Channel One Suite

[BD2Rings]

Well thank you. Nice vote of confidence.

I would also give kudos to the Bridgemen. As for anyone questions who had the abilities to play those old piston rotor horns, just listen to '75 Madison. It was an adjustment to learn how to play those things, but once you got it, you got it. No different than a slide trombone. You need to have the skill for that instument.

Oh, the G horns were also much louder. You could put so much more air through those things.

[dsb2007]

Part of me actually wants to say 2002 simply for the fact that the tempos were faster and as much as I hate to say it.....the quality of today's corps is just better. Sorry old schoolers. BUT.......I'm going to vote for 1986 because the arrangement was just better in my opinion. The problem with the 2002 arrangement is that it's just to short and spliced. But again I still think 2002 was performed better.

[O.P.]

I go with 76, though agreeing with the point about the quality of corps performances improving over time. The '76 chart was the best primarily becasue of the drum book which was the most musical of them all and true to Buddy Rich's chart. And above all Channel One Suite was all about the drumming, after all it was a Buddy Rich chart.

One late qualification: I vote for the "76 version despite the fact that I taught the "86 corps.

Edited September 10, 2007 by O.P.

[BD2Rings]

I feel the need to share a true story about 1976.

Back in the day, there was much less cross country activity to march in certain corps. It did exist, but not at the magnitude of today. The Blue Devils were largely a local corps. We had a couple of sopranos from Ohio, a bari from Wyoming, another from Kansas, another from Santa Clara (which is in our own backyard), and a few (including Bonnie Ott) came from the Stockton Commodores or smaller corps in the rather immediate area. Only a handful came from outside an hours drive.

About a 2-3 weeks after drum corps season ended that year, there was a concert at the Concord Pavilion. The concert was of Buddy Rich and his big band along with Mel Torme. The Blue Devils were slated as Buddy Rich's warm up gig.

I mentioned above the local nature of the Blue Devils so it would be clear that even though the marching season was over, the corps was largely intact. I believe we had a member turnout for this concert of better than 95%.

Now I have no clue if Buddy Rich had any idea of what a drum and bugle corps was, and he probably had even less of an idea who the Blue Devils were. So it may be safe to assume that he had no clue about the drum corps activity outside of some 'marching band' perspective. You corps people should well know what I mean here.

The Blue Devils could not possibly have set up on that stage. It is a fairly large circular stage, large enough to hold a corp performing a stand still, but all of Buddy Rich's big band equipment was already set. Due to the nature of the performance and structure of the seating and stage, the seats on the sides of the big band were not sold. All ticket holders sat out in front of the band. Therefore, the Blue Devils occupied the empty seats on the viewing left of the stage.

Now what would you guess we started to play? If you know our book from '76, you probably would guess Channel One Suite, and you would be correct. We started playing and the stage itself was empty. Only a few phrases into the chart, Buddy Rich himself walked out on stage. Now let your imaginations run wild as to what he could possibly be thinking. Did he know drum corps? Did he know of the Blue Devils? Who the hell is playing my music?

As I said the stage was a circle, and the pavilion itself is a large bowl. The stage is sunken compared to most of the circlular seating around it. There is a short wall of maybe 2 feet maximum that runs around the stage, that one can easily step over, and that is exactly what Buddy Rich did. He stood front and center in front of our snare line (The Wall) for the remainder of the chart. Unfortunately, I did not have a good view of Mr. Rich during this period, as there were too many shakos and plumes in my line of sight. When we finished the chart, the audience was strangely quiet, and it was not due to lack of numbers. I can only assume it was due to them knowing that Buddy Rich was front and center, and that we had just finished playing his chart. Maybe they were waiting for his response. In any case, Buddy Rich turned toward the crowd, and the stage, raised a fist over his head, and proclaimed loud enough for the entire pavilion to hear "Right on drummers!". It was then that we received the response from the audience.

The Blue Devils drum line had just been complimented by Buddy Rich, after we played his chart. The drum book was a very close clone of Buddy's work, and it appeared what we did pleased him. For those of you that watched the ESPN2 broadcast, you saw the clip about the family with the full 50 years of corps activity. Well the father, Rick, was the individual responsible for writing and teaching that drum book. Buddy Rich applauded his efforts back then, and he is still going at it, as are his sons. I think it was well deserved that they were on the broadcast.

As for which performance was best, I'll still leave that up to you guys. You now know which I felt was best, and you now know why.

True story.

Edited September 6, 2007 by BD2Rings

[dccorpsfan]

Wow...Buddy Rich approves of the Blue Devils.

[DCIHasBeen]

I feel the need to share a true story about 1976.

True story.

Thanks for the share ... That's a great story!

... and yeah, Rick Odello's drum book for that season was a thing of beauty that still stands up to the test of time.

[Triple Forte]

When I hear certian songs, I associate them with a drum corps.

With SCV, it's If I Where a Rich Man (from Fiddler).

With The Cavaliers, it's Russian Sailors Dance.

With it's Phantom, it's Canon in D.

You get the picutre.

When I hear the piece Channel One Suite, two things usually come to mind:

-Buddy Rich

-The Concord Blue Devils

Though not the first corps to perform this piece (and up until 2002, the Oaklands performed it just as many times as BD), they've made it their own, winning three titles with it in their repertoir.

So, which verison of Channel One Suite (performed by the Blue Devils) is your favoirte and why?

I had to vote for 1986.......its my favorite junior corps show to date....... :)

[Walter]

amen.

(BTW... the '76 Bridgemen were another "corner turning" corps that year, changing the activity forever as well. So while it's awesome to see you give credit to BD, take a pat on the back from me for YOUR innovative corps as well DCIHasBeen...)

:) ... Thanks. We aimed to please ...

Just as long as you hit the toilet and not your shoes !! b**bs :sshh:

[van]

Didn't have the privilege to see 76 or 77 live, but did see 86 and 02. 86 far and away the best version of Channel One.

Van

[GGarrett]

I feel the need to share a true story about 1976...

...True story.

GREAT story! That answers a question that many of us back here in the midwest had as to whether or not Buddy ever heard BD's version of Channel One Suite. Buddy would frequently come here and play in an outdoor shopping center here, as well as at colleges or high schools. We went to as many of them as possible to see him. There is a photo out there somewhere of Buddy with the DM's of Velvet Knights in the '70's, so I'm quite certain Buddy knew what drum corps was.

Didn't Chuck Mangioni also come and enjoy BD's version of Legend of a One Eyed Sailor? I thought I saw pictures of that somewhere...