1993 Blue Knights Drum Feature

[Jeffe77]

Made a point to listen to drum corps shows in the 90's I seldom paid attention to and found this gem. The 1993 Blue Knights show and man that drum feature by Ralph Hardimon is sweet. To me it's his 90's version of Stone Ground 7 complete with Tenors on both sides of the line just like 1980. It seems like this drum feature is seldom discussed. Perhaps overshadowed by Star 93 and other cool drum features in this era (Xmen 91-92, Cadets 93-94, Cavies 90-93, Scouts 92-93, SCV, etc), even BK's own 1992 feature as well

The writing, the notes are sweet. Like to hear your thoughts. I put in here the clip of feature from their 1993 Show "The Next Generation - Musical Selections from Star Trek"

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/36172995/BK%2093%20Perc%20Feature.mp3

[84BDsop]

And yet the major theme of the perc solo was "Close Encounters"!

Solo was all right....rest of the show....major meh. NOT their best work.

[Jeffe77]

And yet the major theme of the perc solo was "Close Encounters"!

Solo was all right....rest of the show....major meh. NOT their best work.

"Little Green Men" by Steve Vai (1993 Drum Feature) has Close Encounters motif in it, hence the theme in the percussion solo.

[Wildabeast]

I remember going to a show in Sacramento that year, and as I was leaving the stadium during scores, I heard that BK won percussion over BD & SCV.

[Jeffe77]

Amazing how they attracted talent like Jeff Queen from SCV because of Ralph Hardimon. The following year Nick Angelis.

[danielray]

Very nice, but does seem a bit old school... even in 93.

[Will]

Sounds impressively CLEAN from what I can tell - NICE!

[ibexpercussion]

I've always enjoyed that feature.

[perc2100]

That is a fun chart (though I also loved the music they played from STAR TREK 2). I saw a clinic with Blue Knights at a local HS, and Ralph was (as always) really funny/entertaining. He would start talking about the composition, and he would always fall back on, "It's a space, thing."

For example, he would say something like, "and then the snare would come in with this trippy thing, in 7/8 meter, with the mallets and the wind sticks in the background...it's a space thing, man: a space thing!"

Some snare drummer was struggling in the clinic, and Ralph said something to the crowd like, "you guys hear that? What side are those ticks coming from?" The audience all seemed in agreement as to which side, and Ralph asked that player to not play for a rep, and it was cleaner. Then Ralph added the player back in, and it was a little dirty again.

Funny times.

I do like that show (even if I don't like the guard costumes), or at least the Star Trek 2 music + Little Green Men.

[perc2100]

Amazing how they attracted talent like Jeff Queen from SCV because of Ralph Hardimon. The following year Nick Angelis.

Well, if you knew anything about the makeup of SCV's drum line during the winter of 1993, it's not that hard to imagine how they were able to attract Queen*...

* of course, it's safe to assume that Hardimon was also a pretty bring draw at that time for lots of talented players