SpiritOfJSUFan Posted August 30, 2009 Share Posted August 30, 2009 Hmmm... i think the percussion guy will be Jefferson Lee..... he is associated with MEG.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
big old drummer man Posted August 30, 2009 Share Posted August 30, 2009 No offense to Rutgers University...but is that really a hotbed of DCI level talent? obviously not, but that's not the point. just because a line isn't on DCI level doesn't mean you can't write in a current, relevant fashion. no high school line is on DCI level, but plenty of high school groups play relevant, innovative books, because their arrangers are hip to the current trends. i bet if you asked dennis, even he would say he is a bit old school to be currently writing for a top 12 contending corps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
big old drummer man Posted August 30, 2009 Share Posted August 30, 2009 I'm guessing from your comment that you're up there on the leading edge, innovation wise...Maybe you'll get the Mad gig? don't put words in my mouth Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rayfallon Posted August 30, 2009 Share Posted August 30, 2009 don't put words in my mouth OK - I hesitate to do this, as it's usually a meaningless gesture and I end up getting people sending me "what were you thinking?" PMs, but: no particular order: Delucia, Float, Sandford, Moore, Hannum, Hardiman, Aungst... I'm going to stop there on purpose because if I attempt to try to make a comprehensive top how many list I'll forget and mess up... Does anyone think that any of these guys couldn't thrive in today's environment? (Don't go to the Sandford jokes, please - you know what I mean.) BD just went undefeated with the same brass arranger they've had since 1978... do you think Geritol or Ginko Balboa or whatever it is makes the difference? Someone posted earlier about the '93 Star staff: (paraphrasing) no one has hired them since '93... what makes you think they'd still be that good? You say "Don't put words in my mouth" OK - what are the words? What makes you say that Dennis hasn't progressed beyond 1981? You said that. I didn't put it there. I'm assuming that you're either wrong, or that you have a perspective, from playing, writing, teaching, judging, that causes you to arrive at a blanket statement like that. I'm curious. That's all. I admit to being a Delucia fan, perhaps even suck-up - I can live with that. What makes you a hater? You don't get to the level that these folks have gotten to and then the talent fairy comes and poof - it's all gone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
big old drummer man Posted August 30, 2009 Share Posted August 30, 2009 OK - I hesitate to do this, as it's usually a meaningless gesture and I end up getting people sending me "what were you thinking?" PMs, but:no particular order: Delucia, Float, Sandford, Moore, Hannum, Hardiman, Aungst... I'm going to stop there on purpose because if I attempt to try to make a comprehensive top how many list I'll forget and mess up... Does anyone think that any of these guys couldn't thrive in today's environment? (Don't go to the Sandford jokes, please - you know what I mean.) BD just went undefeated with the same brass arranger they've had since 1978... do you think Geritol or Ginko Balboa or whatever it is makes the difference? Someone posted earlier about the '93 Star staff: (paraphrasing) no one has hired them since '93... what makes you think they'd still be that good? You say "Don't put words in my mouth" OK - what are the words? What makes you say that Dennis hasn't progressed beyond 1981? You said that. I didn't put it there. I'm assuming that you're either wrong, or that you have a perspective, from playing, writing, teaching, judging, that causes you to arrive at a blanket statement like that. I'm curious. That's all. I admit to being a Delucia fan, perhaps even suck-up - I can live with that. What makes you a hater? You don't get to the level that these folks have gotten to and then the talent fairy comes and poof - it's all gone. you accused me of insinuating that i am "up there on the leading edge, innovation wise." that's what i meant by don't put words in my mouth. as far as some of your other points... lots of members of the star 93 staff have been hired since. particularly the drum staff. thom hannum, colin mcnutt, and lee beddis (among others) have all been quite successful in their post-star careers. about your comparison to wayne downey: the difference is he has held that position consistently through those years. HE was the one pushing the activity past where it was the previous year. dennis has been out of the drum corps game for a long time now. he still has an eye and ear for it: he is a great WGI percussion judge (GE). the difference is, he hasn't been down in the trenches for a long time. compositional techniques, timbres, playing techniques, tuning, rehearsal strategies, etc have ALL changed quite drastically since then. all of these things, in addition to some personal experience with him in the activity that i have, make me think he would be quite outdated as a current percussion arranger. this is, of course, all opinion. who knows. i could be drastically wrong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tassadar27 Posted August 30, 2009 Share Posted August 30, 2009 (edited) he wrote for the rutgers university marching band for a while as recently as 2007 or so. his beats haven't changed. I marched in the Rutgers drumline 05, 06, 07, 08. The only year Dennis was involved while I was there was 2005. No offense to Rutgers University...but is that really a hotbed of DCI level talent? I marched 7 years of drum corps. 3 of them were in a top 12 corps. There are also many people at Rutgers who have marched in various corps such as Surf, Madison, Boston, Crossmen, and Cadets just to name a few. My thoughts exactly. No offense to ANY college group, but unless you're UNT, UMass, RCC, etc., you're probably not getting the level of difficulty one might expect of a world class line. Jusy sayin... I know we would learn 3 shows throughout the season, pregame show, stands grooves, cadences, and numerous other things. The beats Dennis wrote for us was what was needed to memorize quickly and get the job done. I would even say those lines that you mention are not even at the same difficulty level as world lines. I have friends there and it is a similar way. In some ways college band was sometimes harder mentally because you had to learn so much music in almost no time and strive to perform at a high level. Edited August 30, 2009 by Tassadar27 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Boo Posted August 30, 2009 Share Posted August 30, 2009 The management of Madison Scouts is beginning to take it easy. There has been no new mega announcement yet today about a big-name staff member. What gives? We want more! You think you can appease us with a handful of the best talent out there and call it a week? Come on, we know you're keeping something/someone back from us. Don't tease us like that! What's the next big shoe to drop? It's already the end of August. What are you waiting for? More, more more! Now, now, now! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbg Posted August 30, 2009 Share Posted August 30, 2009 With electronics, synthesizers, and sampling being allowed in DCI now, if there is going to be a new percussion design team, I wouldn't be shocked if we saw someone with a lot of WGI percussion experience taking on that role. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mchromik Posted August 30, 2009 Share Posted August 30, 2009 no thanks. the activity has long since lapped dennis on the track of innovation... You may be correct. But maybe the 'innovation' that Madison needs is something like Dennis' style. Lets face it, drumlines have become very very technical, and very very much alike. Dennis is pretty hip to alot of things beside drum corps and would surely bring a really fresh and musical style. Experts are people who thoroughly know about a given subject. There are alot of 'experts' in drum corps nowadays, particularly in percussion. But true innovation, breakthroughs, or expansion of a given subject comes when somebody brings in new ideas, or brings back some 'old' discarded, yet still relevant ideas. Madison hasn't gone anywhere trying to 'play the game'. They need to think outside the box, rediscover previous magic. Hiring Mason a crew was a great start. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rayfallon Posted August 30, 2009 Share Posted August 30, 2009 you accused me of insinuating that i am "up there on the leading edge, innovation wise." that's what i meant by don't put words in my mouth.as far as some of your other points... lots of members of the star 93 staff have been hired since. particularly the drum staff. thom hannum, colin mcnutt, and lee beddis (among others) have all been quite successful in their post-star careers. about your comparison to wayne downey: the difference is he has held that position consistently through those years. HE was the one pushing the activity past where it was the previous year. dennis has been out of the drum corps game for a long time now. he still has an eye and ear for it: he is a great WGI percussion judge (GE). the difference is, he hasn't been down in the trenches for a long time. compositional techniques, timbres, playing techniques, tuning, rehearsal strategies, etc have ALL changed quite drastically since then. all of these things, in addition to some personal experience with him in the activity that i have, make me think he would be quite outdated as a current percussion arranger. this is, of course, all opinion. who knows. i could be drastically wrong. The comment about the rest of Star's staff wasn't mine - it was intended to paraphrase something I read in the thread, and was not meant to address your comment - it's just one of the types of things that feel mind boggling to me when I read them. To me the Star Staff from 93 is imminently hireable, and to the degree that they have chosen not to work in this portion of the activity, it seems likely that it is by their choice. It only struck me strange that anyone would think they might "lose it" since then. I imagine I disagree with you on the value of being in the trenches, but so be it. I hate when I stick my nose in these arguments as they're meaningless. I assume that Jim Mason will put together an incredible crew out there, and Thom Hannum is pretty much my favorite arranger, at least with respect to the writing he's done with Cadets and Star. If they put that crew back together it's still going to be unbelieveable. The point that I unsuccessfully tried to address was the idea that these guys who have been to the mountain - who in fact showed us where the mountain was, might somehow forget how they did it. The activity has progressed. I doubt that the guys we're talking about have been left behind. You may certainly disagree. I tend to bristle sometimes where it does me very little good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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