rayfallon
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Posts posted by rayfallon
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"1965 Moments":
Royal Airs win at CYO Nationals. After having lost to most of the Mid West's big guns, including the Casper Troopers "Big Blue" topped the list at CYO and did not lose another contest in 1965.
The "Triple Crown" of CYO, VFW and Legion Nationals would all be theirs.
Elphaba
WWW
In my never quite humble enough opinion, '65 was the pivot year that started the inevitable dominance of "junior corps" - RA; Cavies; Troopers - it was too much for us East Coasters to withstand.
I think of it was the line between prehistoric and ancient times, when dinosaurs began to lose status to the smaller, faster species of warm blooded mammals.
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Not sure when John joined Sun ... I know he spent at least one year with Little Falls after his Staten Island days with either the T-birds or the Lawmen ...
:-)
1966 - I remember being at Mitchell Field learning "The Joker" for the first time that winter and listening to those freakishly high notes, esp. 8va'ing the whole Joker melody at the hit of the piece.
I was 15 so I don't think I had ever heard anything quite like it up 'til then.
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I have to say: 1965 belonged to the Fabulous Crusaders. They were absolutely off the hook.
I really dug playing in Sun's sop section, though. The (West Side Story) Quintet was probably the most challenging chart I ever struggled through. (John Sasso once told me that he thought he had written a much too difficult arrangement. I replied that his raising of the bar had set the stage for our eventual future success.)
Paul Stewart (ex-St. Catherine's) and Joe Coppola were the other two in my "squad". At the end of that tune, Paul always nailed the high "A", effortlessly it seemed. Joe was an octave below and I had the "E". That open sound is forever seared into my brain from one night in the Jamaica Armory, high marking time to Vinnie Ratford's far-out drill.
It all seems like last Friday..
Happy 2015 to all my brothers and sisters.
Yeah I love the Grey Knight Crusaders from '65 - "Devil at Four (?) O'Clock" (I actually forget what time it was except it was a one syllable hour).
But completely agree with everything else - John may have felt the same about Procession's difficulty but the bar kept raising until some of that crazy stuff sounded easy. Like Ritual for instance.
The concept that the piece was in E Concert or A Major Bugle was off the hook for 1965 - the tuning on those horns well night impossible, but because of the scoring and the guys playing it, that E Major Concert (A Bugle) chord rang clear as a bell. The end of that piece grabbed my 13 year old breath and my imagination - also turned me on to WSS, from which I never looked back.
Not all bad living in prehistoric times - less hip than the Flintstones let on, but cool nonetheless.
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sorry, had to censor my last [i.e. this] post...
I shouldn't be allowed to click on any other links on DCP...
I'm too old to read this stuff...
makes me homicidal.
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Dude, you're just snatching up these horns right and left.
How many *#@*ing horns does Hanover have?
What do you guys have down there? The SECRET WEAPON?
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Nicely put...
At 63 I'm hoping that the young people that populate the field now find as much joy in this activity as we did when we followed our dreams.
If they do, they'll have done well.
A great 2015 to all our brothers, sisters, nieces and nephews in the "marching arts" (you would have gotten slapped for calling it that during the 60s).
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Judy!!!!
Wow... talk about a Sunriser stalwart. A great lady!!!!
Couldn't agree more. I've met some folks that played better, and although she marched better than I I've met folks that marched better, but I don't think I've met anyone with more heart than hers.
She LOVES the activity. LOVED the Sunrisers (probably still does). Absolutely fitting that she broke that line.
We (collectively - Sunrisers, Hurricanes, the bunch of us) have had some good times over the pas 50 years.
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"Whatshisname?"
well let's see... 65 Wayne was still in diapers...
so "Whatshisname" must be
the one and only
Frankie D.
Oh yeah, him...
Wayne would have been 14 or maybe 15.
We grew up competing against each other - he in the Smithtown Freelancers, I in Oceanside.
My brass quartet used to compete against his of himself, Mike Conlon, Nick Yaworski, and Judy Foster (who became the first female brass player in DCA with Sunrisers).
Good times.
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Oh man, I tripped over this recording accidentally - I had almost forgotten how much I loved 1965 Sun!
Deliberto, Buglino, Sasso(s), and whatshisname - the other top soprano?
Bob Murphy on Goldfinger solo if I remember correctly.
They'd laugh at these charts now, but in 1965 on those horns?
"Old MacDonald" still cracks me up, as does Orus Cavnor's (sp?) drum book.
The mellos are (literally) wailing the entire show.
Dinosaur Nirvana - especially if you're an orange and (jet) blue dino.
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I take a different view of our changing DCA. Unfortunately, for now, instrumentation and a few added special effects are pretty insignificant in DCA's quest to see another 50 years. The financial challenges are huge. Right now, the risk/reward equation is upside down. The money doesn't really stretch far enough for business as usual. This crisis touches the fans, corps, and show sponsors.
The message I get from Grandpa, a message I agree with, is this . . . . DCA can't afford to lose any more fans. The recent Rules Congress changes will help to keep the activity contemporary. If these additional nuances are incorporated as well as we now see in DCI, the shows will definitely be more appealing to general audiences. Slowly, DCA audience sizes should grow, together with a few new show sponsors.
Unlike DCI, DCA is heavily dependent on ticket sales. There are few other ways to make money. Just the thought some fans will stay away should be frightening to everyone. Revenue from tickets is crucial for DCA and its show sponsors.
It's tough for me (a DCA fan) to conceive of DCA lasting more than a decade or two.
If they don't get more traction from DCI participants, I think the clock is ticking.
One huge challenge is that the DCI corps cost so #*@*ing much to participate (I'll show you my receipts for this year's Crossmen - my daughter's age out year).
All these kids are college students, most of them music majors, okay MANY of them music majors.
Many if not most are racking up significant college debt.
The music majors will need to continue for Masters Degrees within 5 or so years to teach in most states.
This is not conducive to a full-time summer activity.
Sunrisers and Reading had begun to develop this type of demographic back in the early 80s, and now nearly every DCA corps is dependent on these young people's participation, but I believe it's a tough sell because their "junior" participation was so hard corps and expensive that when they see the end zone they sprint and leave their shoes (and hearts) on the field.
I remember Sun having underage members (under 18) removed at the NYS American Legion Championship in (I think) 1966 or so. If I'm right it was 2 of them.
Archie did their first exhibition on the field in 1978 (Dream) with an average age of 50+.
It's just not possible for these senior citizens (40+ or so) to keep up with the physical demands and practice schedule now.
I hope DCA lasts 50 years. As Andy says I'll be 113, but I'll still go to shows as I haven't spent time MC'ing I&E shows so my lifespan should be quite a bit longer than his - plus I didn't drum, or play in the Skyliners, all of which tends to shorten one's longevity
Finally, while I find Andy to be among the wisest of all wise guys, I disagree about the indoor move.
The field show, whether you call it great marching or mediocre dance, is half of the appeal.
Many of the great standing Os of all times are inexorably tied to some amazing piece of movement and design - a front that comes out of nowhere - Stars that seem to burst onto the field one after another, a Z pull or an S pull, you name it, they've done it.
Stage stars are up close - they have to be physically appealing.
Don't think I could have pulled that off in 1975, much less 2015..
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So ... just a few added notes ... ....
FUN!
:-)
A couple of those notes were sharp...
Pull out...
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We might want to mix a little modern in with the old to increase participation, well I believe it us under consideration by our board we will see
I think modern tends to mix itself in whether you're hoping to or not.
It's wicked difficult to live in the past - like those Medieval shows or war recreators.
Takes more work to remember the past than to give way to the present.
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Recordings like this constitute the literature of the Drum and Bugle Corps activity and each one is a gem, a time capsule in 12 or so minutes of a unique event, never to be repeated, and (hopefully) never forgotten.
Although I could pass on the Mantovani...
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you in a cowgirl outfit... now that's a picture I'd pay for
Merry Christmas EVERYONE
especially the Queen and her Mom...
Not only would you not like the picture, you probably wouldn't eat the cookies, you skinny ####.
I'm still trying to get to 220.
Maybe 2015 will bring me more will power, or less money for food.
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I'll tell you how bad retirement is over the holidays - I just baked cookies again.
next I'll start playing with the Audubon Bon Bon Alumae corps...
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Happy Holidays as well to Don and the wife - hope this season brings peace and enjoyment.
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An up-coming segment of "Off the Record" will feature several excerpts of judge's tapes from the '70s and '80s when the process of recorded commentary was first developed.
I think listeners will find it quite interesting.
Stay tuned.
1978 Dr Baggs DCI Prelims (Semi-finals in modern terms) for Bayonne Bridgemen - GE Music.
An absolute classic.
Greg Neulieb and I had shared custody of that tape until it dissolved I think.
God I miss Dr Baggs.
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I wish I had my GE drum tape from the World Open Prelims in the 70's when I taught the Wayne Monarchs/King's Regiment. The judge turned on his tape as we played our cadence on to the field, introduced himself, and then never said another word all through our performance.
The guard could have used it as a practice tape.
To top it off...his sheet said "See tape"...not one written comment.
To be fair...it did not say "listen to tape".
That's the funniest thing I've read on DCP since XXXxxxxx [censored - didn't want to use the actual DCP handle] was trying to be serious.
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An up-coming segment of "Off the Record" will feature several excerpts of judge's tapes from the '70s and '80s when the process of recorded commentary was first developed.
I think listeners will find it quite interesting.
Stay tuned.
Make sure there's some Dr Baggs in there - also some Sandra - some Shirley - some Cecil Austin - some Jim Prime Sr - oh man - I can't wait.
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No real news, but my daughter said Crossmen had "300 horns" (I doubt she counted but it must have been a ####load), huge guard, huge drum line and sounded unimaginably better than when she last played synth in 2013 (she had to take last year off for summer courses in Paris - not Paris TX - the other one).
Loves the charts they've rolled out, and of course loves the corps.
It's Crossmen - what's not to love, right?
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The only constant in the Universe is change.
The music and the groups I loved in the 60s sound beyond dated when I listen now - doesn't mean I didn't love them then, or that I'm smarter now, or stupider - times and tastes adjust with the world around us.
Some folks hold on forever - someone right now is listening to a 33 1/3 of Benny Goodman and loving every Gene Krupa driven beat, and whoever it is isn't wrong - they're right for their tastes.
I started on G-D bugles with a slide in 1960 (little tiny belled baritone).
My daughter (my final kid in her age out of DCI - that will be 5 of 6 that age out) got home last night from Crossmen camp where she plays synth and performed a vocal solo at camp.
Ironic, I guess, but I'm glad she's getting the opportunity to do the activity I love, in a way she loves.
My brother, who passed on 5 years ago, always wanted a "drum and guitar corps" after playing bass drum in the Oceanside Legionnaires (sic) from Oceanside NY, but jazz and rock guitar in the rest of his life.
I kind of wish he had stuck around long enough to see this incarnation of the activity he got me into.
Have a great holiday season, and don't fret the little stuff.
Electronics in drum corps is an example (IMO) of the little stuff.
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Good luck.
We're like the "former Hurricane arranger club" wishing them luck, and weirder yet - meaning it!
Hope you and yours have a fabulous Christmas and holiday season Den - and splat out a couple of cool pedal tones on that bass to give someone else the holiday tingles.
Talk next year, I pray.
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Happiness and warm holiday feelings to one and all - "God bless us, every one..."
Picked up Nancy at Logan last night when she flew in (for free - why I worked until retirement) from Crossmen's camp in San Antonio.
My last kid in DCI - her age-out year. Best and worst part? She's playing a synth and did a solo vocal at camp.
There's irony in a one-valve (G-D) dinosaur having his kid playing synth and singing on the field, or worse yet, just off the field and in front.
But a fun, pleasant irony, given that I pushed for 3 valve multi-keyed instruments since I was old enough to push, or whenever I blew into my first DEG or Smith instrument.
Hope the jolly fat man with the white beard shows up at your house in a couple of days - I promise I won't stay long.
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****************** OT Warning *********** OT Warning ******************** OT Warning ****************** OT Warning *********************
At the age of of 10 I was deposited at Oceanside American Legion Post 1246 in Oceanside NY as birth control for my older brother. I think my folks figured that no chick would do anything with a guy whose buck-toothed crew-cutted 10 year old brother was around. Can't swear to it, but I'm pretty sure they were wrong, at least a few times.
Like most of us I learned to play on the usual suspects of crap, a G-D baritone that Sky didn't use any more, one piston and a slip slide - now it's nailed to the wall of an Applebees' or somewhere like that. Good for it - shoulda been nailed there before I got it.
We learned by ear, we listened to records and played along. We weren't entirely self taught, but we were more sort of guided.
At 18 I went to change all that by auditioning for and making the USAF band - about half way through basic training they came and told me they were red-lining my orders and sending me to language school, either for Viet Namese or Mandarin Chinese - I chose Chinese so I wouldn't have to go to Viet Nam. Where'd the Viet Namese class go? Fort Meade MD - Sliver Springs. Where'd I go? Da Nang, RVN.
Most of you know all that stuff already - so why go through it tonight?
I went to see my grandson play with the Fort Worth Youth Symphony tonight - trombone - instead of a Skyliner reject he's playing on a nice Yamaha Xeno trombone that Carrie and I got for him - F attachment, the works. He played 3 concerts this weekend - School on Friday; All- Regions on Saturday; Fort Worth Youth Symphony on Sunday.
He's playing the original orchestral scores of some of the world's great music - the stuff that I got to play if Sasso or Dreitzer took the time to arrange it for bathroom plumbing by ear.
At the beginning of the concert his brass quintet played, conducted by my son Kevin, tuba pro, Blue Devils Hall of Fame, MMus, who works the low brass for the Fort Worth Youth Symphony.
Standing in front of the stage watching my son conduct my grandson, all the crappy instruments and learn by ear and notes we couldn't play (or at least not in tune); all the school bus rides and never quite learning to really march, all of it seemed pretty worth while.
We are a lucky bunch we dinosaurs. We roamed the Earth, we shaped the music, the instruments, the repertoires, the interest of generations to come.
And the world is a good place for musical kids now - better than sitting in the unheated cafeteria in a Catholic school in Brooklyn or a Naval Air Station hangar with busted out windows to learn tunes by rote.
It was well worth it, and I can't wait to see how it all comes out.
******************** End of OT Section ************************** End of OT Section ******************** End of OT Section ********************* End of OT Section *********
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Guess Who?
in DCA All-Age Corps and Alumni Corps Historical Forum
Posted
Two more of my Sun favorites a la John Sasso were "Subways Are For Sleeping" and "Orange Colored Sky".
And maybe my all-time favorite in large part because of the incredible technique and sound of Bill Hightower was "It's a Pity to Say Goodnight When the Lights Go Out"
Classic piece of trombone playing on a kitchen sink pipe plus piston and mouthpiece.
The "Mice" thing threw me - I knew Hy did it for St Joes (St Ritas?) but couldn't for the life of me remember Sun doing it.
but these days if you told me I played Malaguena with Hurcs I'd just nod and say, "yeah okay - guess so"