What was the last straight-up jazz show BD has done?

[N.E. Brigand]

Nearly all of the material was fairly faithful arrangements of Brenzel's piece.... an actual composition for big band.

I don't know Brenzel's work, but I know that skywhopper has stated several times that BD's show "only use a few tidbits from it". Is that wrong?

[BDStaffAlum]

02 was called purely "Jazz: Music Made in America" and it was all big brassy loud awesome Jazz. I loved Summertrain Blues, big brassy loud Jazz/Blues. 05 was not really jazz...it was big band/swing, but again if you want to get technical I think the OP really meant when is BD going to go back to playing all that awesome big band/jazz/blues/swing/ska type music it is known for. My opinion is that Godfather had a ton of jazz in it, but since then there hasn't been a show that really centers around that kind of music. So, I'm going with 2006, and yes I think they will go back to it again, that is the roots of BD, and you can't keep straying too far away.

Edited August 14, 2013 by BDStaffAlum

[skywhopper]

I don't know Brenzel's work, but I know that skywhopper has stated several times that BD's show "only use a few tidbits from it". Is that wrong?

The jazzy hits of BD's show were from Brenzel's arrangement. The trumpet and flugel solos were from the Sebesky record. The rest was from the original... sometimes the Brenzel was relatively close to the original, so maybe that's the difference in our interpretations. If there wasn't a detectable swing, I thought of it as being from Stravinsky. The other factor in my assessment is that BD just didn't use all that much material from either version, really. Five minutes at most.

[Stu]

So, I'm going with 2006, and yes I think they will go back to it again, that is the roots of BD, and you can't keep straying too far away.

Oh yes they can continue straying away; since 2007 BD has 4 golds and 3 silvers with nothing below placing second by straying way far away from their roots. So as long as they keep up that pace with the esoteric they would be taking a huge risk to attempt to 'go back to their roots'.

[kaseyW]

Oh yes they can continue straying away; since 2007 BD has 4 golds and 3 silvers with nothing below placing second by straying way far away from their roots. So as long as they keep up that pace with the esoteric they would be taking a huge risk to attempt to 'go back to their roots'.

They are still a jazz corps, but as stated before, jazz is a broad musical term. It's just not the Basie/Buddy Rich big band style that was so popular in the 70's/80's. If you put the current jazz music of Ambrose Akinmusire, Joshua Redman, and other modern jazz artists into a drum corps show, people would probably flip out as well.

[Stu]

They are still a jazz corps, but as stated before, jazz is a broad musical term. It's just not the Basie/Buddy Rich big band style that was so popular in the 70's/80's. If you put the current jazz music of Ambrose Akinmusire, Joshua Redman, and other modern jazz artists into a drum corps show, people would probably flip out as well.

The term 'jazz' certainly is as broad as you state. However, the 'roots of the Blue Devils' people refer to are grounded in a particular style of 'arranging' which is directed toward shear audience enjoyment. Here is the deal: When you compare the '76 and '77 BD arrangements of Channel One Suite and Spanish Fantasy to the '86 arrangements all of them are rather straight forward, rather true to the original source material, and arranged for audience enjoyment. Now compare the '88 BD arrangement of Happy Days Are Here Again to the '09 arrangement; the '88 version is arranged rather straight forward, rather true to the original source material,and designed for audience enjoyment; however the '09 arrangement is very esoteric avant guarde (yes 'jazz' by definition) but it is way far away from being anywhere close to the original source material and is geared to the judges engagement and not the enjoyment of the audience but for the transfer of musical progression engagement to the audience (that is 'if' the audience was even a factor at all in the design of the '09 arrangement).

[yellow jacket]

Last time Blue Devils had jazz in their show? 20 seconds of the 2013 show. Okay, maybe 22 seconds of the 2013 show; which was pure joy. The rest was mostly pure pain or pure indifference for me.

I consider much of the 2011 show" jazz," within the loose confines of Jazz as described by other, earlier posters. There should be room for Bacharach under the big tent of Jazz.

I do long for the more "big band" stlye arrangements that were such a part of their past. Please, just give it to us one year in full heavy doses of swing!!!!