Arizona Academy

[AzEuph]

Just got home from the Academy's first public performance of their show "The Ascent". I'll walk through my night.

We first watched the brass warm up. They sounded okay, as should be expected for May. I couldn't stop getting annoyed by a few trumpets that were blatting throughout the entire warmup it seemed. I would consider the trumpets their weakest section, atleast from what I heard in the warm ups.

Next was their performance. After a brief introduction the show began. They sounded great! The show starts off slow but picks up quickly. Besides the obvious May showing (releases and soft dynamics) their hornline sounded real solid and powerful. Their low brass was their strongest section IMO.

As far as the show goes this is the first time I can say that their design is actually good. I've felt in the past that their overall show design and their brass book hurt them when it came to August. Not this year! This show has great potential, it makes sense, and you can hear the theme throughout the show. Being from Arizona I've always followed them but have never truly like their shows.

This is easily their best overall design. This is a DRUM CORPS show! Glad they picked this arranger, although don't expect a Crown sounding brass book. It actually sounds more Phantom/SCV if I had to pick. Watch out because I think this corps is on the serious move up! My prediction, granted I haven't seen their drill, is they'll be making a strong push for finals. Not saying they'll make it in, but this show is much better put together than their 07 show when they finished 13th (I believe) and that was only 2 years ago. Like I said earlier, this corps is on the move up so if any corps declines slighty expect Academy to jump them.

[shaners]

cool. academy has always looked strong in the beginning, but fail to rise in score for multiple reasons. a solid show design will definitely put them on the right track to keep up with the pack. i am excited to see them in So. Cal. !

[GREENBLUE]

I too attended their performance tonight...while I agree with some that was posted, i dont think this is going to be a show that makes the push for finals. I would say more in the area of 14-15. Of course its early and also depends on what they do on the field. But i left a little uninspired by their musical book. I hope they prove me wrong as the season progresses because i only wish them the best. Only time will tell.

[Meaghatron]

On a side note, I was checking my Twitter and John McCain's status said, "Heading to the Tempe Beach Park for the Academy Drum and Bugle Corps Annual Memorial Day Celebration."

Thought that was interesting. (and I doubt he actually does the updates on his Twitter, haha).

[TallAZEuph]

I think that one of the biggest factors of the success of this show, is the fact that the musical and visual design are in such contrast to any show design that The Academy has done so far.

I really like the pacing of this show, it begins with a quiet and ominous mood but quickly builds into the first hit. Pretty solid volume and sustain for this point of the season, but not completely gelled as a hornline yet. The opener has just about one hit every minute, with some 16th note runs, but the diatonicism will lend itself to greater technical facility and cleanliness. The second movement is the "struggle" of The Ascent, moving to a minor key providing good harmonic contrast to the opener, and has a dark and intense energy with some technical material and soaring mellophone lines in the apex of this piece. Will require a great deal of intensity to keep the momentum building in this piece. The ballad is nice, has some beautiful lush lines, but the phrasing hasn't reached it's potential yet. As the hornline further gels and matures this will improve. Last night I felt the impact of the ballad didn't have enough energy, so still plenty of work on musical interpretation can be done here. The closer has a lot of energy, a couple of drum features in there, ends in a flourish with some nice mellophone counter lines that remind of late 90's Cadets style writing.

The music lends itself well to more GE moments than the last couple seasons with more "hits" and constant driving tempos, and the drill that I've seen so far has some nice visual motives constant throughout playing off of the idea of "ascending". So all in all, musical and visual integration is much improved over past seasons, thanks to a more experienced design staff. However, the membership is very young this season with an average age of 18, so I think they will have a steep learning curve, but will surely come out very strong in Walnut on the 20th. I thought a good sign of the potential of this show was the enthusiastic reaction from a crowd that wasn't totally "drum corps literate." So look for a very improved corps out of Tempe, Arizona this summer! Get out and see The Academy!!

[Tom Brace]

I was only able to see...hear...video from Monday's performance.

This is way to early to be picking this corps for a run for Saturday night. I've seen this show grow over several visits to the Tempe Sports Complex. Yes, the show design is more solid. However, what is also clear is that this corps has gone through their first really major turnover of marching members. Every corps has those years where they have a lot of ageouts or "bolts" to other corps and this appears to be the case from the end of the '08 season.

I think a performance on Friday night finals week is a solid goal for this corps. Beyond that...frosting.

They have almost a month of all days between now and the first show and three performances at the Tempe Arts Center mixed in there.

As far as a critique from what I've heard so far. I would agree the upper brass are the least solid to date...trumpets and for me, the mellos are having issues in exposed sections. As I have said...two ways to shine...and so far..there's work left to do in order to shine in the right light. The lower brass are better but a couple more euphs and a couple more tubas and things would round out well in the lower brass area.

As far as the drums...the snares sound young. Let's see them over the course of this next few weeks, but tonight, they sounded young.

The guard is bigger than I have remembered them being in the past. Looked like a solid 35 or 36 out there tonight. We'll see how well their work adds to the show as we go forward.

Here's the vote from the cautiously optimistic. 15th place which would be a big improvement from last season and solidly into semis. And as I say to everyone this time of year..I'd love it if 15th were too low for this corps..come on folks. Prove me wrong. I don't mind one bit.

Watermelons coming for Saturday afternoon. Stay tuned!