Who was the best of the last 11 Ott trophy winners?

[LowBrassSupreme]

The BD lines of the last decade are some of the best technical playing lines I have ever heard, but I cannot ever remember them having the darkness, warmth, and overall presence of Crown in 09'.

Crown has a completely different brass concept than BD. Darkness and warmth are all relative to the style of music that each corps plays. BD plays jazz which is very upper brass heavy. Because they have the top brass parts written so high throughout the book, it sounds like the whole brassline is playing with a bright tone, which is not necessarily true (Euphonium soloist '09). Since I believe that the individual corps concept of brass sound has nothing to do with who wins the Ott, I chose BD '04 (they are also my favorite). All of the hornlines listed are great and worthy of the Ott in their respective years though.

[MisterA]

I'm a drummer so I don't really follow who wins brass but I do find it strange that Phantom didn't win brass in the last 11 years. They always have such a rich sound and to my untrained ear were far better than Crown every year.

Phantom usually does have a very nice sound, but I think the problem with their hornlines usually come during the loudest moments of their shows. They have a tendency to have some intonation problems at the louder levels, and some unfortunately some crass sounding ones as well. One blaring example, Canon in 03. When they hit the triple forte moment of their opener, the brass sound is not very good at all. To me this is such a shame, as without that it probably would be in my top 5 favorite moments of the entire decade. If they could have just lowered the volume by a decimel or 2, I think it would have solved the problem, and increased the impact of that moment.

As far as an individual corps goes, I would say overall Blue Devils without a doubt have had the overall best consistent hornline of anyone over the last 11 years. But since this topic asks for the best of the Ott winners, I would probably have to go with Cavaliers 02. I thought this hornline was simply amazing, and I loved all the variations of styles and sounds they produced throughout the entire show. I still get goosebumps everytime I listen to their chords after the phasing hornline.

[chris ncsu]

they were pretty much 2nd in brass every single year from 04-08 if i'm not mistaken ... so of the years listed, they may be the best on average ... i guess that's something?

**Untrue in 04 and 07.

[sax1210]

I voted for Crown 09.

Might be a little biased though, seeing as 09 Finals was my first ever live show.

[Phan89]

Crown 09, by a lot. Followed closely by Crown 2010 (which should have won the Jim Ott).

I don't even see how any other groups are in the same realm of discussion....well, maybe BD 04, that was a #### good line.

[Abbevillekid26]

Lol seriously who picked Cavies 06?

[DCIbrassplaya]

Lol seriously who picked Cavies 06?

[SFZFAN]

Lol seriously who picked Cavies 06?

I like controversy...

[ouooga]

I put BD 04, and it looks like most people in this thread are saying the same thing, but clearly the winner so far is Crown 09. Why aren't those honks posting?

[cowtown]

Either Cavies 02 or BD 04 depending upon your school of brass, both did very well with their technique

Personally, I liked the sound of Crown 2009 most of the choices. It was fat, big and lush (but a little comprised on technique down the line)