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

[NR_Ohiobando]

Alright I bought fannetwork and was catching up on shows. I watched this with my friend this morning and his comments were it was boring musically and visually and stopped watching. I was trying to figure out the show. Its got the name time trip so is it just playing old songs? Then the guy walking around confused me. I think the drill is to easy again for them after the improvements they made a couple years ago(2012 love that show) the thing I notice the most was the bent leg. Any reason for the change?

I'm interested in what your friend finds "exciting" if he considers this music boring. This might be the most straight-forward jazz music show in the last decade DCI has had. You just don't hear these harmonies very often at the quality they're being played at nowadays; I'm fairly starved for this sort of music so I can't help but be excited about it.

Time Trip is in reference to the "Pleasantville" 50s transitioning to the more experimental 70s. "Trip" is likely in reference to the psychedelic nature of the experimentation during that time. The show starts out rhythmically simple with 4s and slower tempos, builds into a faster swing section, begins introducing experimental rhythm (16/32, 16/36, 9/4, 9/2 time signatures) and finally explodes with color and difficult rhythm/time signatures to signify both musical and social experimentation during the time period.

Most fans are in agreement that the guy walking around isn't working thus far, but the good news is that it's probably going to change. Personally I give them credit for truly doing something different, though I'm willing to admit it doesn't work very well. It's truly amazing how someone doing so little, juxtaposed from the rest of the corps-proper, can carry so much attention. My guess is that the single colorguard member is the one on a "trip".

Edited June 28, 2014 by NR_Ohiobando

[MotorCityMusician]

I'm interested in what your friend finds "exciting" if he considers this music boring. This might be the most straight-forward jazz music show in the last decade DCI has had. You just don't hear these harmonies very often at the quality they're being played at nowadays; I'm fairly starved for this sort of music so I can't help but be excited about it.

Time Trip is in reference to the "Pleasantville" 50s transitioning to the more experimental 70s. "Trip" is likely in reference to the psychedelic nature of the experimentation during that time. The show starts out rhythmically simple with 4s and slower tempos, builds into a faster swing section, begins introducing experimental rhythm (16/32, 16/36, 9/4, 9/2 time signatures) and finally explodes with color and difficult rhythm/time signatures to signify both musical and social experimentation during the time period.

Most fans are in agreement that the guy walking around isn't working thus far, but the good news is that it's probably going to change. Personally I give them credit for truly doing something different, though I'm willing to admit it doesn't work very well. It's truly amazing how someone doing so little, juxtaposed from the rest of the corps-proper, can carry so much attention. My guess is that the single colorguard member is the one on a "trip".

So what happens when you have people that dont like jazz at all? I know its early season but the show just left me in a huh? state. Im sure ill see it again and it will make some more sense but after watching it i should have something stuck in my head that makes me want to listen again right? Like BDs opener i love or Blue Stars closer (its a song i heard on the radio so it sticks) even Crowns muffler feature(dont really like the show). I want to like the show from what Ive heard from everyone. And the guy walking is like a dropped drumstick in WGI. It isnt moving but you watch that to see if someone will step and fall.

[NR_Ohiobando]

So what happens when you have people that dont like jazz at all?

Now you know how dinosaurs (and 20 somethings with older taste like me) feel about the way show design has gone. Yaaaay empathy!

Let's truly identify why Blue Devil's opener probably gets stuck in your head. The main theme is slow in tempo, legato, and only about 5 pitches long. The initial brass hit has a very slow *harmonic rhythm (with the exception of a few triplets). Shortly there after, very simple ostinatos with very little variation over a single measure. Your brain only has to worry about 2 or 3 actual pitches and maybe 2 rhythmic variations over the course of a few measures because all they do is repeat it for a measure before providing variation. Your brain latches on to the sequence, you figure it out, provide expectation for yourself, and are satisfied when it repeats itself. Then when it modulates a little in pitch while still retaining the same rhythm, you have the expectation of rhythm with difference of pitch. It's satisfying to hear because the change is something you subconsciously expected.

Now let's focus on why Madison's show is initially difficult to grasp musically for a lot of people. It's incredibly musically complex in comparison to most shows, both in rhythmic and tonal variation. Though Jazz music is usually tuneful and the basis for tons of pop music, it's also incredibly common for jazz to have incredibly long tonal ideas to grasp as it is mostly built on chords and the variations that can come by exlploring them fully. Right off the bat, Madison's opener provides trumpet fanfare, but the ideas are a bit longer and have more notes for a brain to grasp. The ideas presented by the pitches are not initially easy to identify in terms of expectation. While it does outline a basic chord/diatonic-environment, it doesn't provide any obvious leading tones as to what it wants to do. Not much room for expectation in one's brain. It's also quite a few measures before it ends up repeating the same idea and developing it further. We get a nice little typical drum corps 16 count major chord, yada yada, and the next section provides a lot of the same ideas the Blue Devils used. The important difference being that the phrases/ideas are a bit longer to grasp, the harmonic rhythm is a bit longer, and there is a bit more variation both rhythmically and tonally. The next tune they play (I believe it's Passacaglia and Fugue) has a very straight forward chord progression, but the actual melody over top is 32 counts long and is not initially tuneful due to rhythm experimentation. Plus... it's a jazz arrangement of a J.S. Bach composition. Baroque stuff aint tuneful, but holy cow is it rhythmically and harmonically amazing.

So the problems I am guessing for most people are simply that the phrases, harmonic rhythm, and rhythmic exoticism are initially hard to grasp in comparison to what they've been given the past decade or so. I also suspect once people start grasping each "tune" in Madison's show, they will begin to warm up to it.

*When I say "Harmonic Rhythm" I'm talking about the rate/tempo at which specifically harmony changes.

Edited June 29, 2014 by NR_Ohiobando

[N.E. Brigand]

Nice posts. It hadn't even occurred to me that Madison's show might be too musically difficult for some listeners.

[NR_Ohiobando]

Nice posts. It hadn't even occurred to me that Madison's show might be too musically difficult for some listeners.

It's not even that more minimalistic (I hate using that word) music is bad, per say. That sort of arranging/style works a lot in terms of creating memorable ideas your brain enjoys expecting and figuring out. And let's face it, nobody can claim "Another One Bites the Dust" is a bad piece of music because of how repetitive it is.

Madison's show, like any show, has a bit of design issues. But it's also giving me an extremely well put together show full of longer ideas in a jazz idiom that I enjoy listening to and trying to grasp.

[tesmusic]

Blind ####### judges

[jjeffeory]

It's not even that more minimalistic (I hate using that word) music is bad, per say. That sort of arranging/style works a lot in terms of creating memorable ideas your brain enjoys expecting and figuring out. And let's face it, nobody can claim "Another One Bites the Dust" is a bad piece of music because of how repetitive it is.

Madison's show, like any show, has a bit of design issues. But it's also giving me an extremely well put together show full of longer ideas in a jazz idiom that I enjoy listening to and trying to grasp.

I like it music quite a bit, except Fanfare for the New went in a more "square" direction than other corps, that may be addressed by increasing the tempo. The visual ideas are a pretty big problem for me.

[NR_Ohiobando]

I like it music quite a bit, except Fanfare for the New went in a more "square" direction than other corps, that may be addressed by increasing the tempo. The visual ideas are a pretty big problem for me.

Same here. I actually really like the white pants and jacket in action. The problem is that visually almost everything they do is muted/inefficient and relies on body movement rather than drill phrases. People have said it's easy, but in reality it's just not getting the best out of the music in some spots. The "color explosion" is a good example of something that just "kinda works". Unfortunately this has been a problem for years; the last great visual Madison show was probably 05, and even that wasn't the greatest thing in the world.

The good news is that it's still early season. They have a heck of a beast to tame, and it's certainly fix-able. I just don't know if they have the resources to do so.

Edited June 29, 2014 by NR_Ohiobando

[NR_Ohiobando]

Scouts took out the closing music of their show. Probably in an effort to create contrast from how loud most of the show is, or build the concept more... I am sad and disappointed. They edited the ending last year for the worse as well :(

Plus the concept is still not getting through well with the single character. They're trying more experimental approach with less gimmicks, and I applaud them for going that route, but unfortunately their choices are not efficient enough. It's very much about the music in this show, but visually the audience doesn't get many efficient cues as to "hey it's a time trip through several decades". While they enjoy the music (or at least I do), the concept gets a bit muffled.

It could be worse. If this show were done by Crown/BD unfortunately we would see them resort to cheap ploys, unneccessary gimmicks only achievable by having a greater budget $$$$$$$ (buying success, or the drum corps equivalent of bad DLC), & stereotypes/caricatures including but not limited to:

1) backdrops changing throughout the show starting with drab Mad Men-esque illustartions eventually changing to generic 70s font and color marketing.

2) fedoras and briefcases in the 50s section, affros and pantomimed drug usage in the 70s section

2) disco ball light effects (using stadium lighting as the source)

3) a "peace sign" as a single drill set during the trumpet trio end section because the audience is stupid and won't "get it", or perhaps actually writing the years in the drill sets for lack of creative inspiration.

4) sound-bytes from each decade somehow-but-not-really relating to the show,

5) a slight costume change; adding color to the uniforms towards the end section via some sort of flag or garb revealed at that time a'la 1989 PR drum break

Ugh. And the sad part is that would actually add GE points...

[Splooie99]

I need to see them a little more polished. Because what I saw on fan network did not impress me at all. Visually, it felt like it was first show jitters (maybe it was) I also noticed 2 quads missing. Anyway, I love big band jazz and of all the jazz music out there, this is not what I would pick. I am waiting to see the San Antonio show where all things will be equal.