WestCoaster Posted August 9, 2009 Share Posted August 9, 2009 Yeah, sorry for flipping them. Tommy is anything but jazz. Anything *can* be jazz. Miles Davis did a sweet version of "Human Nature" by Michael Jackson, have you checked it out? The Pinball Wizard chart was definitely a jazz chart...the interesting thing was, they were also talking about including Acid Queen (which could be arranged a lot like Pinball was and would've been great) but they decided against it for image reasons. IF they'd gone with that, I think the show would've seemed much more BD jazzy instead of with just the one off chart of Pinball to appeal to the familiar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tommytimp Posted August 9, 2009 Share Posted August 9, 2009 Anything *can* be jazz. Miles Davis did a sweet version of "Human Nature" by Michael Jackson, have you checked it out?The Pinball Wizard chart was definitely a jazz chart...the interesting thing was, they were also talking about including Acid Queen (which could be arranged a lot like Pinball was and would've been great) but they decided against it for image reasons. IF they'd gone with that, I think the show would've seemed much more BD jazzy instead of with just the one off chart of Pinball to appeal to the familiar. Aside from the great writing with the tom-toms in the drum feature, 'Pinball Wizard' was the only part of that show I liked, for the previously stated reason. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mchromik Posted August 10, 2009 Share Posted August 10, 2009 (edited) ...... When Star hit the field 16 years earlier, they played from Samuel Barber's Medea with all the anger the composer meant. The final piece in that show was actually called Medea's Meditation and Dance of Vengeance and there was a bunch of vengeance on the field - nobody was ready for that. I may have at the time been among the few who went nuts for that show - and that piece. Interestingly, it took the drum corps world almost a decade and the start of a new century before anybody (I think it was Crown in '02) to even tackle a Barber piece. And again I haven't heard their version, but I wonder if Crossmen 16 years later come at the same piece with the same vengeance.Puppet For the most part I liked Crossmen this year, but their Medea interpretation left me flat and disappointed. Did they not watch 93? Glassmen played a few years back and I felt kind of similar. Probably the best interpretation was Cadets use of some of the Barber themes in one of their Through the looking Glass shows. Though they rearranged it so severely that by the time the season started it was hardly recognizable as coming from Medea. I think that once a certain unit performs a given piece in a memorable fashion and to a high placement, we have difficulty in fully accepting anyone else doing that piece. The other corps may actually do it better, but in a drum corps sense it is already 'defined' by the previous performance. That is not to say that we will never hear 'The Dance' played as it was once long ago defined........... Edited August 10, 2009 by mchromik Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mchromik Posted August 10, 2009 Share Posted August 10, 2009 BD 85....Keith Emerson...."Piano Concerto #1" I was seriously hyped on that piece that year. Of course I was wearing the grooves out on the Emerson, Lake, & Palmer 'Works' album at the time. Actually that whole 85' show is still one of my BD favorites. Liferaft Earth, ELP Trilogy (w Karn Evil #9 & Emerson Piano Concerto), First Circle. Sure wouldn't mind if they brought back a few of those if they ever decide to do any 'remember when' sometime. I still would be interested in hearing somebody do ELP's 'Pirates' from the Works #1 album. Hey nowadays they can even do the Greg Lake synth solos as written. (ducks) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Northern Thunder Posted August 10, 2009 Author Share Posted August 10, 2009 I forgot about another one. Back in 1980 Santa Clara had the big band standard "Caravan" in their repertoire, until it was replaced by "Evita" mid-season. "Caravan" was on the State of the Art album which Blue Devils and SCV did early in the 1980 season. That piece was WAY out of character for SCV. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tommytimp Posted August 10, 2009 Share Posted August 10, 2009 I still would be interested in hearing somebody do ELP's 'Pirates' from the Works #1 album. Hey nowadays they can even do the Greg Lake synth solos as written. (ducks) Blue Knights used it as their entire show in 1985. They put out a very tasty book, but the drill wasn't so hot and the corps was very young. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluecoats88 Posted August 10, 2009 Share Posted August 10, 2009 Suncoast didn't do too bad a job with it in their 1984 Vietnam Memorial show. Of course they turned the thing completely upside down and added a haunting motif to it. hey Bluecoats played it in 1981 & 1982 (1981 being the better arrangement) and we did a pretty good job of it too. Also, the suncoast arrangement is very close to the Bluecoats arrangement. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mchromik Posted August 10, 2009 Share Posted August 10, 2009 Blue Knights used it as their entire show in 1985. They put out a very tasty book, but the drill wasn't so hot and the corps was very young. Oops forgot that one. I unfortunately didn't pay BK much mind until Zingali and his crew began working with them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elayes Posted August 11, 2009 Share Posted August 11, 2009 Okay, not a musician here (life-long color guard) but two numbers that we/Blue Devils did in the '70's TO THIS DAY bug the you-know-what out of me. 1977 - closer Gonna Fly Now - I know it was Maynard Ferguson-jazzed up but it was so Top 40 Pop at the time.. Followed by the next year, even worse: My Heart Belongs To Me. Barbra Streisand? Really? I shudder every time I hear either of these. Ick! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Northern Thunder Posted August 11, 2009 Author Share Posted August 11, 2009 Lee Doebler??? Holy Cow!!! How are you? (Lee and I were pen pals from 1976 to 1981! She was one of the first five drum corps members to have marched in four DCI Champion corps, along with Dave Gibbs, current BD director.) You're so right about "Rocky". I was a HUGE BD fan back then, and the thought of them playing such a generic piece was unbelievable. I simply didn't look forward to that part of the show. We got pretty tired of hearing it at DCI prelims in '77, since quite a number of corps played it. "My Heart Belongs To Me" didn't bother as much, since that was a piece nobody else was doing at the time. And Wayne Downey did some unique "inside-out" brass choir arranging on it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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