727driver

I for one will be cranking BD 2010 in my car this year.

I wish I could have voted for the 76 Blue Devils, that show was revolutionary in every way, but given the two choices I'd go with Star 91. There's just no comparison in terms of quality IMO. But I don't consider either show a contender for best ever. Oh well.

It was the nickname given to the bebop soprano feature during the closer of the 91 BD production. It was influenced by a lot of Charlie Parker licks.

The 93 sop line was great, but that show was all about the bari line. The 91 and 92 sop lines were outstanding as well. The 91 "Bopster" is just about the hardest thing I've ever seen a soprano/trumpet line put on the field. Ever. The 92 feature laid a lot easier under the fingers than the 91 feature did, but kudos to both lines.

Since this is an "over the years" type of topic, I'm gonna go with my all time favorite WOW corps Madison. So many years that just blow me away. There are other cleaner more technical corps sure, but for pure put you on your ### power, nobody beats the scouts.

Holtons are great horns. You can look up the age of the instrument online from several different websites via the serial number, but all in all the Collegiate series is a very well built horn made in the USA and built to last.

That was a hell of a rainstorm! Kudos to you guys, you brought down the house that night. We went on after you, and it was still raining quite a bit. No falls though....

Just an aside, Mandarins won A-60 in 1992 with 10 horns! They did an incredible job with Appalachian Spring of all things. That placement would put them in the top 25 that year, not open class, but still impressive!

I guess I'd just call it really good marching band. Anybody remember the days when the summer youth bands would tour along with the drum corps and were basically the opening act for the corps shows? There were some great groups like the Argonaughts (sp?) that put on some really good shows. I guess we've come full circle in that the genuine drum and bugle corps (read alumni and some senior corps) are the opening acts for what has become high level summer marching bands. So just call it that already.

G horns, no amps. I love the innovation that DCI has produced over the years and continues to. That having been said, what I truly loved about drum and bugle corps was what the arrangers were able to accomplish within the limits of the instrumentation. The challenge of arranging great music on two-valved bugles or piston-rotors was huge. Some of the most copied pieces of music in marching band history came from that era. What a compliment to the arrangers! The joy of drum corps for me came from innovating within the unusual confines of the drum corps rule book. Now that the door is basically wide open for instrumentation, the challenge and therefor much of the enjoyment is lost for me. The ultimate drum corps experience for me will always be the huge sonorous wall of sound produced by the Blue Devils hornline warming up on G Bugles. You can keep your band instruments, give me a bugle any day. That's what I want to see in drum and BUGLE corps!

It all changed for me when they took the bugle out of Drum and BUGLE Corps. Sorry to get off topic, just my to pennies.

Most of the BD staff when I started with them were not music educators in the band director sense. I learned how to play as a result of excellent instruction from guys like Dave Carico, Jim McFarland, Wayne Downey, and others who were not band directors at all. They were just really good at what they did, and I can't thank them enough for the experience.

This is hard to choose! 1988 is probably my first choice for the reasons already mentioned, with very honorable mentions to 1990, 91, and 2002. 02 is definitely my favorite year of this decade however.

Used to, I was actually a flight engineer working on transitioning to the F.O. position when I was laid off. SO, as a relatively low time pilot I'm working at my CFI ticket and doing odd flying jobs as they come around. Not many FE jobs out there any more....

I differ with you here...I would love to see a lot more brass band music on the field. There are so many offerings from the great band composers like Sparke, Wilby, Gregson, Howarth, Snell, Langford, Richards, ect. Not to mention the standbys by Holst, Fletcher, Elgar, ect. There's so much old music that hasn't been touched, and a ton of new stuff that would just be amazing. For such a natural fit between the two idioms, it seems almost odd that there hasn't been more crossover. In my perfect world....