NYSkyliner Posted March 7, 2009 Share Posted March 7, 2009 (edited) Hey Mike, Ya think some day we could play as good as these guys???????? You? Most definitely. Me? I've been working on if forever. I might be getting close but still got a LLLLLOOOOONNNNNGGGGG way to go. This past saturday had to opportunity to try my luck with a couple of solos with Steel City at an exhibition we did at a guard show out here. Did a mellophone, flugel horn duet for the opener of Mangone's "Land of Make Believe". Then the flugel horn solo later in the same tune. And the solo in "Children of Sanchez" on flugel horn as well. Did okay. Hit all of the right notes but not neccessarily at the right time. But I felt some satisfaction. Now that I had the flugel horn worked on by Mangione's personal horn mechanic, guy by the name of Ted who works out here at a music store called Volkwein's the horn has perfect "G" pitch so I don't have to try to "lip" everything to the sharp side of the notes. Edited March 7, 2009 by NYSkyliner Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fran Haring Posted March 7, 2009 Share Posted March 7, 2009 Did anyone do a solo from Children of Sanchez? Yes. Every other DCI corps in 1979. Fran Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeff danchik Posted March 7, 2009 Share Posted March 7, 2009 You? Most definitely. Me? I've been working on if forever. I might be getting close but still got a LLLLLOOOOONNNNNGGGGG way to go. This past saturday had to opportunity to try my luck with a couple of solos with Steel City at an exhibition we did at a guard show out here. Did a mellophone, flugel horn duet for the opener of Mangone's "Land of Make Believe". Then the flugel horn solo later in the same tune. And the solo in "Children of Sanchez" on flugel horn as well. Did okay. Hit all of the right notes but not neccessarily at the right time. But I felt some satisfaction. Now that I had the flugel horn worked on by Mangione's personal horn mechanic, guy by the name of Ted who works out here at a music store called Volkwein's the horn has perfect "G" pitch so I don't have to try to "lip" everything to the sharp side of the notes. Ted's a really great guy,bought my first Schilke a B5 from him at the old Volkwein's on the Northside.String player, go figure.He finds us horn guys puzzling.He will rebuild a horn to play perfectly for about $1500 a valve and people complain.He has to get a mortgage to buy a decent Viola. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fran Haring Posted March 7, 2009 Share Posted March 7, 2009 I'm really surprised no one has mentioned this yet..... But one of the best duets in the history of drum corps....heck, in the history of music.... was the Sunrisers' mellophone/French horn duet in "Late in the Evening" in 1981. Mike Fitzpatrick was the mellophone player. The French horn player's name cannot be disclosed at this time. The duet came at a critical time in world history. The United States was mired in a recession, and the Cold War was showing no signs of easing. However, the day the duet made its summer competition debut, the Dow Jones Industrial Average began a long, steady climb upward, the U.S. Gross Domestic Product showed its first quarterly gain in a couple of years, and the nation's unemployment rate fell for the first time in many, many months. It was the start of one of the longest peacetime economic expansions in the history of industrialized nations. Meanwhile, the U.S. defense buildup began picking up steam, forcing the Soviet Union to spend more money to try and keep up... money the Soviets did not have. That, plus the formation of the Solidarity labor union in Poland and the popularity of Pope John Paul II and the power of religious faith in his native land, marked the beginning of the end of Soviet communism and thus, the end of the Cold War. Public opinion polls taken in the United States before the "Late in the Evening" duet made its debut showed a solid majority of Americans were worried about the direction in which their country was heading. But after the duet was first played, the polls showed a sharp rise in American confidence about the future of the nation. So..... the record clearly shows that the drum corps solos/duets mentioned so far in this thread, while all great, did not have nearly the impact of the "Late in the Evening" duet.... not only on the drum corps activity but also on the world stage. Yes, my friends.... that duet, indeed, changed history. Fran Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steelcityrabbit Posted March 7, 2009 Share Posted March 7, 2009 I believe you are referring to 1999 Westshore in our effort to compete in Class A that year. We thought we only needed an 8 minute show, but found out we indeed needed to perform at least 10 minutes just before pre-lims that morning. (This was back when pre-lims were on Sunday AM) We were playing "One More Time, Chuck Corea" as a closer, so I volunteered to play an extended version of "Conquistador" on the mellophone to fill some of the time. The funny part was I remember telling the pit players to add random cymbal rolls and other "Latiny" sounds that they could come up with. It certainly does not belong on this list of great solos, but it did give us a 10 minute show. I also remember Frank Ponzo standing on the sideline saying, "Wow! I've never heard anything like that before", as I marched off the field at 8:14 am. Somehow, I don't think "anything" meant anything that good. What the heck were you doing there that early Frank? Didn't you play a duet in the late 80's with Steel City? Malaga,right? I don't recall your partner's name, but I remember he was quite the good looking type. And were you not part of the 3 Amigos soloists in 1990 with Steel? Again,that handsome sop player, the Infamous & Timeless Walt Street, and of course, yourself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steelcityrabbit Posted March 7, 2009 Share Posted March 7, 2009 I heard a story that recently, a guy 15 minutes before a show, was asked to play a solo he had never played before. They say he played through it once before going out on stage and then played it from memory and did a fine job. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NYSkyliner Posted March 7, 2009 Share Posted March 7, 2009 (edited) Ted's a really great guy,bought my first Schilke a B5 from him at the old Volkwein's on the Northside.String player, go figure.He finds us horn guys puzzling.He will rebuild a horn to play perfectly for about $1500 a valve and people complain.He has to get a mortgage to buy a decent Viola. That he is. He's the guy who turned me on to Steve Paul, the guy who makes mouthpieces for a lot of the the trumpeters in those symphony orchestras and such. Steve drilled out a Paraduba 3 for me for the flugel horn. The inside diameter of the Parduba 3 just fits my embouchure perfectly, so he drilled to the specs of a flugel horn mouthpiece and I think it really sounds much better now. That along with Ted setting the horn to a perfect pitch for the key of "G" now it REALLY sounds great. But back to the topic. Geez, there sure have been a lot of great soloists mentioned here. I think somehow we kind of overlooked Tom "Bucky" Swan. He did one of the solos in New York Skyliners concert back in '63-'64 "Tenement Symphony". He aways had a rich, full tone quality, even on the instrumentation they used back then. Edited March 7, 2009 by NYSkyliner Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TennTux Posted March 7, 2009 Share Posted March 7, 2009 Tony....c'mon.....WE DON'T NEED NO STINKIN BADGES LOL I was hopin' fer one o'dem nice smellin' ones.... not da stinkin ones... heheh.... YOU might not but I do... LOL (other wise no one would know who in the #@&& I am...hehe ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TennTux Posted March 7, 2009 Share Posted March 7, 2009 (edited) I'm really surprised no one has mentioned this yet.....But one of the best duets in the history of drum corps....heck, in the history of music.... was the Sunrisers' mellophone/French horn duet in "Late in the Evening" in 1981. Mike Fitzpatrick was the mellophone player. The French horn player's name cannot be disclosed at this time. The duet came at a critical time in world history. The United States was mired in a recession, and the Cold War was showing no signs of easing. However, the day the duet made its summer competition debut, the Dow Jones Industrial Average began a long, steady climb upward, the U.S. Gross Domestic Product showed its first quarterly gain in a couple of years, and the nation's unemployment rate fell for the first time in many, many months. It was the start of one of the longest peacetime economic expansions in the history of industrialized nations. Meanwhile, the U.S. defense buildup began picking up steam, forcing the Soviet Union to spend more money to try and keep up... money the Soviets did not have. That, plus the formation of the Solidarity labor union in Poland and the popularity of Pope John Paul II and the power of religious faith in his native land, marked the beginning of the end of Soviet communism and thus, the end of the Cold War. Public opinion polls taken in the United States before the "Late in the Evening" duet made its debut showed a solid majority of Americans were worried about the direction in which their country was heading. But after the duet was first played, the polls showed a sharp rise in American confidence about the future of the nation. So..... the record clearly shows that the drum corps solos/duets mentioned so far in this thread, while all great, did not have nearly the impact of the "Late in the Evening" duet.... not only on the drum corps activity but also on the world stage. Yes, my friends.... that duet, indeed, changed history. Fran Under the threat of imprisonment in a secret federal facility (at an undisclosed location)..... (on the far left) Edited March 7, 2009 by TennTux Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dukecornwell Posted March 7, 2009 Share Posted March 7, 2009 Yes. Every other DCI corps in 1979. Fran I think it was mandatory or you didn't qualify for finals. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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