Cru2u

Heres a link to the newscast of the event for everyone! worthy cause! Honor flight Concert report

Hey! Oldsters and youngsters alike! Heck.......who wouldn't wanna?

Thanks, Jim for the clearing up! I only know him as Scott and I think I quoted another famed drum corps name......my bad and apologies however I never marched at Brigs to get to know him better during those fabulous years! They (Mark and Scott) are certainly a great addition to an already talented PTB trumpet line!

Ditto Dat!!! (Naw arlens style!) LOL!

Great Job,Tom! Wonderful cause and it was very entertaining night from the Aquinas High School Jazz Ensemble, PrimeTime Brass and the Ghost Riders! The Aquinas Jazz ensemble were very good with an excellent sax solo in "Misty" by Jake Wark and Ms. Karen Labella as a vocalist for "Almost Like Being in Love" and "America the Beautiful" with her son playing Bass the whole night! Very Entertaining playing the Jazz styles of the 40s! Great music for the vets in attendance! Primetime Brass.........what can you say?......one word.......WOW!!! They were loaded for bear with their entire contingent playing their entire book as well as a few new pieces they will be playing for their trip to New Orleans for Mardi Gras with 7 parades in 7 days!! ! They had Mr Jeff G from Erie playing with a numerous amount of cracked ribs along with Mark Kelly in fine New Orleans sounding solos during the New Orleans style songs called "Hangin' Out with the Band" by Leroy Jones and "Do Watcha Wanna" by Rebirth Brass Band and just all wailed on them along with one of the finest trumpet lines I have heard in alonnnngggg time! Scott Meeson(sp?) in from Baltimore laying down some stratosphere notes was just a tad of the talent they had on stage! Even "Disco Bob" was on his game! Also a very talented lower Brass section was on note with Nick Finzer on TBone laying down some SMOKING solos! Congrats to Chris Castellon,Mike Spuck,Lance Rightmeyer,Danny "Mo" and everyone else for taking PrimeTime Brass to the next level of entertainment and who can forget Billy McGrath Jr. for doing double duty for PTB and Ghost Riders on Percussion?? Just Awesome! great tribute for our Veterans from WWII and beyond!!! Ghost Riders came out after intermission and performed in a symphonic style playing "American Elegy", "Red Pony" by Aaron Copeland along with their newly introduced beautiful sounding piece that was not on the program and for lack of my hearing, I only heard it introduced as a "Hymn" just being introduced for the 2010 season of competition! Maybe Don Allen can clarify that for me! It was beautiful and only introduced a couple of weeks ago at rehearsals yet already mastered very well in performance by a group of talented players! They continued in closing out with the"Ghost Rider suite" by Don Allen which was well done and made you think you were in the Old West during the days of western lore! Of course, they closed out their section of the program with "Happy Trails" that was very well received by the audience! Good Job, Ghost! After a presentation of the nights proceeds of $5400 dollars to Mr. Vince Hope, Honor Flight Rochester President, PrimeTime Brass returned to the stage for a stirring rendition of "This is my Country", "Armed Forces Medley" , which included the audience vets standing during their branches themes being played from the Army, Navy, Marines and Air Force! The pride and pumping of their fists showed what it meant to them to be honored by such magnitude and sent chills down your back in appreciation for their service and the fine sounds coming from the stage! Huge Kudos goes out to Tom Allen and anyone else who was responsible for putting this fine night of entertainment together as well as raising funds for such a worthy cause and implore all to give to Honor Flight in your respective cities across America to honor these WWII era Vets who deserve our thanks and admiration for a Job well done!! As stated by Tom in one of the nights presentations, this is the 1ST ANNUAL fundraiser for this great project and hope to be able to attend this great event next year!

I thought I was the early riser today at 6 am but u got me beat I see! The Alpine Girls was Vince Bruni's project for an all girl corps and when they folded and came over to Greece in the 1977 season they were far from having no Balls!!LOL! Actually had some fantastic mello players and good bari and sops! Brought the corps from the ashes so to speak to its prominence in 1978 as further talked about in the other forum post you started elsewhere. To all who have posted, I as a true alumni and person of dedication to a fine 63 year old organization, I believe Crusaders will be back and stronger than ever after the dust settles! A Big THANK YOU to you all for your support and look forward to seeing you all as a fan this summer!!!!!!!!!!!

Lmao! Your killin' me, Keith! All I remember is watching the tri-town cadets come out in their farmers jeans and straw hats and rolling on the ground laughing until they beat us all!

Thank you,Keith for your support and I understand the peoples comments but believe me, I have no "dirty laundry" in my closet and wish you all well in the drum corps world! It has been and always be a big part of my life and just can't get past the rush of hearing a great performance from all divisions and kinds of drum corps orientated groups!!

This was a personal attack on me and nothing to do with the Crusaders, However I will take the high road from now on with people who are so easily offended by the truth and facts. If anyone cares to hear them, they can PM me and ask for it. I have no affiliation with the Crusaders presently after donating my time,money and sweat equity into the Crusaders for the last 12 years as a Bari player, Vibraphone and percussion accessory player,Board President and Member, Assistant Director,Fundraiser, Bingo Worker, Truck Driver, Water re-filler for the practice field jugs and true "Green" bleeder! I decided to retire after DCA Championships to pursue a new venture in my life(with my wife) and felt I could not pour my soul into the Crusaders anymore and would give others the same opportunity as the Crusaders afforded me.......Education,Camaraderie and competitive spirit! I pray for the resurrection of the Crusaders Corps and wish all those involved good luck and perseverance, as I have been thru it before in 2004 it takes bold steps and many hands to make it work and hope that is the course of action taken!!

Thanks, Don and Tommy D!! Don, I hear great things about our friends from the North! and Tommy......Yolu are truly Crusader Alumnus and we have heard from many who "bleed GREEN" like yourself! Thank you both very much!

U just have to love ignorance! I am sure you know everything from New Hampshire! I will tell you this........ after a 12 year run on the board of directors, I retired in September for personal reasons, but I guarantee there will be a resurrection of the Crusaders..... ! Being there for the last one in 2005 said it simply: " We Go On!"

Northmen were a creation of the Firebirds and the Cadets of Greece. I sat at that time on the board of Directors in 1984 of the Shoreliners drum corps inc., which was the identity of what Greece was built on. The 1980-83 were a blur of people who attempted to keep junior drum corps alive in the western NY area and trying to form a foundation for the future. I don't think its necessary to name names nor do I think outside (or inside) peoples opinions count much when they don't know the truth! That is irritating. However, it is what it is! Fusion was a good attempt but financial strife worked against them, as well as too many egos in my humbled opinion and as I have mentioned before, I was also an outsider at the time from 1980 - 1983. John Nolan had alot to do with the rise of the Patriots but it turned into a battle after he passed and his daughter did no justice to his legacy, in MHO again. I just think that outside opinion during the Northmen years did its harm as well but at the time their were 2 junior corps operating (Northmen and Patriots) and performed very well for the talent level provided as mentioned in my previous post. I am not as angry as you think, because I know the truth and the facts involved that makes me wonder sometimes about peoples opinions, but then I think about the old proverb,"Opinions are like xxxxxxxx and everyone has one, except they usually stink!" Take care and have fun in sunny but cold Florida!

well at least you looked at it from your end......the right place for sure! U didn't hurt me whats so ever but you are dragging aname that I helped build to national prominence in the day and all the wannabes that appeared after the best time for the Cadets of Greece tried but just never got there because of too many egos and ignorance......enuff said!

I would say Bill Hoyt has a run on DCA continous years, I believe hes at aroun d 35 years!

at least sign your name when u defame a fine name and drum corps that never "raped" anybody!!! but then again I wasn't a part of Greece from 1979 till 1983 when we were approached by Gauchos and do the merger for the year as you so well know about.....second thought.....stay anonymous.......its better to treat ignorance that way!

Nice! Good luck on the dissertation! Always fun to be with family, especially the little ones! what surgery you having? surgery at our age is something I don't look forward to........Good Luck!~

Nice! I forgot you teachers have the vacation!......how the heck can you be bored in Florida? At least your not living in a refrigerator! LOL!

Keith, You must have alot of time on your hands!!! LOL! In regards to Greece......the demise was the exiting of a director that was full of vision and spark. He had a knack for organizing parents and truly believed in the kids and their efforts. His name was Jim Fantone. Great guy and family who inspired other families with multple kids to really putting it together in 1974 after another long time director and founder of the Shoreliners who then became the Greece Cadets, Dale Bond. Dale also put his heart,mind and pocketbook into the corps but the rising of the DCI Class A champs in 1975 belonged to Jim Fantone et al. In 1975, we attended a show where the show announcer announced as the Cadets of Greece in error. The members came off the field and along with the Director, liked the sound of it and elected to change the name permanently! After winning 1975 DCI Class A ( I think their were over 60 corps in that day! ) and the US Open, Jim took a bold step and released Ed Cozzolino, one of the most talented arrangers for his time and wanted to go a different and newer direction with the hiring of a young Jerry Kelsey and the corps went from champions in 1975 to a small core of dedicated people believing in Jim and keeping the corps alive in 1976. 1976-Book by Jerry Kelsey: What is Hip, America, Dance of the Baccanale, Festival Prelude, I Write the Songs. I remember playing Contra Bass (NOT Tuba) and having 16 horns in the parking lot of NYS Legion championships and having a corps meeting about pulling out or going exhibition. We got beat by the Mighty Liberators from Rochester and barely made it thru the show. It was sad but at the same time a rebirth took place and we got thru the season and went into negotiating in the winter of 1977 with the Alpine Girls, who were on the brink of folding and their contingent of about 20 came over and we started to rebuild and prosper in my ageout year of 1977. Fantone hired Al "Corky" Fabrizio and we played Academic Festival Overture, Fascinating Rhythm, Chorus Line Medley and What I Did for Love from Chorus Line. 1978 was the best year in open class for the Cadets of Greece.......I teched the contra line and helped out with anything that needed helping with as the corps traveled to Denver for DCI Championships and placed 22nd out of 43 corps, and 1.8 behind our friendly rivals, the Watkins Glen Squires. (RAW MEAT,Yeah! lol! Inside joke for those in the know!) However on the way out, on tour beat the Garfield Cadets,Cavaliers and Boston Crusaders by total shock of all at prelims in US open placing 5th. There was much shock after another stellar show in final competition and we dropped dropped 4 points to 11th in finals after some behind door questioning of who was this corps and where did they come from??HMM? The Cadets of Greece came home and had a age-out factor of alot more and the younger corps grew with more cockiness. They were very good but unfortunately out of control off the field and after some eye opening incidents to Jim Fantone the corps took a big turn again with Fantone resigning and several people taking over and not having the knowledge lead the corps down a path that didn't represent the previous 2 season powerhouse years It was a blur as I left the organization in 1979 and 1980-81-82 was a combo of mergers making up Renegades, Fusion and an attempted re-birth of the Cadets of Greece but not having an infrastructure sounf enough to support it, it went down until we came back and had a merging of the Cadets of Greece and the Firebirds that produced the Northmen. The Northmen to this day still hold the record for the largest drum line in DCI history and were asked to play the open class corps on the field at DCI Midwest at Whitewater with 10 snares,4 quad toms,3 tri toms,7 basses, 5 cymbals and a huge pit!! All lead by Joe Guadagnino and wowed the audience everywhere we went! Ubfortunately we could only attract 34 horns but they were very talented and were very entertaining! In 1986-87 the Shoreliners sponsored a bus traveling from NY state to Dutch Boy, in the year of the Cartoon show and continued as Dutch Boy continued to climb the ranks into DCI membership with the Sinatra Show! This was the final year as the Board disbanded for lack of funds and interest. Interesting how things played out.......many people went on to other corps and fame in the drum corps world as they chose music as a living, whether it be composing,arranging, performing or educating in the "real" world or drum corps world. I just finished a 12 year run on the Rochester Crusaders Board of Directors as a performer, fundraiser and administrator and feel drum corps offered me a wide range of skills in my work and personal life! I am a proverbial "Drum Corps Nut" and wouldn't have it any other way! I love turning on noobies to drum corps and enjoy watching the progression of young kids to being successful adults thru the years! Thanks, Keith! this really was an interesting topic when you stop to think about it all! LOL!

You are correct on this and the three directors were going to be one from Rochester and 2 from Saratoga Springs to maximize the efforts of getting kids.......worked well as we headed down the thruway, picking interested kids in marching!......heck of a drum and horn line with girls doing winter guard and hanging out at rehearsals waiting for guard to get fired up! Unfortunately I was told about the personality conflicts and lack of funding too late to do anything (if possible) about it and I believe Jeff perkins was still withj the corps.......might be wrong......not sure. I do remember the presented Piano Concerto #9 like no ot her corps and smoked the drum solo! Great corps and probably could have been the next DCI open class finalist behind Auburn Purple Lancers!

I was a member of the Board of the Shoreliners drum corps inc in the 80s when we were the "deciders" for the Cadets of Greece that were hurting for money and membership. We took the group in 86 ( maybe before that a few years?) and loaded a bus for Saratoga Springs and rehearsals with Avante Garde. A small group but dedicated drum corps nuts! They had a track history of beating 27th Lancers I believe and did some other accomplishments in the DCI Arena. we had it going on at rehearsals but Money and management but a kabosh on the project after a few rehearsals and it never materialized. I was the Chairman for the DCE sponsored show in Rochester at the University of Rochester's Fauver Stadium the last competing year of Avante Garde and they were accompanied in that show with Bayonne Bridgemen, (another final DCI season), Les Eclipse, 27th Lancers (last competing year), Garfield Cadets (magnificent year for them- beginning of the "Z" pull and West side story) and the first year of Star of Indiana!! Heck of a line up and it was sponsored by the Northmen which was a combo project of Cadets of Greece and the Firebirds from Rochester. Funny thing about Star.......DCI would not give them any shows on the DCI circuit and I received a call from Joe Guadagnino because he got contacted about this new drum corps that was from Indiana and needed to fill their summer season with shows, whether it be DCI sponsored or other drum corps associations. Each sponsor was able to negoitate a fee rather than follow set fees from associations. It was their "Disney" show that was entertaining and innovative! (Go figure!) after they went to DCI finals and placed they didn't hasve that problem of shows ever again and you all know the rest of the story! The funny thing is with all those buses and trucks we had logistics worked out at the stadium with the road directly behind the stadium too small to accompany fans and drum corps, so we had them parking along river blvd on the other side. I had appointed guides to all corps so everything would go smooth but 27th decided to come closer on said road and I got a radio call that Patty Poole was arguing with the Sargent of campus security and about to get arrested as 4 buses and a bunch of trucks vans and rvs were idled on the said service road!........not funny at the time but provided some many years of funny stories locally! what a fun time it was to be around drum corps then!

Tsk,tsk, Keith! They were from Saratoga Springs which is near the Utica/Albany area!!! Mr Jeff Perkins was a big part of them, along with the Keck Brothers.......the nucleus of Greece Cadets and firebirds actually attended several wijter rehearsals with big numbers before disbanding! too bad, politics and pride got in the way with the management teams!

Tom, I was aware of the Appleknockers doing the concept but if it was 1959 I was 4 years old and still a noobie to drum corps! LOL! I believe the Crusaders used a bass guitar but i could be wrong......still impressed the heck out of me with that Horn line and who was it that played the trap??

Dude, any chance of copying that for me?? That was a wild brass line and concept that really worked for 1969-70!

Who came out with the winter concerts first featuring a trap set and bass guitar ala the Crusaders did with Corky's ( and probably others) Arrangement of "Up,Up and away" swing style??? Would love seeing that and adding keyboards ( yes,electronic) for a true big jazz band sound once again! Even have the keys for it!! any takers!?

Definitely came off well!! I give the two of them much credit for putting it out there and getting much needed guidance and techniques to improve the family !!!! Kudos to you Billy the third!! Saw pops at the Crusader Pig Roast and said the same to him....he was most pleased with the reception! Great to have Billy and his wife come to the pig roast and hope to see more of him! GREAT Guy!