apoch003 Posted July 24, 2008 Share Posted July 24, 2008 Molds the kids? Honestly? I think it's 50/50 between the staff and the other kids. Seriously, the things I did for drum corps, was because I wanted to impress people, including acting and behaving just like the other dedicated kids there. But the leadership of the staff will always be remembered. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elphaba01 Posted July 24, 2008 Share Posted July 24, 2008 "Made a Difference": How about all those Santa Clara Vanguard "Age Outs" that moved to Concord back in the early 1970's and help make the Blue Devils a National Contender? Elphaba WWW Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DCIHasBeen Posted July 25, 2008 Share Posted July 25, 2008 Don Angelica I'll second that ... Most influential judge of all time. Encouraged all kinds of experimentation and diversity in the '70s and early '80s. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LancerLegend Posted July 25, 2008 Share Posted July 25, 2008 Don Angelica.....I'll second that ... Most influential judge of all time. Encouraged all kinds of experimentation and diversity in the '70s and early '80s. IMHO - the guy who got the ball rolling was Jim Jones (RIP). He was the director who knew his kids were ready to break loose, and he took the show on the road in a big way. He was bringing the Troopers from Casper to Boston for the World Open and CYO Nationals in the early 1960's, while most of the corps were from the northeast. Fred Sanford was a Trooper, and introduced the 4 tuned bass as we know them, back in 1973. I believe SCV's original staff were mostly Troopers, and some of those SCV folks went to help BD. Peter Emmons, former SCV drill genius, was the drum major of the Troopers when they were scorching the earth and has been with BD for many years. I do believe Angelica helped the activity expand and supported the creativity that instructors were seeking - things that VFW would not allow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KeithHall Posted July 25, 2008 Author Share Posted July 25, 2008 So there seems to be a "family" tree of drum corps A tree grows in Caspar, WY branches out to Santa Clara and to Concord and so on. Then a tree grows in the Northeast and one in the Midwest. Anyone want to try to do that family tree? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chat_Capone Posted July 25, 2008 Share Posted July 25, 2008 .Fred Sanford was a Trooper, and introduced the 4 tuned bass as we know them, back in 1973. In all due respect to Sanford and his tremendous influence on the contemporary marching percussion ensemble, he didnt introduce the multiple-pitched bass drums....it was Muchachos back in the late 60's...they also introduced clustered toms, timbales and congas that eventually led into "timp toms/ tenors/ quads, etc." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bleu Raeder Posted July 25, 2008 Share Posted July 25, 2008 So there seems to be a "family" tree of drum corps A tree grows in Caspar, WY branches out to Santa Clara and to Concord and so on. Then a tree grows in the Northeast and one in the Midwest. Anyone want to try to do that family tree? Now that would be an interesting exercise. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
O.P. Posted July 25, 2008 Share Posted July 25, 2008 Don Angelica Unquestionable. Many people are responsible for individual corps development (i.e, Directors such as Jones, Royer, Bonfiglio, Seawright, etc) and show designs (Pace, Zingali, Brubaker, Emmons, Moxley, etc) that their students learned from and improved or advanced, but Don Angelica was the one who took DCI and oversaw the development and freedon of perfromance from a military based/influenced activity, and made it a broadway, entertainment performance based activity. As chief judge coupled with his natural personality as mentor, he brought to the activity a value system that lent itself to progress and advancement. He influenced which instructors could be more effective with a corps and facilitated these changes to happen; he provided suggestions and guidance on show development with design staffs during the season to help them improve; he constantly monitored his judging community on their perspectives and choices to ensure their artistic evaluatiuon skills were properly focused and tuned; he encoraged moving away from "ticks" and lobbied the dc community to vote the old system out by encouraging key people to speak up in the judging and teaching communities; moreover, he encourage a constant dialogue between the two during the off season to ensure it all happened outside of the competitive season. Critics may site his dictatorial nature and approach and there is enough evidence to suggest it to be true. But political scientists will always tell you the best type of leadership is a benevolent and just dictator, which Don Angelica was. However, the problem with this is that when they depart, they are impossible to replace and so it is a risky venture, because the one who replaces is usually incapable of such benevolence and wisdom. And so we get a committee. Which is what has run DCI since his passing. Still the activity yearns for someone like that today. And there are people who do their best to lead in his example , such as Gibbs and Hopkins to name but two, but it is difficult to lead an activity when you are competing as well, and so that vision never really is provided. But vision the activity needs and it needs to come not from the corps per se (they should produce the product) but from the judges who encourage these paradigm shifts. The 70's, under Angelica's guidance saw Pace's scatter drills of the 75 Lancers, the flow design perfection of Moxley's 76-82 Blue Devils, and Emmon's brillant asymmetry of the 80 Vanguard. Angelica encourged designers to be different and then demanded that they be great. No one else has done that for drum corps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DCIHasBeen Posted July 25, 2008 Share Posted July 25, 2008 IMHO - the guy who got the ball rolling was Jim Jones (RIP). He was the director who knew his kids were ready to break loose, and he took the show on the road in a big way. He was bringing the Troopers from Casper to Boston for the World Open and CYO Nationals in the early 1960's, while most of the corps were from the northeast.Fred Sanford was a Trooper, and introduced the 4 tuned bass as we know them, back in 1973. I believe SCV's original staff were mostly Troopers, and some of those SCV folks went to help BD. Peter Emmons, former SCV drill genius, was the drum major of the Troopers when they were scorching the earth and has been with BD for many years. I do believe Angelica helped the activity expand and supported the creativity that instructors were seeking - things that VFW would not allow. You do know that Angelica taught the Troopers bitd, right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ironlips Posted July 25, 2008 Share Posted July 25, 2008 What O.P. said (so eloquently) is spot on. As for the family tree, I would humbly suggest: Dr. Bernard Baggs (Donald's teacher at Bergenfield HS.) Donald Angelica (Garfield, Cabs bugler, then arranger, B-field Band director, DCI and WGI chief judge...) mentor to: Jim Jones Gail Royer Pete Emmons Mike Moxley Fred Sanford Shirlee Whitcomb Shirley Stratton Mel Stratton Wayne Downey Ralph Pace O.P. George Zingali Marc Sylvester Steve Brubaker Scott Stewart...and on and on... Influential? Q.E.D., as they say in Geometry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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