2010 Brass Lines

[Medeabrass]

I'm not a brass player but common sense would tell me that their success will boil down to talent+instruction. Clearly they have the instruction part licked, but filling out a talented 12 person tuba line has always been a challenge in this activity, let alone 20, and in an environment where everyone's trying to up their numbers a little bit. Personally I'll be shocked if they actually field 20, I think setting a goal that high is more about hyping the line than anything else. As I said earlier in this thread though, I have mad faith in Brad Green.

Well I've never known the mild mannered Jim Prime to be about hyping or drawing unnecessary attention to himself just for the sake of it...and I've never known Donnie VanDoren to do that either come to think of it. They are more about letting their product speak for itself. I can guarantee you that their intentions are anything BUT hype...they believe in results and don't have time for trivial crap. I can also guarantee you that they weren't pressured by Jim Mason or anyone else to up the contra line for the sake of show. My guess is they felt it was necessary to achieve their goals given the music at hand.

Jimmer hasn't been this involved in the activity since before the switch to Bb. Maybe he has gained an "outsider's" perspective to the activity, which has given him a unique insight into achieving the kind of balance and blend on Bb's that his lines used to achieve on Gs.

I know my first observation after the switch was how out of wack the balance was between top and bottom. The trumpets seemed strident and the basses seemed muffled. I think this has improved over the years with changes to the instruments themselves and also by the approach the instructors are using in regards to balance and blend. Maybe Jimmer thinks this is just the next evolution along that path. I'm glad someone has the balls to try it because I personally enjoy a line that's built from the bottom up.

[Medeabrass]

Yeah, my bad, thanks. If you search that shameful video site on "N2nNDHYzgMk" you can count the hornline very easily...56 brass in the concert formation behind the 16 contras, for 72 horns. I'm not sure what this means, but I was at '92 Finals as a fan, and I don't recall this fact. That means I probably walked away thinking "16 contras....how come I couldn't tell?" I guess Star people thought the same thing, since they went with 12 in 1993.

I think the change from '92 - '93 in regards to contra numbers is because of the music being played. The contra parts in '92 were very lyrical whereas in '93 they had a lot of ostenato etc. I don't think it was a "retreat" from 16 (ie "ahh crap we sure got that one wrong") as much as a strategic musical decision. In fact, they were consistent in their changes in regards to bari/euphs. '92= 8 bari 12 euph ; '93= 12 bari 8 euph