Jump to content

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


Recommended Posts

That's actually taken from the Don Ellis Orchestra performance at the Montreux Jazz Festival, it is the beginning of Open Wide with Niner-Two attached to it.

I'm actually glad they used that in there.

I didn't know that - thank you for the info.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guess my reality from that year from some people must be wrong since you know, so many have seen the show and loved it.

Once again, I'm not listing names, and yes, the crowd loved us once the show started to come together, but there were many that didn't buy into when the show was announced and really until about mid-July.

I guess if you wanna hold that line, naming names is about your only saving grace. However, I have a hunch this was exaggerated to support your opinion, so it would probably be best for you to just stop asserting this to be the case. We knew about the '97 show at the start of the '96 season. Even to the point where every time Dann Pederson got on the bus he yelled "Ahoy, Mateys! Be this the horn bus?!" And, if you listen, before the show starts in the Finals recording, one of the drum staff yells out a pirate reference to the upcoming '97 show.

Point being, among the staff, membership and alumni, the 1997 Scouts show was no secret. Scott Stewart actually had the next several shows planned out well in advance. I remember being on the phone with him in 1997 before the season started and he gave me the show themes up through the Cossack Brotherhood show. These are the thing that I know to be true.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I guess if you wanna hold that line, naming names is about your only saving grace. However, I have a hunch this was exaggerated to support your opinion, so it would probably be best for you to just stop asserting this to be the case. We knew about the '97 show at the start of the '96 season. Even to the point where every time Dann Pederson got on the bus he yelled "Ahoy, Mateys! Be this the horn bus?!" And, if you listen, before the show starts in the Finals recording, one of the drum staff yells out a pirate reference to the upcoming '97 show.

Point being, among the staff, membership and alumni, the 1997 Scouts show was no secret. Scott Stewart actually had the next several shows planned out well in advance. I remember being on the phone with him in 1997 before the season started and he gave me the show themes up through the Cossack Brotherhood show. These are the thing that I know to be true.

That's interesting. 1998 had a completely different them and rep that we're told to the members and staff during the season and at banquet, 1999 was a theme change Scott told us about in October when he was making a cassette for a friend of his eight track copies of Jesus Christ Superstar, and during July of 1999 we were told that the 2000 show would be Jesus Christ Superstar part 2, ala the 1991-1992 City of Angels shows.

As for listing alums by names and their opinions about 1997 on here, I have too much respect for those alums and former board members to do that to people that can't defend themselves on a rag like this site.

Edited by tesmusic
Link to comment
Share on other sites

So now the Scouts are fighting for a finals spot. Great. This could have been a great Madison show...instead, it is an uncoordinated clumsy collection of musical sound bites, average visual, & a weak over all show design. The show was better before the recent changes, especially the awful ending.

Speaking as a Scout Alumn & homer, with the exception of the Drum staff, I hope there is a house cleaning after this painful season is over.

Edited by FlamMan
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

That's actually taken from the Don Ellis Orchestra performance at the Montreux Jazz Festival, it is the beginning of "Open Wide" with "Niner Two" attached to it. I'm actually glad they used that in there.

is video of that moment in the Ellis at Montreux performance. Edited by N.E. Brigand
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Judging from the video, it sounds like the crowd in San Antonio enjoyed Madison's show more than at least one of the top five groups.

I only watched it now on high camera, and I imagine one problem with the multi-cam is too many shots of the wheel, especially before the Ellis music starts. It's not great visually, but seen entirely from above, it's not the all-out disaster that some have claimed. But just as the Cadets' L'il Geoffrey should never have been shown in close-up in 2010, but he was, the DCI camera team is probably going to focus three or four times on the wheel for the first half of the show, when it's doing basically nothing.

I can understand why there are complaints about the music being choppy, but at least it's old-school choppy. Remember in 2010 how lots of people on these forums complained that Blue Devils only quoted one phrase from "La Suerte de los Tontos"? At that time, I didn't know that song, so I had no idea what they were talking about. Same thing here--I don't know "Fanfare for the New" (apart from just now checking it out on Youtube), so I didn't know what I was missing. However, the diference between Madison's excerpts and most of the chop-and-bop stuff that people grumble about (I actually exclude BD's "La Suerte" quote from this complaint, because it was clearly meant to be only an allusion) is that for the most part, Madison is not interweaving their selections with filler. They're simply playing through reduced versions of the originals, like a 1970s drum corps. For instance, look at the repertoire for Cadets in 1975: ten songs!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

They're simply playing through reduced versions of the originals, like a 1970s drum corps. For instance, look at the repertoire for Cadets in 1975: ten songs!

Shows were a good deal longer in those days too, but point taken.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That's interesting. 1998 had a completely different them and rep that we're told to the members and staff during the season and at banquet, 1999 was a theme change Scott told us about in October when he was making a cassette for a friend of his eight track copies of Jesus Christ Superstar, and during July of 1999 we were told that the 2000 show would be Jesus Christ Superstar part 2, ala the 1991-1992 City of Angels shows.

As for listing alums by names and their opinions about 1997 on here, I have too much respect for those alums and former board members to do that to people that can't defend themselves on a rag like this site.

1999 was the only one that varied from what he told me at the time, but everything else was the same.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Shows were a good deal longer in those days too, but point taken.

Thanks; that is a good point I hadn't considered. On the other, other hand, Scouts are playing "only" eight numbers. Like you, I certainly would prefer it were about five and at greater length.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...