brass line she ever heard in tune.

Oui monsieur!

Off topic - although there hasn't been a topic in a while - some amazing players and teachers up for vote in the Buglers' Hall of Fame this winter. Boggles my mind when I see some of these folks' names and think about their careers. Glad (honored) that I slipped through the cracks before some of these younger cats started to be considered. There's one young man up for consideration that played in a group I taught for a year and I taught him not a single thing, while he taught me a pile. A student of Professor Swan's of course, at the "Shore de Jersey Conservatoire du Trumpet avec Un Valve"

Waiting to hear some tales of fun and sun from Mr Peashey. After I come in from shoveling. Have to be ready for tonight's 3 - 6 " before Saturday's 18" which we'll pile I have no idea where, with 12' - 18' walls of snow on both sides of the driveway.

When I was 1? ####, the good years just don't last, do they?

About 24" but huge drifts due to 25 mph + winds. Took me 5 hrs to shovel today and I still have my car to clear - piles and piles and piles of snow. Man I'm tired - when did I get so old?

It has begun... In from the pre-shovel shoveling...