Corps names that wouldn't work today

[Jim Nevermann]

"Imperialburg St. Thunderpats, you may take the field..."

Actually, the "Cedarwaukee Imperial St. Thunderpats from Boltsburg"

[Jim Nevermann]

Church sponsored corps:

Most Precious Blood Crusaders

Our Lady Of The Snows Stormy Knights

Clinton Knee-Highs [all girl]

Americare Stepperettes [a girls drill team, but still....]

Flamingos [pink satin blouses w/white stripe, black trousers & white bucks. I competed against them many times. They became the Argonauts]

Wausau Story [insurance company sponsored: quite large]

[CANDRUMMER]

Hamm's Indians, Skokie Indians, pretty much any "Indian" thang would be out today.

The Gay Blades might also have a tough time of it.

Maybe not so much in San Fran though!!!!!!!!!!

[CANDRUMMER]

Corps in Canada

Peterborough KRESCENDOS

OYB Lamplighters

Jungle Kings

Marionettes

Welland TROJANS

Even one of Canada's greatest Corps was named after a building!! PRESTON SCOUT HOUSE!!!!!

The Scout House was where they practiced and the HQ for the "Band"

[Puppet]

The George Washington Carver Gay Blades!!!!

Several of the all-time greatest members of the Sunrisers came from that corps.

Likewise I;m sure St, Catherine's Queensmen would have just a tad of a problem these days and some really great players marched there, too

Puppet

[Michael Boo]

Likewise I;m sure St, Catherine's Queensmen would have just a tad of a problem these days and some really great players marched there, too

Puppet

Frank Dorritie and Billy Cobham.

Below is an article I would normally link to, but it's not in the DCI.org archives.

Fanfare (December 13, 2002)

Frank Dorritie and the Drummer Shoot-Out

by Michael Boo

There are a number of behind-the-scenes people in drum corps that everyone should know about. Frank Dorritie is one of those. A performer, producer, arranger, educator, and author, Frank has performed with a number of famed jazz musicians, including; Cal Tjader, Wynton Marsalis, Laurindo Almeida, Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, and Jackie & Roy, among others. Nine of his recordings have received Grammy nominations and two of those; (“New York Scene” with Art Blakey, and “La Onda Va Bien” with Cal Tjader); won Grammy awards in the Jazz and Latin categories, respectively.

Impressed yet? Well, Frank now serves as Chair of the Recording Arts Department at Los Medanos College in Pittsburg, California. I have a copy of his book, “Essentials of Music for Audio Professionals,” which honestly is the single best study book on music theory I’ve yet seen. Also published by ArtistPro Books is his “Handbook of Field Recording.” In addition, he has served as a musical consultant for the Fox Television Network and has worked as a performer, clinician, and adjudicator throughout North America, Europe, South Africa, and Japan.

But what about drum corps?

Over the past several years, Frank has arranged for and/or instructed Garfield Cadets, Santa Clara Vanguard, Blue Devils, Cavaliers, Bridgemen, Bluecoats, 27th Lancers, Madison Scouts, Freelancers, Crossmen, Avant Garde, Long Island Kingsmen, San Jose Raiders, Boston Crusaders, and others.

He has served as a DCI music adjudicator and brass clinician at the DCI Rules Congress. Perhaps his most memorable and innovative moment remembered by corps fans came when he taught Garfield Cadets in 1977. It was his idea to have the corps sing a vocal “Amen” during “I Don’t Know How to Love Him” at a time when doing so resulted in a threatened penalty and disqualification. The judges were already freaked out by the fact that he had taught the guard to play horns in the same selection.

Never one to claim to be an altar boy, he was once ejected from a critique for pressing his case with language considered too colorful for its time.

Today’s corps fans can thank Frank for producing some major recording projects. The five-CD compilation, “Echoes,” was his baby. (If you don’t have this DCI collection, you should. It contains some of the best and most memorable selections from DCI’s entire history; including “Stage and Screen,” “Signatures,” “Jazz Plus,” “Symphonic Celebrations” and “Magnificent Marches.”)

He also produced both the famed DCI "State of the Art" releases (1980 & 2000), taking drum corps into the studio for a sound unparalleled among drum corps recordings. His surround-sound DVD recordings of the Blue Devils and Santa Clara Vanguard are staples in drum corps fans’ libraries, as are his “Through the Years” and “Current Year’ CD projects with Blue Devils, The Cadets, Glassmen and Santa Clara Vanguard. Recently, he’s produced studio recordings of Glassmen and Capital Regiment. His “The Legacy of Fred Sanford—History of Santa Clara Percussion” benefits the Fred Sanford Scholarship.

So now you know something about the man and his myriad accomplishments in drum corps over the past 30 plus years. Now, let’s hear about one of his most memorable drum corps moments, a true tale from his rookie season. By the way, it happened ten years before Drum Corps International was formed. Yeah, that’s allowed in this column.

Somewhere in western Pennsylvania, a contest was rain delayed. Two corps were sheltered under the edge of a school courtyard, with a fountain between them. One was St. Catherine's Queensmen, with whom Frank was a second soprano. The other corps was the Queensmen’s arch-rival, Blessed Sacrament Golden Knights.

Sac had an extraordinary snare drummer named Nardelli, a perennial National Individual Champion. St. Catherine’s had a left-handed Panamanian tenor drummer who occasionally strapped on a snare backwards (remember leg slings?) and beat Nardelli at the Individual and Ensemble competition. Both were taught by the incomparable Bobby Thompson, were each other's greatest fans, and on this rainy day, decided to entertain the troops.

Oh, the drummer from Queensmen was Billy Cobham. You’ve probably heard of him. (Years later, Frank and Billy marched together again in the Sunrisers Senior Corps.)

Billy’s bio. reads like Frank’s. He played with Horace Silver, Henry Mancini and Miles Davis before joining Shakti, led by John McLaughlin. He led a seminal fusion band in the 1970s, “Dreams,” and has several recorded solos that are considered classics; (especially on “Birds of Fire,” a fusion version of Stravinsky’s “Firebird,” and his tracks with Deodato. (One can still hear “Zarathrustra” on pop radio.)

Billy is known for his powerful rudiment-based style, a multi-pedal kick drum technique and the use of four and six sticks simultaneously. He’s the closest thing drumming has to an octopus, sounding like an entire drum line.

And he developed many of his techniques and much of his stamina from being in a drum corps.

Anyhow, from one side of the school courtyard, Nardelli shouted out, “Hey, Cobham!,” as he played some near-impossible lick. Billy grinned, leaned over to a fellow corps member’s snare, and, with inverted tenor mallets, played back Nardelli’s lick, note-for-note. He then added some rudimental wickedness of his own. Everyone cheered.

According to Frank, “What followed was an amazing duel between the two best drummers in the world, who proceeded to play on horn cases, shako boxes, bus windows, marble tiles, park benches and the derrieres of two willing [members of] Bon Bons. The escalation had the mob out of its mind; cheering, howling and stomping.

“Finally, Nardelli marched ceremoniously over to a small garden and, ever so gently, played the petals off a huge sunflower. The Blessed Sacrament guys erupted, and all eyes were on Billy. He paused, then took off his shoes and socks, rolled up his pants, waded into the fountain, and played the show solo, complete with back-sticking, ON THE SURFACE OF THE WATER!

“Nardelli threw his sticks in the air and collapsed in laughter and mock exhaustion. Many “high fives” were slapped all around...and I forget who won the other show.”

Frank ends his recollection with the following: “And you thought ‘Blast’ invented this stuff. This story gets funnier each time I think of it, and I was such a rookie I thought all drummers could do this.”

[Puppet]

Frank Dorritie and Billy Cobham.

Below is an article I would normally link to, but it's not in the DCI.org archives.

Fanfare (December 13, 2002)

Frank Dorritie and the Drummer Shoot-Out

by Michael Boo

There are a number of behind-the-scenes people in drum corps that everyone should know about. Frank Dorritie is one of those. A performer, producer, arranger, educator, and author, Frank has performed with a number of famed jazz musicians, including; Cal Tjader, Wynton Marsalis, Laurindo Almeida, Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, and Jackie & Roy, among others. Nine of his recordings have received Grammy nominations and two of those; (“New York Scene” with Art Blakey, and “La Onda Va Bien” with Cal Tjader); won Grammy awards in the Jazz and Latin categories, respectively.

Impressed yet? Well, Frank now serves as Chair of the Recording Arts Department at Los Medanos College in Pittsburg, California. I have a copy of his book, “Essentials of Music for Audio Professionals,” which honestly is the single best study book on music theory I’ve yet seen. Also published by ArtistPro Books is his “Handbook of Field Recording.” In addition, he has served as a musical consultant for the Fox Television Network and has worked as a performer, clinician, and adjudicator throughout North America, Europe, South Africa, and Japan.

But what about drum corps?

Over the past several years, Frank has arranged for and/or instructed Garfield Cadets, Santa Clara Vanguard, Blue Devils, Cavaliers, Bridgemen, Bluecoats, 27th Lancers, Madison Scouts, Freelancers, Crossmen, Avant Garde, Long Island Kingsmen, San Jose Raiders, Boston Crusaders, and others.

He has served as a DCI music adjudicator and brass clinician at the DCI Rules Congress. Perhaps his most memorable and innovative moment remembered by corps fans came when he taught Garfield Cadets in 1977. It was his idea to have the corps sing a vocal “Amen” during “I Don’t Know How to Love Him” at a time when doing so resulted in a threatened penalty and disqualification. The judges were already freaked out by the fact that he had taught the guard to play horns in the same selection.

Never one to claim to be an altar boy, he was once ejected from a critique for pressing his case with language considered too colorful for its time.

Today’s corps fans can thank Frank for producing some major recording projects. The five-CD compilation, “Echoes,” was his baby. (If you don’t have this DCI collection, you should. It contains some of the best and most memorable selections from DCI’s entire history; including “Stage and Screen,” “Signatures,” “Jazz Plus,” “Symphonic Celebrations” and “Magnificent Marches.”)

He also produced both the famed DCI "State of the Art" releases (1980 & 2000), taking drum corps into the studio for a sound unparalleled among drum corps recordings. His surround-sound DVD recordings of the Blue Devils and Santa Clara Vanguard are staples in drum corps fans’ libraries, as are his “Through the Years” and “Current Year’ CD projects with Blue Devils, The Cadets, Glassmen and Santa Clara Vanguard. Recently, he’s produced studio recordings of Glassmen and Capital Regiment. His “The Legacy of Fred Sanford—History of Santa Clara Percussion” benefits the Fred Sanford Scholarship.

So now you know something about the man and his myriad accomplishments in drum corps over the past 30 plus years. Now, let’s hear about one of his most memorable drum corps moments, a true tale from his rookie season. By the way, it happened ten years before Drum Corps International was formed. Yeah, that’s allowed in this column.

Somewhere in western Pennsylvania, a contest was rain delayed. Two corps were sheltered under the edge of a school courtyard, with a fountain between them. One was St. Catherine's Queensmen, with whom Frank was a second soprano. The other corps was the Queensmen’s arch-rival, Blessed Sacrament Golden Knights.

Sac had an extraordinary snare drummer named Nardelli, a perennial National Individual Champion. St. Catherine’s had a left-handed Panamanian tenor drummer who occasionally strapped on a snare backwards (remember leg slings?) and beat Nardelli at the Individual and Ensemble competition. Both were taught by the incomparable Bobby Thompson, were each other's greatest fans, and on this rainy day, decided to entertain the troops.

Oh, the drummer from Queensmen was Billy Cobham. You’ve probably heard of him. (Years later, Frank and Billy marched together again in the Sunrisers Senior Corps.)

Billy’s bio. reads like Frank’s. He played with Horace Silver, Henry Mancini and Miles Davis before joining Shakti, led by John McLaughlin. He led a seminal fusion band in the 1970s, “Dreams,” and has several recorded solos that are considered classics; (especially on “Birds of Fire,” a fusion version of Stravinsky’s “Firebird,” and his tracks with Deodato. (One can still hear “Zarathrustra” on pop radio.)

Billy is known for his powerful rudiment-based style, a multi-pedal kick drum technique and the use of four and six sticks simultaneously. He’s the closest thing drumming has to an octopus, sounding like an entire drum line.

And he developed many of his techniques and much of his stamina from being in a drum corps.

Anyhow, from one side of the school courtyard, Nardelli shouted out, “Hey, Cobham!,” as he played some near-impossible lick. Billy grinned, leaned over to a fellow corps member’s snare, and, with inverted tenor mallets, played back Nardelli’s lick, note-for-note. He then added some rudimental wickedness of his own. Everyone cheered.

According to Frank, “What followed was an amazing duel between the two best drummers in the world, who proceeded to play on horn cases, shako boxes, bus windows, marble tiles, park benches and the derrieres of two willing [members of] Bon Bons. The escalation had the mob out of its mind; cheering, howling and stomping.

“Finally, Nardelli marched ceremoniously over to a small garden and, ever so gently, played the petals off a huge sunflower. The Blessed Sacrament guys erupted, and all eyes were on Billy. He paused, then took off his shoes and socks, rolled up his pants, waded into the fountain, and played the show solo, complete with back-sticking, ON THE SURFACE OF THE WATER!

“Nardelli threw his sticks in the air and collapsed in laughter and mock exhaustion. Many “high fives” were slapped all around...and I forget who won the other show.”

Frank ends his recollection with the following: “And you thought ‘Blast’ invented this stuff. This story gets funnier each time I think of it, and I was such a rookie I thought all drummers could do this.”

Michael, you (Frank D notwithstanding because he is more of a audio guy to me than a writer no disrespect intended!) are among my favorite wordsmiths in just about any genre. You are the Jimmy Breslin of Drum Corps but I must say just for real historic sake Frank's memory of "high fives" during that time has to be a great deal license. Maybe a bunch of "gimme fives" were exchanged, perhaps even some kind of "highs" were given or even had but not those that we now know of as "high fives."

As a kid who wore one of the cast off uniforms of St. Catherine's (as a Queenaire - another name which pretty much wouldn't go over big now days especially in the homophopic borough that once bore those names) I enjoy that story every time I hear it. There are so few real storytellers from back in the day when we were young and Drum Corps was virtually our social focus. It is sad to note that with the advent of social networks and the web (this site among them) that the stories related are encapsulated in mere bits. Little off topic but notice I did stick in the Queenaires reference, but have to give you your props along with the great pounder Billy C., Frank D. and not leave out HOF player Ray Fallon (who I shared air space with and whose brother I marched with) and I'm sure Sunriser has some kind of double meaning ,,, somewhere.

Puppet

[markdewine]

Anyone remember the Hershey Choclatiers from PA? Wouldn't their feeder corps be called the Hershey Squirts?

[Michael Boo]

Michael, you (Frank D notwithstanding because he is more of a audio guy to me than a writer no disrespect intended!) are among my favorite wordsmiths in just about any genre. You are the Jimmy Breslin of Drum Corps but I must say just for real historic sake Frank's memory of "high fives" during that time has to be a great deal license. Maybe a bunch of "gimme fives" were exchanged, perhaps even some kind of "highs" were given or even had but not those that we now know of as "high fives."

Puppet: I'm just hoping the next Son of Sam doesn't start sending me letters.

[Andyroo]

Church sponsored corps:

Most Precious Blood Crusaders

Our Lady Of The Snows Stormy Knights

Clinton Knee-Highs [all girl]

Americare Stepperettes [a girls drill team, but still....]

Flamingos [pink satin blouses w/white stripe, black trousers & white bucks. I competed against them many times. They became the Argonauts]

Wausau Story [insurance company sponsored: quite large]

Jim,

A minor point, I know, but the Clinton corps was spelled Nee-Hi's. At least everything I've ever seen written about them spells it that way - almost like the orange drink some of us may have been familiar with way back in the mists of time (Nehi).

Andy