Brass-O-Mania! DRUM & BUGLE CORPS

[capitalbrass]

A bit of obscure, Historical Trivia almost NO ONE knows:

The original Brass-O-Mania! was a G-bugle drum corps.

After Capitol Brass Ensemble went inactive, in late May 1994, Kevin Foster and I immediately set out to plan what would come next.

Our plan had two tracks:

The first was a "cadet" corps that would start re-building the local drum corps activity from the ground up. The corps (with drums and guard) made it to the street in September of 1995.

The other was an adult "mini" corps, able to perform in parades and other events with a very small group of seasoned players. Some guiding principles for this track quickly emerged:

The corps would not use the CBE name. We felt that be doing so would invite comparisons that would portray us simply as tiny remnent of our former selves.

We also felt that marketing the corps as a drum & bugle corps meant that we would be looked at as being just another tiny parade corps. We jokingly observed that we WERE, in fact , a tiny drum corps; but we could also be looked at as 'The World's Largest Brass Quartet"! It was all a matter of perspective!

We also needed a name that said we were something different: and fun. It was Kevin who came up with Brass-O-Mania!. Kevin also insisted that the (!) was a part of the name, and that we would insist it always be promoted that way. ( the ! , in the new Capital Brass!, is a nod to Kevin, whose genius deserves credit for anything we've acheived, since.) Also, Hawaiian shirts and Khakis seemed to be a look that just went with the fun name; and a cheap and easy way for performers to provide their own outfits.

So, with this new attitude, we set about putting together a corps and booking gigs. We marched from Spring thru Fall, in 1995, using left-over equipment from CBE, a dozen former CBE brass and guard members, a handful of new recruits, and a drumlime of 3 local pros who immediately clicked with us... and are still with us today. (There are pics of the corps, somewhere.)

The performers all got a small stipend for each gig , to cover expences; and the rest of the proceeds went to retire the debt of the former CBE. (Former staff members were pretty surprised when they started getting checks, a year after we folded.)

Love 'em or hate 'em... it was a G-bugle corps with totally legal instrumentation. And it was the structure that we had intended to carry on.

Unfortunately, the Director of the corps went thruough a life-changing event during 1995. And, one side effect was the abandonment of both aspects of the project that Winter. We sold the remaining bugles and drums and paid off nearly all of the old CBE debt. (I still regret that we never paid the writers of our never-used 1994 show.)

In Spring of 1996, we learned that our previous efforts had not gone un-noticed, and we received an offer to perform at the Saratoga Race Track for the entire meet!

We now were in a postition where we had a much-treasured gig.... and no corps; what's more...no instruments. So we set about to recreate Brass-O-Mania! the quickest annd easiest way we could... by putting out a call for seasoned players who would bring their own instruments; and come up to speed very fast.

It was a formula that worked like a charm; BOM! has become a beloved fixture at the meet and will appear in their 15th season at the Saratoga Race Track this summer.

It all came out of a vision for a "mini" drum corps that could do local parades. And that vision comes full circle, this March, as the Capital Brass! Parade Corps hits the street; to pick up where we left off 15 long years ago......

Edited February 23, 2010 by capitalbrass