Medeabrass

I aged out in '93 and spent a couple months after finals thinking I would do anything to get to play Medea again, and then I found out about our plans for Brass Theater in '94. I was elated to say the least. Because we didn't have a firm age requirement, we had a lot of '93 age outs come back and even a handful from the previous few years as I recall. Also, keep in mind that we weren't at the full strength 128 members like a jr corps...we were closer to 75-90 as I recall. The end result is that we had a huge percentage of vets that year. Which was quite necessary when you consider that we had close to 2 hours of music to memorize (we didn't "tag" team the show quite as much as blast where you would have different members performing different segments of the show). The opportunity to perform with Canadian Brass definitely pulled in new membership and vets alike. It was a real "love hate" summer for me. If I had to go back I'd definitely do it again though just for the chance to spend a summer with all of my friends and play great music. (Thank you 2010 Star Alumni!!! ) @craiga, I think you're getting Brass Theater and Blast confused. We were not paid and we still very much felt like a drum corps doing it for the love of it...our dc traditions were alive and kicking...I think a lot of us vets longed for drum corps when it comes down to it...stepping out in this brand new direction was very exciting and frustrating at the same time. For me personally, this frustration stemmed from having way fewer performance opportunities and even more important to me was the fact that there's no way to perfect a 2 hour show as well as you can a 12 minute show. I wasn't in Blast, but I got to get pretty up close to it and it definitely gave off a "vibe of employment" to me. It seemed very businesslike. I didn't get the feeling like there was the love for the organization like we had. I could be wrong though.

Hulka, I think I saw you at the run through. Were you wearing your "gears?"

I think the change from '92 - '93 in regards to contra numbers is because of the music being played. The contra parts in '92 were very lyrical whereas in '93 they had a lot of ostenato etc. I don't think it was a "retreat" from 16 (ie "ahh crap we sure got that one wrong") as much as a strategic musical decision. In fact, they were consistent in their changes in regards to bari/euphs. '92= 8 bari 12 euph ; '93= 12 bari 8 euph

Well I've never known the mild mannered Jim Prime to be about hyping or drawing unnecessary attention to himself just for the sake of it...and I've never known Donnie VanDoren to do that either come to think of it. They are more about letting their product speak for itself. I can guarantee you that their intentions are anything BUT hype...they believe in results and don't have time for trivial crap. I can also guarantee you that they weren't pressured by Jim Mason or anyone else to up the contra line for the sake of show. My guess is they felt it was necessary to achieve their goals given the music at hand. Jimmer hasn't been this involved in the activity since before the switch to Bb. Maybe he has gained an "outsider's" perspective to the activity, which has given him a unique insight into achieving the kind of balance and blend on Bb's that his lines used to achieve on Gs. I know my first observation after the switch was how out of wack the balance was between top and bottom. The trumpets seemed strident and the basses seemed muffled. I think this has improved over the years with changes to the instruments themselves and also by the approach the instructors are using in regards to balance and blend. Maybe Jimmer thinks this is just the next evolution along that path. I'm glad someone has the balls to try it because I personally enjoy a line that's built from the bottom up.

FANTASTIC!!! It sounds to me like they are taking a big step forward this year. What's the piece in the bonus clip? Unbelievable chords is all I've got to say. I can't wait to hear this live in Indy. I love Frank's arranging style and it's not just because I know the guy. There's always so many neat little details and things that tug at your emotions.

Nope...not enough longevity on our part...I guess you could say "what could have been" or "what did we miss out on?"...man, we're going to have to pull back the reigns on this hype machine or I'm affraid the obligatory backlash hate will be in full effect by this summer lol.

The name Len Bias suddenly popped into my head.

One observation I have is in regards to how quickly things came together for us in 2004...Without having to beat the technique into rookies heads, we were able to get up to speed very quickly...like riding a bike...All I needed was just a little bit of time to get my chops in shape and I was golden. I remember the look on the faces of some OSU bandsmen as they watched us warm-up before the Indy Parade...mouths open, wondering who the heck these old timers in pink were. We're very much looking forward to playing for you guys and are committed to living up to the expectations...personally, I had to make sure of two things before I commited 1) Do I have the funds? and 2) Is it going to kick arse? When some of my fellow alums convinced me of 2, I was on board. There's no way I would be able to do it if I thought for a second it wouldn't live up to our standards. I look forward to trying to put the "WTF, no-way these fat balding old timers are doing this" look on people's faces like we did with the OSU band in '04. Gulp, I think I need to go practice...later.

Hey Garry. I only got to go to Finals that year and was curious if you noticed that Star's best performance was Quarters or Semis. I remember some '91 alums telling me that it definitely wasn't finals night but I couldn't remember which...it was so friggin' hot that weekend. Honestly, it seemed like all of the corps were a little bit flat Finals night. I didn't enjoy '91 as much as my first year ('90), but I guess the first year you see DCI always holds special place for all of us (or was it the crappy tickets I had at the CB?)

without giving away anything, the most important piece of info I can pass along that might be of interest to Star fans is that Donnie fully expects us to sound the same as we did then (well ,except on Bb's). The cool thing is, there's no rookies to teach the technique to so things will fall into place quickly. It's just a matter of folks getting their chops back.

I think Donnie is hoping for 120 when all is said and done.

Aside from BD, the brass line was light years ahead of any of those corps you mentioned. IMO they not only broke barriers in tempos and difficulty but also with #### clarity. I saw some flaws visually (that frankly bug me a lot-I want perfection on some of those magnificent moves) but on the other hand, everybody else was doing safe drill at 150 bpm in comparison...The fact that Star was in the same ballpark in visual clarity is a huge deal imo. I think I heard one of my fellow alums say that Star's final 2 or 3 minutes had more steps than Cavalier's entire show...not sure how accurate that is, but I guess this would be easy to tabulate if someone wanted to take the time to simply compare tempos of the 2 shows over the same time period...just my 2 cents... I seem to remember that what Rondo was implying in the broadcast was that the Cavies maximized their show where Star didn't...that's a testament to how good they and the design were...kind of like how those Michael Jordan Bulls teams could still come away with a victory against a great team even after playing a terrible game. also, Rondo happened to say in his speech at our alumni reunion that star should've won 91-93 (he might've said '90-'93...can't remember exactly). Granted, he was probably appealing to the partisan crowd.

Star of Indiana didn't have a theme in '93. The movement and visual simply reflected the mood of the music. Some will disagree with me but I think our show was cohesive. When did a friggin' theme become necessary for cohesiveness...This is going to sound bad but that is a neophyte statement to make...look at some of the great shows before 1995 that didn't have a theme and tell me they're wandering around aimlessly like an old elephant waiting to die. I think a really good show is cohesive in and of itself without the "playbill-like" explanation of a theme tellling you what to think or where they're going...you, the viewer get to decide what it means to you. Discovery, thinking, and interpretation is part of the fun to me.

Well said. I would add that "being out there" has worked for this design group from a "competitive" stand point in the past. I don't think they are too worried about trying to conform to what they think the judges will like. They're more concerned with improving the overall performance of the corps. If they do that, they're going to move up anyways. Worrying about all that other stuff won't be much of a concern until they're closer to pushing the big boys. On a side note, I was visiting with some Star friends at our last alumni corps camp about Madison's show design and lack of a theme. I don't know if it was intended, but they are actually pushing today's envelope by not having a theme. It reminds me of when I go to 6th Street in Austin and see way too many people trying to be different just like everybody else. The normal looking person is the one who is truly being different. One thing I can guarantee, this design team will never ever worry about conforming to current trends.

I've finished the first month of p90x and even though I haven't done an outstanding job of sticking to the routine, I noticed at the Star Alumni camp we had this past weekend I had ZERO problems holding my baritone. Aside from a couple of knots in my back, I'm not even sore. I remember hollering m'arms m'arms when we were preparing for our 2004 Alumni Reunion performances not to mention the absolutely terrible time I had trying to hold up my euph at the first few camps when I was actually marching. My primary problem back in the day was keeping muscle mass throughout the summer. I remember seeing my muscles get smaller because I was just burning way too many calories. Needless to say, there was always a period of time in July when I would start to struggle to carry the horn again. I wish I had done something like p90x in the preseason to get some mass and strength BEFORE the summer started so that I could completely "own" my horn carriage and not just "get by."

FWIW, it looks like the ratios in Madison's brass line is about the same as we had when I marched Star...Sounds about like the standard fare from Prime/VanDoren hornlines...nothing new here except the size of the hornline.

Probably the best way you could get an idea before the summer is to listen to Blast...of course, I guess those arrangements are 10 years old now...wow time has flown.

Totally agree...Love their percussion that year...sadly, I think we won't ever see drumlines try to creatively create effects like this anymore because they can do it all with the push of a button on a keyboard.

Gotta disagree about Star '93 pushing the "write the music to fit the visual" paradigm. That was all Cavaliers. Listen to the original works and tell me where Jimmer took creative license to stress a visual moment. I think it's a fair argument to say that Star '93 changed the vocabulary of visual but there is no way you can tell me that the music was written to the visual. Jimmer never operated that way.

Slight correction here. Zingali actually wrote some of the drill for the opener in '92. The whole staff of the early 80's Garfield changed the activity for the better big time.

I'm not sure if anything has changed in Donnie's teaching but we never really worked on volume much until maybe the last couple of weeks of the season and even then it wasn't stressed that much aside from playing with a consistent characteristic sound, balance and blend, etc at all volume levels.

Jimmer is known for adding some "ear candy" towards the end of the season. I wouldn't be surprised for him to tweak things according to the progress of the corps over the summer. I always loved it when he came to rehearsal with his manila envelope full of goodies.

That's Jim Prime for ya. I'm so happy he is back in the activity again not only to hear his arrangements again but also for how he will influence other arrangers and the direction of the activity in general. On a side note, it sounds almost identical to the arrangement Jimmer wrote for Brass Theater in '94. Anybody else wonder if the selections they've chosen will provide enough "up tempo" moments to keep them competitive? Obviously, we haven't heard everything but this is something I've wondered about ever since their music was announced. On the other hand, I know that this design team prefers "quality over quantity" per se and would much rather put something in the drum corps' wheelhouse that they can perform at an extremely high level as opposed to giving them something over their head that will never be clean. I'm very excited to see this corps this summer.

Really weird (and cool) seeing a drum corps rehearsing in the corps hall again. I'll be there for my own camp in a couple of weeks ;)

The cotton bowl is not a great place for finals. I was there as a spectator in '91. First and foremost, it was butt azz hot. IMO the energy level of the corps was effected by this. I have many friends from Star of Indiana who marched that show and they stated this to me many times. Second, the parking situation for the cotton bowl is terrible. Lastly, it's in a crap azz neighborhood. I'm not sure if the show coincides with the Texas Bandmasters' Convention this year, but that was a big selling point when it was first created. DKR wouldn't be a bad option as Austin has almost as many touristy reasons to host such an event but the weather is still a major reason not to have it there. I hate domes from an acoustical point of view but even as a die hard fan, I see no way that I could sit for an entire day in the scorching sun.