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When I was still with Spirit in 2001, we purchased a set of Kanstuls with which we were pretty pleased. Some problems with the Alto's but after some long distance chatting, we figured out the problems and they shipped us the replacement slides to make them work. As far as I know, they are still playing those horns. After starting with Court of Honor, after MUCH deliberation and playing lots of different horns, we purchased a brand new set of King Bb's this year. Not only have I been impressed with the horns themselves, but the SERVICE we have gotten from the company has been OUTSTANDING. Based on the combination of quality of workmanship, durability, playing characterstics and "customer service", I would recommend King to anyone at this juncture. Knowing how the "corporate world" operates and "buy outs" occur and engineers leave for other company's, that might change in the future, but we are truly thrilled with the horns and the service right now. Hats off to everyone associated with the King manufacturing process and service organization and thanks for the great instruments and your support!!. Take care, AA

Bobby, Great review of everyone, thanks!! Wish I'd known you were there, I'd have looked you up. Would have been great to chat for a little bit. Thanks so much for the kind words. Truly the credit for this organization doesn't go to me, but a great foundation laid organizationally and financially by Marc Kaufman and his management team (Mike Miller, Dave Ruppel, Scott Jones, Beth Massengale and David Smelser) and a staff and bunch of kids that are just doing a whale of a job. You are right about Gin, always has been the better looking one, certainly no reason for that to change after all these years. :) Glad you enjoyed the show, and we have some visual changes coming that I think will enhance the product even more. Basically I'm just hoping our design team (all us old farts) can keep up with the teaching staff and these kids so that we give them a product worthy of their effort. Hope you can see the show later in the season after we get the "fixes" in and I think you'll enjoy it even more. One thing lot's of folks I hope will appreciate is that we will ALWAYS try to place entertainment at the forefront of our programming. I think the changes we make to this years show will enhance both the entertainment value and the chance for the kids to perform more effectively. Next time you are at a show, make sure to look me up, love to see you again. I'll be sure to pass on your compliment to our Bari kid.... He's one of mine... came through 5 years of my HS program and then marched for me at Spirit in 2001 before originally serving as a staffer/member last year for this corps. He asked me this year if he "HAD to teach" or could he just perform. Had to laugh..... Great kid and you are right a wonderful player. He'll be genuinely flattered by your thoughts. Take care and thanks again for the kind words. Later, AA

All of the people that I'm closest to as friends are from my drum corps days. Where I still see and speak with dozens of friends from my drum corps career (both marching and teaching), I can truly think of only a couple of people from my HS days that I have any kind of contact with. The internet certainly helps, as many of those I was closest to are spread all over the country, but we see each other several times a year in various and asundry venues having to do with corps or marching band. I think that it will probably always be so. Later, AA

My rookie year in '82, Spirit's Dues were $450 and we had to sell some specific amount of that $#@% giftwrap. (When we were cleaning out my parents house after my Dad died getting ready to sell it, I found several packs of that stuff shoved up in the attic) I know the dues went up in succeeding years, but I worked off part of my dues every year after that either working at the bingo hall, or helping teach the corps my ageout year. I honestly don't remember what the dues were by the time I finished in '86. It seems like I remember my girlfriend paying $600 something by '87 and I think a rookies dues may have been as high as $750 by then??? After two decades, it all runs together...... Later, AA

Let me give it a shot and someone who has spent more time analyzing it all can correct me if I'm wrong. In the "good old days", you only marched on Thursday if you had finished in the 13 through 25 spots or lower in the previous season. Then the Friday show was the top 25 from THAT season vying for a spot in finals on Sat night. As DCI got fewer and fewer corps participating, they changed their format. Eventually dropping what was once a top 25 show to top 17 and then top 25 "member corps" to 21 "member corps". The recent surge in "new corps" in the last couple of years is a major positive and I hope the beginning of a trend. Be nice to see 40 or 50 corps at Championships again in the future. Later, AA

Only two major items come to mind in 20 plus years of corps. Somewhere in TN, mid 80's...late night fuel stop after a show. Most of us walked to the McDonalds next door to get some food. One of our guard girls was getting harrased by some locals. Her boyfriend (a snare player who visits this site on occasion I believe) "defended her honor" with a few words. Words ensued, a little shoving and shortly thereafter, someone shouted in the door of the McD's "Spirit..... FIGHT". Never have I seen a resturant empty so quickly. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 60 or 70 of us surrounded the thugs car and started harrasing them. The police showed up and basically told the punks that if they had any sense, they'd leave before they got killed. Lakewood Stadium (all days rehearsal site in a less than desirable area of Atlanta) 1986. We were rehearsing and had noticed a little boy sitting watching for quite a few minutes on the sidelines. We were learning new drill (To the end of the Sweet Georgia Brown chart). In the middle of the move, I saw our other soprano soloist break rank and start running, screaming something. Assuming he must have a good reason, I immediately followed him not really knowing why. Shortly after breaking out of the form, I realized, that the "little boy" we had seen earlier, was trying to leave the stadium rather swiftly with appx 4 of the fanny packs and bags that had been sitting on the sidelines. Mike Elam had led the charge (skinny white sop soloist at the beginning of the '87 Blues production) followed by myself and a few other surrounding sops. We were quickly followed by a STREAM of about 40 of the hornline chasing down this little kid. We chased him out of the stadium and up a street with Mike and several of the rest of us describing in quite gory detail what we were going to do with him when we caught him. He eventually gave up and dropped the bags and took off into some woods. We gave up the chase, and turned to realize we were about 3 blocks deep in the middle of one of the worst neighborhoods in Atlanta. We quickly made our way back inside the confines of the stadium. For the next three days however, there was a rash of vandalism of our cars in the parking lots surrounding the stadium. Not sure the bags had been worth it. I'm sure the value of what little we might have had in those bags, was probably less than the damage done to the various vehicles over the next few days. Later, AA

Russell, As to the difference in teaching, I agree. Wayne obviously likes a brighter more "piercing sound". If you listen to the lines when Jim was teaching and writing, it was much "thicker". Part of that was the writing but I'm sure you are correct in that part of it was the teaching. Once Jim moved on and Wayne was writing and teaching, the soprano parts were thinned out to make it more piercing and I'm sure the "concept" behind the sound was more soprano dominant. Interesting you mention that about the '86 show. Hadn't thought about WHY I liked that arrangement so much, but in thinking about what you said, it makes sense. I like that "thicker, fuller" sound. That chart on Channel One, if written consistent with the way Ott had written it for them originally, would have been one of the reasons, I liked Blue Devils '86 so much No matter what, both men taught some great lines and wrote some legendary drum corps books. Later, AA

Comparing the '79 and '80 lines to '86 Blue Devils.... (all three some of my favorite all time drum corps performances) I had the good fortune to see all three corps multiple times. From a pure power standpoint, I've not heard anyone that can match what I "felt" (as everyone mentioned) from those two Spirit lines. Not even '86 Devs. Because of the difference in the way Wayne D and Jim O wrote, don't think that Devs ever could sound the same even had they been taught by the same individual. Just to much of a difference in the way the books were written to provide the same "type" of sound. As for the press box legend.... who knows..... LOL Later, AA

Some great corps and a great rivalry. I agree with Steve, it pushed us both to be better. Some "interesting nicknames" for each other during that time however... "Spit of a Llama", "Spirit of Mylanta" "Sandblast Sound" "Sunburnt Clowns" etc...... Still love that 1985 Suncoast show.... Later, AA

How about Avant Garde and Pride of Cincinatti? or did I miss them in someone elses' list? Didn't like the Avant Garde uni much (LOUD yellow) but liked the corps and Pride of Cincinatti had the COOLEST retreat tune of anyone in '83 or '84 (can't remember which), "Things Aint' What They Used To Be". I think it was in their show too, but not positive. Later, AA

We used some in our show last year ("ANTZ") and we just had some dads make them. I think they tried a couple of different cuts to get the "balance" the guard kids wanted to get them to spin correctly, but they weren't that hard to make. Tape them well however, they do fracture pretty easily. Later, AA

Brad, I didn't get to see Eklipse this year, but congratulations on what I HEARD was a great inaugural season. Much like what you did, we started from scratch here in Atlanta with Court of Honor. The only difference was we didn't have the indoor component already going, so we had to create all that stuff before we could get cranked up. Marc Kaufman, the Exec. Director, did a GREAT job putting into place all the logistical things that had to happen. When he recruited me to volunteer as a staff coordinator and put together a staff, he had ALL the right answers to my questions about uniforms, horns, 501c-3 status, insurance, rehearsal facilities, etc.... His organizational skills made the year a success from that standpoint. Recruiting an all volunteer staff was harder. We had to find people who were willing to be there COMPLETELY for the kids. That's hard as someone else mentioned because it takes them away from their own families, jobs, hobbies and often costs them money. I was able to put together a dedicated group of individuals who had to give what they could to put together a first year corps. This coming season, it looks like we will be able to cover expenses, but that's about it. It's exciting to me to see so much activity in the South with new drum corps and a resurgent Spirit. It harkens back to the days of Drum Corps South and Sky Ryders, Suncoast and Spirit as the headliners, Florida Wave, Southwind and Memphis Blues as the next tier of competitive units and then several others in and out over a period of time. Hoping to see great things develop in the coming years with Memphis, Eklipse, COH, Spirit, Crown and Magic in the junior ranks and Corps Vets, Heat Wave and Carolina Gold in the Senior ranks. Congrats again on a great first year. Looking forward to seeing you this winter and on the field again next summer. Later, AA

Wow, I realized that Scott (Chandler) was good, but...... In looking at that list I realized that since he began teaching in 1982, he has been either the caption head (9 times) or a staff member (1 time) of the Championship Guard almost half of the time (10 times in 21 years). Pretty amazing..... Later, AA

Guys, Without going into the massive technical details, (this is not the month for me to get into any major "technical discussions" online, just too busy) the difference is not between the F and G mello's, it's between the sounds of the instruments that "surround" them in the ensemble. You have only moved the key of the mellophone horn DOWN 1 step however, you have moved the key of the other horns in the line UP by a third. In the past, in a matched line of G bugles, if I wanted to hear a unison C (not talking concert pitch here folks for all you people looking to poke holes here, just written pitch) on the trebles (Mellophones and Sops) I wrote a C and then wrote a Bb for my low brass kids and we had unison octave pitches. NOW, if I want to hear a unison pitch... I have to write C for my trumpets, but then an F for my mellophones and then Bb for all my low brass kids. I've created a "gap" between the written range of the horns and that determines how well the parts "cut" when written. That causes us as arrangers to have to either "drop the lines" we wanted to write into a lower octave than we really wanted, to write them in the upper EXTREME register for the mellophones to have the same "cut" that it used to, or to change the ideas we had and write a different line for the alto voice. Now, when truly "arranging" something, "changing the alto line" is not that big of a deal. HOWEVER, if you have something like say "Elsa's" where the Alto line is the given, then it becomes an issue. I will be glad to discuss this at length at a later time, but our band has it's first BOA regional this weekend, I"m in the middle of trying to buy a house and we have a drum corps inaugural open house coming up in about three weeks. Just not the time for me to get into any long discussions about this kind of thing right now. I hope that my points made some sense and like I said, I'll be glad to discuss this in depth later this year, now is just not a good time for me. I will try to answer any simple questions, or comments as I have time in the next few days. Later, AA

Good luck this summer Magic, Great to see another corps back on the field after some time off. Later, AA

Jim Ott's Alto lines were always phenomenal. Possibly one of the most simple yet beautiful is the Half note descending line in the backfield section of "Let It Be Me" from the 1980 recording. Mello's were up on High C's......just pure and beautiful. Sounded like they were crying, and that night in B'ham, they were. :( Other than Jim's writing, Robert Smith loves to write for great alto lines. Just like he loves to write great F-horn parts in his concert band lit. Wayne (Dev's) and Jim Primes writing (Cadets and Star) also stand out through the years. Later, AA

For my money two guys from Madison, Metzger from the 70's and Shaun (I believe Owens? to many years can't remember last names) from the 80's. Bridgemen's Jim Brady from the 70's. Any number of the BD soloists in the 80's (never knew those guys well enough to remember names). And two of my "lead mates" in Spirit in the 80's, Hunter Moss (Blues in the Night made him famous) and the lesser known "screamer" from those days Mike Elam (skinny white guy in the "dueling soprano" feature from '87's Basin Street Blues"). Mike had the same if not better chops than Hunter, but never got to feature them like Hunter did due to show selection after Hunter aged out. Mike aged out to "Petrushka" so not many opportunties to show off your scream sop soloist there. As for great screamin' soloists in general, don't know names but the "Everybody Loves the Blues" Bari soloist for BD in '83 was a monster. And she only played one solo in her entire corps career (at least with us, not sure about with Kingsmen), but her solo with Spirit was a keeper. Kelly Cahill played the bluesy Mellophone solo at the beginning of "Maybe God's Tryin' to Tell You Something" (2nd half of Spirit's exit in '86 after the hymm tune "Precious Lord"). She started the season with all of us having to work with her to "blues it up", but by the end of the summer, she "tore it up" and had the crowd eating out of her hand. On top of that, she's one of my favorite people I"ve ever known in 20 years of drum corps. Later, AA

Interesting poll choices. Rather than selecting individual corps, I think you can look to individual instructors and find something interesting. For the Cadets, the roots run back to the 27th Lancers with Zingali, Bonifiglio, Twiggs and then those that were taught by them (April G. for example) etc.... For Blue Devils the roots of those great guards, run back to the run of Championship level guards in Atlanta in the 80's with Tam Easterwood, Sal Salas and BD's current instructor, Scott Chandler. Cavies, though I'm not as familar with their program have had Bruno in place for many years and various and asundry of their alums come through teaching as well. The Crown guard is one that is taught by an alum of Scott Chandler's guards in Atlanta and I believe he may have also marched Cadets or Devils as well (not sure which?) Michael Shapiro For consistency, in the long run, I'd have to give the nod to Scott's groups. 9 (I think that's right) DCI High Colorguard trophies in the last 17 years (that's more than everyone else COMBINED during that time) and if you move into the WGI realm, he was the designer and instructor for the WGI World Open Class Champion 17 consecutive years. Can't even begin to get into his HS credentials, but I've seen his guard at Logan and they've won the last two years I believe in WGI's High School Open class as well. An incredible run for ANY one person. Plus he's just a good guy!! Later, AA