rayfallon Posted April 3, 2009 Share Posted April 3, 2009 There're always certain people who get mentioned whenever someone compiles a list of famous drum corps soloists...I've always kinda wondered....where were they before they became drum corps household words?? Barbara Maroney "Diamond" Jim Brady Jerry Noonan etc. Where did they march, what did they play (if different), etc... I know Mike "The Bearded Wonder" Collins (86 BD soloist) marched Kingsmen before BD I think I remember reading somewhere that Shaun Owens (82-84 Madison) played contra before sop....don't know how true that is... Like Al Chez, Jim Brady came from the Saints of Edison New Jersey. Bucky Swan taught more kids who became virtuosic trumpet players than probably anyone in history. The Saints' hornline in the mid '70s were incredible - just one of those hard to figure things about why they never broke the glass ceiling. Bucky Swan is an icon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Northern Thunder Posted April 3, 2009 Share Posted April 3, 2009 (edited) I just took a look at the '76 Saints roster. Besides Al Chez and Jim Brady, Chris Trimblett, who went on to solo in the '77 Garfield show was also in that 60-member Saints hornline. By the way...the '76 Saints hornline had 19 young ladies in it. (I know their '75 mellophone line was completely made up of young ladies.) Edited April 3, 2009 by Northern Thunder Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeD Posted April 3, 2009 Share Posted April 3, 2009 I just took a look at the '76 Saints roster. Besides Al Chez and Jim Brady, Chris Trimblett, who went on to solo in the '77 Garfield show was also in that 60-member Saints hornline. By the way...the '76 Saints hornline had 19 young ladies in it.(I know their '75 mellophone line was completely made up of young ladies.) They had gals in the hornline before that. I dated a gal who played soprano in the Saints around 1973. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Northern Thunder Posted April 3, 2009 Share Posted April 3, 2009 (edited) I know they did. Their 1967 corps had six females in the hornline. I'm saying that their mellophone line was COMPLETELY female in '75....something like 15 or 16 members in just that section. Edited April 3, 2009 by Northern Thunder Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bass5 Posted April 3, 2009 Share Posted April 3, 2009 Chris Metzger, Madison Scouts 1971 through 1977. I believe he started in the Scouts Junior Corps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rayfallon Posted April 3, 2009 Share Posted April 3, 2009 I just took a look at the '76 Saints roster. Besides Al Chez and Jim Brady, Chris Trimblett, who went on to solo in the '77 Garfield show was also in that 60-member Saints hornline. By the way...the '76 Saints hornline had 19 young ladies in it.(I know their '75 mellophone line was completely made up of young ladies.) One of those little known factoids is that when Saints went inactive, that incredible mello line sent many players over to the Reading Bucs - one of the major factors in the second Buc dynasty (along with the ascension of Tony Yaklich, the wild talent of Joe Aiello and other serendipitous occurrences. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fran Haring Posted April 7, 2009 Share Posted April 7, 2009 (edited) WoW[/b ]is right! I'd already been out of the activity for ten years when I first heard Barbara and she immediately became my Mello hero of all time. This interview validates things that we (our little four man Mellophone hornline) heard from our instructor for years. Men like Hy Dreitzer and Jim Prime understood that the middle voices (Hy played French horn as did I when I first began marching) were support vehicles and as players we were enabled by counter melodies to the 1st sopranos and if you have a line with a two and half octave range, you can have a lot of fun in your role. When written correctly, the Mellophone parts (Hy sometimes split them into 1st and 2nd for certain phrases) can broaden the sound in an extraordinary way. We never produced a great solo Mellophone but we prided ourselves as Barbara said in the interview as "thinking and more passionate" than other sections. I liken it to being the geeks of the horn line. We were able to discuss execution and phrasing - such as playing laggato while others around us were playing more staccato type lines. On the money!!!!! I played French horn with the Sunrisers, and our arrangers (John Arietano, Ray Fallon) really challenged the frenchies and mellophones with some great parts. With John in particular, he would sometimes use the French horns as an upper baritone voice, sometimes as a middle or lower mellophone voice, and sometimes as our own voice. Like I said, it was challenging stuff to play.... but a lot of fun, too, knowing that we were considered such an important part of the brass choir, such as it was in drum corps. Fran Edited April 7, 2009 by Fran Haring Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fran Haring Posted April 7, 2009 Share Posted April 7, 2009 I just took a look at the '76 Saints roster. Besides Al Chez and Jim Brady, Chris Trimblett, who went on to solo in the '77 Garfield show was also in that 60-member Saints hornline. Dave D'Andrea was also in those Saints soprano lines of the mid-1970's. He later marched with Sunrisers, and was the soloist in "Send in the Clowns"....1980 through 1982. Dave also did some great high-note work along with John Arietano in Sun's version of "Legend of the One-Eyed Sailor" in 1981 and 1982. Fran Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fran Haring Posted April 7, 2009 Share Posted April 7, 2009 Ritchee Price....... the extraordinary soprano soloist for several DCA corps (Buccaneers, Matadors, Sunrisers, Generations, Empire Statesmen) marched in the York White Roses junior corps from York, PA, back in the day. He's on my short list of best drum corps soloists ever. Fran Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe S Posted April 8, 2009 Share Posted April 8, 2009 On the money!!!!! I played French horn with the Sunrisers, and our arrangers (John Arietano, Ray Fallon) really challenged the frenchies and mellophones with some great parts. With John in particular, he would sometimes use the French horns as an upper baritone voice, sometimes as a middle or lower mellophone voice, and sometimes as our own voice. Like I said, it was challenging stuff to play.... but a lot of fun, too, knowing that we were considered such an important part of the brass choir, such as it was in drum corps. Fran Hey Fran, don't forget we could MELT those bells when we had to ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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