mchromik

Well I would invite you to stand in front of each lines arc for a warm-up or two. I have, many times over the past several years. Both are extremely good, BUT there are more then a few things that Crown does better. Scores be ######, take your fan boy hat off and listen.

I am a technical kind of guy. I didn't even bother with the story until it was explained in the designer's commentary on the Fan Network. I honestly thought they were really dirty early on, but was fairly open minded on the book. The show just never rose to the top level. Probably to many changes trying to nail down the design. Great corps, okay year.

I don't think you will find anyone that would argue that Phantom doesn't always have an 'amazing sound'. But there is a lot more to winning brass then having a popular distinctive powerful sound. This reminds me of the discussions around Madison's popular hornlines of the mid-90s. No matter how popular a given approach is, if it is not winning, then it is time to ask yourself why, and do what needs to be done. If winning is the goal that is. I love PRs sound and books, but honestly am often disappointed in the lack of little things. Attacks, releases, individual quality sick outs, ect. Sure on some years everything aligns and BAM it is amazing. But why not every year? It is the little things that win consistently. and consistently attacking the little things wins. You don't have to 'sound a certain way' or any other such nonsense. You have to have a consistent and unyielding approach to the basic details and quality. Do that, and design and GE will not be your slave driver. I've seen some pretty good BD brasslines do well despite un-popular books. No matter how good or bad the design this year, that was not a top-3 level brass performance. Lots of heart, big coconuts, but not clean enough in a time of some outstanding brass programs. You can be powerful, popular, and score well. BD and Crown do. Ask yourself how.

Whole bunch of Grab-### on that side of the arc.

Interesting. I briefly played the newer Jupiter mello. It felt like a slightly stuffy well built knock-off of the current Yamaha. Not bad, but not exactly a Yama 204. It didn't come across particularly bright on my short spin. Then again I wasn't tooling around consistently above the staff either.

Yup, that is a classic run. For the Star United Minicorps we did a Jim Prime arrangement of Rocky Point Holiday and the runs at the end are all C up to G, down and up again type. A wonderful mello roller-coaster. Pretty sure it was the same run for the 83' cadets arrangement as well. Jimmer always seem to find a way to keep those runs mostly on the first valve. Easy peasy no drama. The man loves the mello. On the other hand we are playing some original music this year with SU that although cool, gives the mellos a workout with lots of runs of various varieties both in the staff and up to C above, most with lots of nice Abs and various accidentals and the like. Challenging, but fun. (Thanks Frank!)

It is not so much that the F mello cannot play in the upper register. It can easily, but it is sort of dangerous territory mello-wise. So easy to get thin and bright on anything above the staff. The power band is probably F to F with occasional journey to maybe C above the staff. I am playing a book this year with a fair amount of notes in the top space Eb to C above range. I am still adjusting my mindset to the F mello after some five years of playing it. I have an old King two valve G mello and it feels like a sportscar in comparison to the truck-like F mello. But I have grown to love the F mello's slightly more forgiving nature and extra mass. Back in the day we had to fight to keep that proper 'mello' sound at all times. The F mello is a natural middle voice and though not as responsive as the lightweight G mello, it stays dark and open far easier. At least in the power band. Now if somebody could build a horn without such ideosyncrocies as a flaky top-line F.

You are kind of proving my point you realize. The mello will always be heard. It's timbre and key will always be distinctive. In other words there is no need to even attempt to rip through. It is not needed. You obviously like the old school wailing mello of yore. Nothing wrong with that. But we are talking about a modern World Class line of F mellos in a corps who lives and breaths in a dark classical book. There is no way you are going to convince me that PR is better served by that old school approach to mello sound. Even when that approach was cool, PR anchored it's middle with dark powerful frenchies, not a mello in sight. It is just not a sound that fits their character. PR is plenty loud, ballsy, and monsterous. No imagination needed.

Karen beat me to it. When I think about the term 'throwing babies' I think George Z. He would often stand at the top of the stadium and yell like madman he was. He always gave us this vision of cutting off in a big section of the show and the crowd would be beside themselves..... and as they faded the sound of the infants raining down apon the track would envelope us..... "Are you sh@#$%^& me? if you guys do that in a show, they are going to have to snowshovel the babies from the sideline!"-George Z.

Other then for the occasional effect, I don't feel that the mello voice should be 'cutting through' anything. The counter melodic line adds support, interest, and body. It should not be an intrusive presence, a sideshow if you will. The technicality and movement of the mello voice will be heard and noticed regardless. It should compliment the main melodic statement rather then compete with it for the interest of the listener. PR has had some really technical and obviously very talented lines in the last few years. JDShaw obviously has a special place for them in his arranging. But he often has them in such a high range that they exceed the good quality limitations of the instrument. Almost every year there is a point in the book where the mellos go into lazer-phone land or just get plain crass. I have a tough time putting them on the pedestal of best mello line because of this despite the brilliance of the technical playing. If restrained a bit and placed in a more mello-friendly register, I wonder how dark, full, and beautiful their middle voice might be? Anybody can pound the listener over the head with a sledge hammer. It takes an artist to come up and hit them between the eyes with a ball peen hammer. The effect is the same, but the latter is far more interesting and challenging.

I just sent you a message.

Click the member's name you want to contact, scroll down to 'send message', type message, send. So easy, even a cave man can do it!

Ugh! Hopefully the hecklers will be a bit more creative this year..... Alan, I still think we should swap out our soccer duds for some Baseball Unis (More American, %@#$-it!) and have that emblazoned across the back Bad News Bears style.

Wasn't 75' Madison undefeated?

In the grand scheme of things, considering how much SCVC and BDB already travel do you really think those thousand or so miles are really that prohibitive? And going to their division championships is not that important to their mission? Are you kidding? About the only advantage of going back to Denver is maybe you might coax the numerous newer Open Class Cali corps out to championships. I am not even sure they leave California at this point, hopefully that will change. Obviously BDB and SCVC should stay in Open Class and keep the lighter touring and rehearsal schedule. But they are competitive units, not just feeders. Building up and working toward that big show in the big stadium is an important part of what they do. Would you want to sweat and work hard for a good part of the summer just to play a couple of HS stadiums and go home? I sincerely hope that very few if any of the current corps would take on World Class anytime soon. The concept of 'weekend focused' drum corps has great merit and needs more nurturing and support from the powers to be. DCA has been growing in recent years and much of that growth is in the form of younger DCI-aged members. The lower time commitment has great appeal to many.

At least you have a banner. (shakes fist) I am abstaining from the vote, don't want to curse it either way. Can I write in for The Renegades?

Interesting. How does the week go for the Kilties, Chops, Minn. Brass, Corps Vets, ect? Not to mention The Renegades? What about growth outside of the North East? I can see where this is touchy subject for some and we are just bench racing it here, no offense is intended. My observation is that I don't see this changing anytime soon either, but not because of need.

Actually we stay out of trouble by staying at the Homewood Suites in Henrietta. We have a practice site at a local HS, who's name escapes me at the moment. It is not so much about being anti-social, but focused rather. After Friday we will be down at prelims and the like, rain tropical depression or shine.

It is not so much the weekend itself, but the week of corps rehearsal and such the week before the championships. I am assuming that nearly everyone is on a pretty hard-corps schedule the week before? I know I have to take three days of vacation before and we don't have any drill to clean. For many college-age kids, that is maybe the third week of school. Having to take a week off at that point doesn't sound very workable. Sure it all works at this point, but if the All-Age activity does indeed take off and grow as much as everyone seems to want it to then this may be something that might need to change regardless of history. Depends on the age of the membership and the needs of the corps.

Oops forgot that one. I unfortunately didn't pay BK much mind until Zingali and his crew began working with them.

The similarities in brass technique and approach is only natural given many of the staff's previous experience with Star. It thrills the Star alums to no end to hear it taken to the next level. But that is where the similarities end. They have had their own unique identity for some time. They are taking great and challenging music and presenting it in a far more crowd friendly fashion then many who have come before them. That is a tricky balance. Over time Crown will further develop an 'identity' with the crowd, even if it is just a 'sound'. I kind of hope it is that sparse and fluid. Personally I think that the only 'identity' a group really needs is the way the teach and treat their students. I think that will naturally result in a given 'sound' and maybe even a given 'look', but I don't feel the need to pigeonhole them in a given programming niche. Maybe this comes from my background with the Chameleon Corps, but I like when corps stretch their self imposed boundaries and challenge the audience a bit. For example Cavies '007', BD 'Carpe Noctum', Phantom 'An Amercian in Paris' to name but a few. Mark Sylvester once told us that if we look hard at what we think is unusual or maybe even uncomfortable at first, we will usually find something really cool and new. We just had to wrap our heads around it. Works a surprising amount of times. As for sound, I would be curious to hear your thoughts when you hear the Star Alumni next year on concert pitch horns and a slightly evolved technique.

No doubt. I would think that being 'corps of the decade' should have far more to do with how a given corps changed the game or dominated the the conversation. The opinion of one panel on one rather important night shouldn't be the sole criteria of selection.

Thanks Frank, I cannot wait to see and hear you guys as well. If only we could play as clean as that midi. Hence the need for a properly lubricated crowd.

I was seriously hyped on that piece that year. Of course I was wearing the grooves out on the Emerson, Lake, & Palmer 'Works' album at the time. Actually that whole 85' show is still one of my BD favorites. Liferaft Earth, ELP Trilogy (w Karn Evil #9 & Emerson Piano Concerto), First Circle. Sure wouldn't mind if they brought back a few of those if they ever decide to do any 'remember when' sometime. I still would be interested in hearing somebody do ELP's 'Pirates' from the Works #1 album. Hey nowadays they can even do the Greg Lake synth solos as written. (ducks)

For the most part I liked Crossmen this year, but their Medea interpretation left me flat and disappointed. Did they not watch 93? Glassmen played a few years back and I felt kind of similar. Probably the best interpretation was Cadets use of some of the Barber themes in one of their Through the looking Glass shows. Though they rearranged it so severely that by the time the season started it was hardly recognizable as coming from Medea. I think that once a certain unit performs a given piece in a memorable fashion and to a high placement, we have difficulty in fully accepting anyone else doing that piece. The other corps may actually do it better, but in a drum corps sense it is already 'defined' by the previous performance. That is not to say that we will never hear 'The Dance' played as it was once long ago defined...........