Geneva

Congrats to all and to Solon "Hardy" Carrasas, my old drill instructor, in particular!

1964 Dream-the ovation at the end of St. Kevin's show is astounding! One of the penultimate moments in drum corps. 1965 New York State American Legion Championships on Fleetwood. Roaring from the depths of old War Memorial Stadium on Buffalo are some mighty fine sounds from St. Joseph's of Batavia, Utica's Magnificent Yankees, Rochester Crusaders, and Syracuse Brigadiers. St. Joe's delivered a real blockbuster performance. Check out the lead sopranos giving a clinic in old time G bugling and some very tasteful and refined french horn solo work. The drumming is an absolute masterwork of spirited rudimental work delivered at some breakneck tempos. The Utica Yankees played a demanding book and put on display some impressive bugling talent. I always felt that this was an under rated corps. I always loved their jazz renditions. Rochester Crusaders were the merger super corps that year and on this recording demonstrate some of the momentum which would carry them to their first American Legion national championship that August. Syracuse Brigadiers had some sparkling bugle work and a lively and interest repertoire. They had a unique and refreshing sound.

1995 Madison..............a soprano line to die for!

Thanks for the great review, Donny. I wish I could have been there. It sounds like I missed a good time. Hope to see many of you at DCA, if not sooner!

Thanks so much for the recordings for those of us who could not be there. My spirit was there, but my body was in Everett, Massachusetts playing with the Crusaders Senior Corps.

Michael, I agree with your points about G horns. the trade off between better slotting on B flat vs. better projection and brightness of G's, in my mind, favors G's outdoors as the more dynamic instrument. However, indoors/concert hall where projection is not as important, I feel that G characteristics are more of a burden to be overcome and less of a positive.

RIP Carl. A true Purple Lancer.

Thanks for the great venue. Much better than last year's site.

I did not mean to equate subscription with donation, I was using it in a metaphorical sense in this situation. I suppose you have a valid point that he should at least give subscribers the option of a pro-rated refund should they demand it. In my case he is welcome to use my subscription balance as a contribution to the format conversion process. I think that DCW can some out of this better and more relevant to the activity.

JEFF, I agree. I think you hit the nail on the head. While I can appreciate some people being upset with how Steve converted their subscription into a donation, I think the big picture is more important. I also am happy that Steve has found a way to keep DCW active in the role reporting the events we all want to hear about from reporters who are knowledgable about the art form. I am happy to contribute my money for that cause.

Joe's that year was classic old-time drum corps. Cozzolino at his best! A horn line that could blow the stands down and a drum line with chops to spare. I love the NYS A.L. championship recording that year by Fleetwood.

As a past and present subscriber and occasional contributor in the form of articles and photos, I am heartened to see that Steve has found a viable way to to continue on as the voice of the activity. I am sure that in this new format DCW will be more widely read than ever. I would like to add that I have been impressed by the quality and timeliness of Steve's editorial and publishing work. Truely, this must have been as much a labor of love as it was a living for him. I am excited about the archiving and search possibilities which can be exploited with the electronic medium!

Paul, thanks for the great inside look at the 1974 Cavaliers. Like fellow lead soprano, Donny, I was not pleased to find myself looking up at you guys at DCI after having bested you the rest of the season. However, please accept my belated congratulations. I remember how we marched off past you after some show earlier in the season and I caught an earful of a disspirited Cavalier staffer berating the assembled corps to the effect that if the corps could not do better in competition, then there was too much Cavalier pride to continue. I wonder if that was Frog speaking? Competition seemed much more intense back then. I wonder if todays DCI members feel it in the same way that we did back then? I wish that I had the opportunity to sit in the stands and witness the prelims that year. I know that like the Cavies we played our best show in prelims and just could not reach the same level that evening. I recently bought the entire finals audio recording on the Fan Network and have been impressed at how strong all the top 12 were. It is too bad that there is no video existing of most of the finalists. In addition to Cavies, we were passed by DeLasalle and some corps from California called the Blue Devils (who we beat in prelims). We did manage to beat Blue Stars and Phantom who had been beating us most of the summer. If you are interested in reading that summer's experience from my perspective, go to http://www.dci.org/news/view.cfm?news_id=97bd275f-87e1-40c1-9d9d-6a70d69dbf5a Golden memories of a great time.

It has been said many times before, but I will say it again. It is not the instrument which makes the performer, but the performer makes the instrument. This applies to the vast majority of instruments short of obviously flawed design.

I enjoyed participating in your individuals and appreciate the hard work of your organizing committees. It was great to hear all of the participants and meet Richee Price. I was the trumpet entrant. Could you please send me a copy of my critique? Thanks.

Apalachin (NY) Grenadiers. In the early 70's they played a book loaded with articulation challenge and were just masterful with a beautiful and balanced sound.

The horn line that year had razor sharp execution. I remember that we had a bigger horn line that year with Geneva and we thought early in the season that we would have Auburn's number. Unfortunately for us, we had nowhere near the ensemble that you guys had!

Looks like negative reversal. Wedding ring on one trumpet player is on right hand.

Phantom 1989...great pure drum corps. You can't go wrong.

I agree that Robert Smith is top notch and that Madison is in good hands. The sophistication of his Suncoast arranging and the superior performance musicianship was, indeed, impressive. I am excited to hear what awaits Madison.

I checked it out on the Fan Network. Robert Smith certainly is a masterful arranger. It should be interesting to see what he does with Madison this year. I also loved Suncoast in 1983. The OTL that year was so well performed.

Are trumpets allowed and is reading (vs. memorization) allowed?

Another great example of a "lost sound" from the drum corps past is 1975 Kilties. Listen to them on the Fan Network, especially the tune going into concert (does anybody know the name?). The ensemble is far from perfect, but what a great sound and style! This is a great example of how the old drum corps sound, warts and all, was so very compelling. Ensemble is unquestionably better in modern corps, but not necessarily as exciting. There certainly was something in the old manner of presentation that was hard to put your finger on, but almost magical. BTW, I was in the stands at this show.

Thanks, Linda. Great stuff. We often invited Lasalle to our show in Geneva and they were alway great crowd pleasers.

We wore those uniforms in the Appleknockers from 1965-67.