27thAvantCadets

Hey, isn't any new corps a good thing for our activity? Just because you do not like the theme, uniform, style of music, corps colors or choice of instrumentation, it will be one more corps on the field! That is a good thing. I support the growth of this activity and if this new corps has found a way to financially support a DCI level corps, then more power to them!! Cant wait to see them on the field, and whether they place first or last, I will applaude their efforts!

"consistent". Love it!

It will effect DCA when it goes pro! When members are being paid to play and they do not have the committments of a job/career. The drum corps activity was once a "youth" activity created to get kids off the streets, give them something to do over the summers, and oh yeah, also encourage them to get involved with music. Now it seems that the DCI rhelm has grown to be so incredibly difficult to make membership and the cost involved with being a "world class" corps is such that the only logical next step is to go pro. Much like that of a Major League sport (much like the new DCI slogin...marching musics major league.) When the corps start to tap into the secret of the NFL, MLB, NHL or even the World series of Poker, then you will see the power house "World Class" corps, the Cadets, SCV, Cavies, ect...go to an all-age situation and start to pay for talent! What an evolution that will be, the day when a lead screamer is signing a contract for a cool million to march one season with a "big dog". IS IT GOOD? Look at BD Entertainment....or the corps now getting involved with the NFL teams....or even BLAST! For everything great they do/did for the Public Relations and mainstreaming and marking for the drum corps activity it stands to reason that one must ask....what is next? Add in the electric bass guitars (already seeing that in WGI!!!), and maybe a sax or flute and merge DCA and DCI! UHHHH.

Octobers half way over and we are half way to our goal!! A few spots still remain... Upcoming auditions: * Shenectady high school Oct. 23, 2007 * Mohonasen high school Oct. 24, 2007 Auditions are scheduled from 3pm to 5pm at each school. Please call to confirm times and room locations (directions are available upon request) 518-708-1107 or director@excelsiordrumcorps.org

Jes' Donny, I certainly hope not! Mini-corps would have been one penalty after another! LOL. Nonetheless, I am excited for High Country!

Thanks for the well wished Niki! Check out our site www.excelsiordrumcorps.org Pics of the weekend should be rolling in soon. Same wishes for High Country Brass!

Tom, Awesome performance at mini-corps! Congrats to Paul! Your team did real well! Art

Looks like I missed the action here...all the posts have been edited...Hmmmmm. Way to go Tom. As a former Garfield Cadet, I am all for innovation! (not sure I am ready for a trombone yet...but, just kidding...not flaming!)....At least it is not a saxaphone! Everyone just needs to chill. Who can remember marching tympani and when the front pit was created? Who can remember when the show started from somewhere other than the goal line? Who can remember the Valve-rotor to single valve to two-valve to three valve changes? Some even call it evlolution. What about Bb horns? All of these things started with one group taking the leap of faith! I can attest that Tom has done everything he has listed here! Check out the documentary...it is realy cool. Tom, cant wait to catch your act at the track...whens the next show? Later, Art

More specifically, I am looking for Avant garde 1985, 18th place and 27th lancers 1986, 13th place. Thank you in advance.

WOW! Awesome. The commradre of drum corps shines again.

Bob, I have seen this deck of card before, but without seing the photos again, I wouldnt be able to help you with which is which. Can you post some of the images? That could help get you the answers you are seeking.

PrincessL, Thank you for your continued interest in what is happening with Excelsior! Yes, we are excited for the Glens Fall show and to again put our 2007 program out there for our friends and families to see. This show should prove to be great for all drum corps fans! Since February Excelsior has undergone some changes but has wheather each change like champs. SOme changes to note, Greg Morgan and Kristen Geswaldo are both no longer with Excelsior. Both have decided to work on other passions this summer. We wish them both all the best! Bill Peterson has signed on as the percussion caption head and we are thrilled he has been able to work with the line as he has thus far in 2007. He and the rest of the team are excited for what 2008 has in store. I hope you are pleased with what we have put together this year and can not wait until Aug. 4th! See you there.

Thanks Joe. I hope this turns into a yearly show with bigger and bigger crowds every year! I also wanted to take a second to do a promotional plug for our cross-town friends in Capital Brass, who will be performing at the Saratoga Race Track this year. So, If you do attend this show and plan on taking an extra day or two in the area...definitely try to hit the Saratoga Horse racing track! Hope to see you all at the show!

Yeah, Greg...things are going well. So well we had to purchase two additional sets of quints! That gave us four, and as soon as they arrived, another quint player showed up! He was quickly convinced to play snare! He luckily has a great traditional grip too! unfortunately with late season arrivals, it takes so long to get them up to speed. I hope these drummers are ready for the Aug 4th show in Glens Falls. The line at rehearsals is pretty big and they are mostly young players. Thats good for next year though! What did Bill Murray say in "What about Bob?" Baby steps! Wahoo!

Deja-vu...explain?

Well, I believe this is a good debate. Is it acceptable to talk during a drum corps show: ie. "HEY! It's a drum corps show not the opera...JESUS!" or is it rude and unfair to talk during a corps performance to those paying spectators who wish to hear the drum corps without the interuptions of those talking in the stands. My take on it: yes, drum corps has definitely changed. ie. "If the corps were a little more interesting, people wouldn't be horsing around in the stands. No one had to tell the crowd to pay attention to the 78 Bridgemen." but, with everything comes change/innovation/evolution(you choose which word you would use here!). This is a huge issue with music in general. My daughters school concerts are riddled with unbelievable parents who get up and leave after their child has performed. Often times getting up in the middle of the next groups performance, often times leaving from the top seats in the bleachers and making a ridiculous scene as they walk the steps down the bleacher making a huge noise with each step! It does need to start with the Music programs in schools, at the elementary level and b enforced through schools. As for drum corps shows, they are outside...so, there in lies the big issue. Is it a halftime show, or is it a musical concert performance? Being on this thread, I will assume that the readers of my post will know where I stand on that topic, but it is a double edge sword. ie. "HEY! It's a drum corps show not the opera...JESUS!" Also, to address the other drum corps members talking...they often times have already seen the other corps performances, many times multiple times and are simply excited to see their long time friends that they only see at drum corps shows. That is not an excuse, as a matter of fact, I would suggest they take their conversations to the parking lots. They of all folks, should be grateful to have fans in the stands. To have to ask a corps member to behave is unbelievable. ie. "I remember the last year at Scranton I was up near the breezeway and some corps members were running off at the mouth during someones show. I kept asking them politely to please be quiet but they didn't listen. I asked them about 4 times finally I let them have it. Full blast. Still no effect." But then again, this is just my take on it. And for those you dont know, I like to watch the corps and not have to train my ears to listen past the conversations of those sitting around me. and yes this is funny. ie."You could do my funny/passive/agressive approach adn just yell out "It's bad enough there's talking on the field....we sure as hell dont' need talking in the stands!!!!" but again, change/evolution/innovation...you choose.

Too funny! now Hop needs to ride off on a white horse!!!

Hey M&Mbozo, On behalf of Excelsior drum and bugle corps, I would like to state that we at Excelsior support Capital Brass and wish Tom and his folks the best of luck. The Capital area of New York is plenty big enough to be home to both of our groups.

Hey everyone, I know Sunday is Mothers day, but an amazing talent is coming to our area for a free concert! Chris Botti, World famous trumpeter is performing at 4:30 on Sunday at the Albany Tulip festival main stage and IT IS FREE!!!! If you are not familar, Chris Botti is amazing. I would recommend everyone see him at least once in your lifetime, but especially if you are a brass player! This guy makes sound come out of his horn that you would think were just not possible, and he does it incredibly effortlessly! This is coming from me - a drum corps guy!!! He has a PBS concert series video that WMHT had been playing awhile back and that is when I first learned of this amazing talent! Mothers day is usually brunch, so after brunch, treat mom to a live concert of instrument jazz, the weather is suppose to be beautiful and you can not beat the price! FREE!!! Check him out! www.chrisbotti.com Art His bio is below................. .............About The Artist Chris Botti is a native of Oregon who was born in Portland and grew up in Corvallis. His earliest musical influence was his mother, a classically trained pianist and part-time piano teacher. "I can't really sit down and play a song on the piano," Chris admits. "But I know harmony, and generally I compose on the piano rather than on the trumpet." He pursued his music studies with a succession of outstanding teachers: David Friesen in the Northwest, Dave Baker in Indiana, and--following Botti's move to New York City in 1986--the late trumpet master Woody Shaw. "After I came to New York," Chris recalls, "I realized I didn't want to be a jazz musician. I love improvising, but you really need to live the bebop tradition in order to play it. That kind of music--the kind that Woody Shaw, for example, played so brilliantly--just moves a little too quickly for me. "The music that really inspired me as a teenager was more like Miles Davis playing ballads with the second Quintet. You know that spacey thing, when they broke down all the chords in the song? That band playing 'Stella By Starlight' is something very different from, say, Bud Powell playing the same tune. "My music is more reined-in, because it's in a pop format. But this atmospheric quality is what I really loved about jazz, and I've tried to marry that feel to the textures and melodies you might hear on a record by Peter Gabriel or Bryan Ferry." When Paul Simon set out on a 15-month world tour in 1990, Chris became a key sideman in a backing group that combined Brazilian and African players with New York session veterans like Randy Brecker, Richard Tee, and Steve Gadd. Botti's solo debut, First Wish, was released in 1995; his second effort, Midnight Without You (a collaboration with English ambient pop group the Blue Nile) appeared in 1997 and was followed by Slowing Down The World in 1999. The Academy Award-winning film composer John Barry cast Chris as the featured soloist in his orchestral score Playing By Heart; Chris himself composed and performed the score for the Robert M. Young film "Caught." In the studio and on stage, Chris Botti worked with such leading singer-songwriters as Marc Cohn, Joni Mitchell and Natalie Merchant; as a sideman, he has appeared on dozens of albums, compilations and soundtracks. In 2000, Chris joined Sting for two years of roadwork, as the featured soloist with the latter's "Brand New Day" band. That tour culminated in Tuscany, where the concert was taped, later to become Sting's first live CD in 15 years. "Sting in Tuscany: All This Time" aired as a part of the A&E In Concert series, garnering six Emmy nominations in the process. The documentary was later released on DVD. Chris became a part of a dramatic and memorable performance on that fateful day in the fall, September 11, 2001. Working with band mate and multi-instrumentalist Kipper, Chris's Columbia label debut Night Sessions--inspired by the sounds of the late-night European club scene--was written and recorded during a two and a half-month hiatus between Sting tours. The album became a breakthrough contemporary jazz hit upon its release in October 2001. A Columbia DVD, Night Sessions – Live In Concert, was issued in August 2002. Taped live at the historic El Rey Theater in Los Angeles, "Chris Botti and Friends" featured the trumpeter with his own expert road band plus guest appearances by Sting and Shawn Colvin. In October 2002, Chris released the holiday theme album December. This 13-track collection combined joyful interpretations of seasonal standards ("Little Drummer Boy," "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing") with contemporary songs in the Christmas spirit, including Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" and "Perfect Day" by Richard Marx. On the promotional trail in support of December, Botti appeared on "The Caroline Rhea Show" (WB network). He was invited to return the next day…then promptly hired as Rhea's on-air partner, chatting with the host at the start of every show and frequently sitting in with a house band led by bassist Tim LeFebvre. Before he knew it, it was May 2003 and Chris had been part of "The Caroline Rhea Show" for five months. The end came not a moment too soon as Chris headed into the recording studio to record his next Columbia release A Thousand Kisses Deep. On this CD, Chris started to show his affinity to the “classics”, recording a now renowned arrangement of the Miles Davis classic My Funny Valentine. The reaction to this performance – both on disc and live – made Chris realize his next album would do well to focus on the repertoire of the great American songbook. When I Fall in Love was recorded in Los Angeles and London in 2004 and produced by veteran Bobby Colomby. Working with some of the most accomplished arrangers and orchestrators around it has been hailed as “an instant classic” by many and continues to sell well nearly a year after it’s release. Botti’s big break came when he was “discovered” by Oprah Winfrey, who quickly championed his artistry to her audience, presenting him on her show in November of 2004. Within a week of his performance he had sold more than 50,000 CD’s and has not stopped since - maintaining it’s top five presence on the charts all the while. Botti has outdone himself with the release of his latest album: To Love Again. Employing nine of this era’s finest vocalists, relying on sublime orchestral arrangements, and once again under the direction of producer Bobby Colomby, this album has fulfilled the highest expectations. www.chrisbotti.com

Hey bill, might be able to help you guys out. shoot me an e-mail. director@excelsiordrumcorps.org

love cymbal lines! Colts, Madison, and of course Spirit (just to name a few) (no disrespect to any other corps not mentioned). I wish more corps would bring them back. With 150 members, now there is no reason. Unfortunately we are now in an era where the percussion caption heads who are now making the decisions, came up through drum corps without cymbal lines. They see the advantages of having another mallet player as more beneficial, however, I can tell you from being a one-time, 14 year old, aspiring drummer, who didn't make it on snare, tenor or bass...thank goodness for the cymbal line. The cymbal line was my ticket into drum corps and by the end of my first year on cymbals I was amazed with what could be done with a pair of plates. After 4 seasons on cymbals and three corps later, marching with the Cadets under the legendary Tom Hannum, all I can say, is long live cymbal lines! I probably would have been another varsity baseball player or chess club captain, but instead of those great extra-curricular activities, I entered into the crazy world of drum corps! (wait a minute, should I be happy about this??? Just kidding!) Here is a wonderful video of some modern day cymbal magic.

2007 is the year of the Excelsior drumline!! With our fall goals exceeded, the drumline currently boasts 6 snares 2 tenors 4 bass 1 cymbal Now we are ready to expand! Its time to bring on even more. We have lofty new goals and competition is part of the future! We are currently looking to bring on 4 additional snare drummers, 2 additional tenor drummers, and 1 additional bass drummer, and of course we are always happey to accomidate more cymbal players! The corps is thrilled to be able to have Greg Morgan on board as our 2007 arranger and Bill Peterson as our 2007 Percussion head. These two gentlemen are talented and well respected throughout the drum corps community and we are honored to have them associated with us. The charts and the teahcing are top notch! Come out and check out what all the hype is about! Excelsior hold rehearsals Tuesday evenings and every other Sunday. Check the website for specifics. www.excelsiordrumcorps.org Lets grow this line and rip it up! Come out and play!

For those who were wondering, you'll be interested to know that the brass ensembles performance for Palm Sunday mass was a HUGE hit. The sounds of brass echoing through the rafters of the church was amazing, and 16 brass players sounded like 100! It was amazing. many church attendees commented on the drum corps of yester-year and how the sounds of drums and bugles was sorely missed in our area. One parishoner even commented that it was nice to see drum corps coming back to the area! That could not have summed up our goals any better! We're back! Drum corps has returned to the region (Capital District of NY and Pittsfield, MA included). Be sure to check out the website: www.excelsiordrumcorps.org or just stop by our next rehearsal. The rehearsals are always open to anyone who would like to swing by and listen or watch or, of course, hop into line!!! Bring your weapon of choice, I mean instrument of choice, "G" bugles are available for use, and join us for a blast! Come out and have fun! After all, if we're not having fun, whats the point!

for sure Gary, its a real toe-tapper!

Cool Tom. I am glad you were able to get this job! The VA admin folks are great people! I am sure the attendees will appreciate the sound of live brass!