Oakland Crusaders 1977 drumline

[CDHouser]

In 1977 the Sacramento Freelancers percussion section emerged as a force in the West marching 11 snares and competing neck and neck with the Blue Devils for most of the western tour. As corps began to move toward Boulder, Colorado for prelims, we had heard that the Oakland Crusaders had already taken high drums at DCI North, even though the corps took 5th a full 13 points behind Phantom. At the time, I was marching with the Knight Raiders under the direction of Steve Chorazy and Mike Ferreira. The first opportunity we had of seeing the drumline was in a show just before Prelims in Greeley, Colorado. The Crusaders drumline were performing their drum solo during warmups. The 2nd time through the solo, Tom Float told them to dance around while they played. The solo had some intricate tuplet patterns decreasing and increasing in dynamics with RRR LLL sticking. We did not hear a single error through the entire solo. A friend of mine Dennis Mancini (Knight Raider Snare) and I both witnessed this and our jaws dropped. At DCI prelims, I snuck inside the stadium to see them again. As most know they took 1st in drums at Prelims but the corps finished 15th. The only recording I have ever come across of the 1977 Oakland Crusaders is of the drum solo. It's found on a Diceman Radio podacast of the De La Salle Oaklands (Episode 013), not sure when or where it was recorded. http://dicemanradio.com/dhp/?p=228

Edited March 23, 2013 by CDHouser