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Madison Scouts 2014 -- Playing the Music of Stan Kenton and Don Ellis


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Wow. I'm a huge fan of Kenton. I'm also a Kenton purist. What Robert W.,. Smith wrote is criminal. And to think they actually paid him for that crap. :)

It's not as far as other arrangers have gone with putting a corps spin on pieces of music. I think it's very tame compared to other things I've heard. It's actually a decent job this year.

It's not as true to the originals as it could be, but it's a modern DCI corps version.

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I thought the same thing. The Drum chart doesnt seem to fit the horn book real well either. I love the 1979 Guardsmen version of "Fanfare". I'm sure Madison will be smoking this tune real soon.

I agree. If they crank up the tempos that will help a bit. They've got a good vehicle this year, and it's THE straight up jazz show of the year from beginning to end. It's not symphonic jazz ala BD either.

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One of my major beefs with drum corps today is that the music is too difficult. Sure, everyone needs a "hey look at what we can play" moment in their show, but if the whole show is a long one of these moments, you end up with lots of fans who long for the day of melody & volume. I love what Madison is doing this year. Jazz from beginning to end!

A few predictable negative Nancies on here with DCP wil of course tear Madison to shreds ( and of course they are entitled to that negativity ), but I'm confident that the Madison Scouts will be a top act drawing power that will once again be a big national hit with thousands of Drum Corps fans with this show. I'm excited about the oppportunity to see and hear this show live this suimmer a few times. I love their choice of music selected.

Edited by BRASSO
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it doesn't meet with your approval just shows that you really need to crawl back into your trailer and take a big brown poop in your depends.

Oh my.

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No, they could have used the original score that is still available. What is so horrible about playing it verbatim?? Why does it always have to be turned into some bizarre mutant piece of garbage for drum corps to play? So much for "education." The United States Air Force Academy and the Argonne Rebels played it verbatim. Robert W. Smith is a joke for attempting to pass that crap off as authentic. It is a shame....the majority of Madison's tens of fans will have no clue who Kenton is, have no clue what he played and no clue how badly Smith did. Can't blame the members really...none of them ever saw Kenton live or listened to anything by him except whatever the staff played for them. Only the Kenton ignorant will applaud....or those who might think that somehow Robert W. Smith knows more about Kenton than Stan himself and Hugo Montenegro. I feel sorry for those trombone players too...if someone actually told them they had the style down, the same way Bob Fitzpatrick, Milt Bernhart and Carl Fontana did on "Concerto to End All Concertos," they were lied to.

Spot on. You gotta play it like it was wrote.

I had the same issue with Crown last season. I'm a Philip Glass purist myself, and what Michael Klesch did to Einstein on the Beach was horrific. Here I am, looking forward to enjoying five full hours of abstract modern opera, and instead I get some 12 minute frankenstein excuse of a show. When I saw the original in 1976 at the New York Opera House and then saw it 35 years later in Toronto; those, THOSE, were the masterpieces. To think they gave those kids gold medals makes me physically ill; these same kids who more than likely never saw the opera live and probably never will. If someone told the vocalists they had the style down, the same way Lucinda Childs, Sheryl Sutton, Paul Mann, and Samuel M. Johnson had it down...those kids were lied to. Ugh.

(to OP: No hard feelings, couldn't resist making the comment. Sorry the show isn't to your liking, I'm just glad to see Kenton and Ellis back on the field again)

Edited by ML23
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Here I am, looking forward to enjoying five full hours of abstract modern opera, and instead I get some 12 minute frankenstein excuse of a show.

Brilliant!

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If you're a music purist, I'm afraid you all have decided to follow the wrong activity.

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Spot on. You gotta play it like it was wrote.

I had the same issue with Crown last season. I'm a Philip Glass purist myself, and what Michael Klesch did to Einstein on the Beach was horrific. Here I am, looking forward to enjoying five full hours of abstract modern opera, and instead I get some 12 minute frankenstein excuse of a show. When I saw the original in 1976 at the New York Opera House and then saw it 35 years later in Toronto; those, THOSE, were the masterpieces. To think they gave those kids gold medals makes me physically ill; these same kids who more than likely never saw the opera live and probably never will. If someone told the vocalists they had the style down, the same way Lucinda Childs, Sheryl Sutton, Paul Mann, and Samuel M. Johnson had it down...those kids were lied to. Ugh.

(to OP: No hard feelings, couldn't resist making the comment. Sorry the show isn't to your liking, I'm just glad to see Kenton and Ellis back on the field again)

So, let me get this straight: you went to a drum corps show expecting a five-hour authentic performance of a Philip Glass opera... and you were shocked when a drum and bugle corps gave you a 12 minute heavily adapted version of it?

you-must-be-new-here-willy-wonka.jpg

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If you're a music purist, I'm afraid you all have decided to follow the wrong activity.

And that is one of the problems with this activity. Arrangers who are more interested in taking liberties with classic songs to show what a genius they are.

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