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Any St. Vinnies experts out there?


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I recall the St.Vincent's Cadets and long admired their competitiveness. I only saw them perform twice and thoroughly enjoyed their show.

 

A few questions:

1. What was the story of that amazing French horn section? What instruments were they playing? They really cut through. Chills.

 

2. I distinctly remember hearing them on an old scratchy recording playing "Mama Teach Me to Dance - ala Eydie Gorme." According to Corpsreps listings, I'm nuts.

 

3. In their concert number(s) they switched from a slower, more mellow piece to "Tropical Heat Wave." I think that I remember them also switching conductors from a male DM to a female CG sgt.

 

They had a long, successful run. The Jersey Jr. Corps were very competitive in those days. BSGK, Holy Name, and Vinnies were constantly fighting it out.

 

I have seen several good webpages on their record and their history. If anyone can fill in the blanks on Vinnies, I'd appreciate it.

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  • 1 month later...

St Vincents Cadets:

Many time VFW and American Legion State and National Champs, last title in 1956 at Boston .   Instructor team of Jim Donnelly, Vinny  Cerbone and Mickey Petrone  led the corps throughout the 1950's.

They pretty well set the bar for competition in the early 1950's, and remained competitive until the corps was disbanded at the end of the 1961 season.  Many of their members and instructors migrated to the Newark Woodsiders

Frank Dorritte put out a lot of info on the "Big Green band" elsewhere on DCP.    

I only saw the corps on two occasions in the early 1960's and do remember their great soprano soloist Spencer Webb.  

Elphaba    

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Elphaba,

Do you recall what became of Spencer Webb, by any chance?

Incidentally, Jim Donnelly was my first bugle instructor, at Xavier High School in NYC in 1960. I was so naive I didn't have a clue who he was, nor St. Vincent's either for that matter. He was just a nice old guy who taught me the C scale on a single valve bugle, as far as I knew.

That blissful ignorance was soon to change.

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@ironlips my father marched with St. Vincent's from '53 through '56 (baritone) AND went to Xavier High School (graduated in '56)! Small world.

I found a YT recording from '55 about a week ago and sent it to him - my mom sent me a short video of him listening to it and singing along. 😁

He's almost positive he's the person in the pic under the arrow:

CFT2oBDdzA4JaRccPnFgmrmYoszW90MoCJRP7UI0

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St. Vincent's Cadets were the drum corps equivalent of the gold standard at that time, and their DNA still permeates the activity at all levels. If Henry Louis Gates hosted an episode of "Drum Corps Finding Your Roots", all of us would have some Vinny's in our ancestry.

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True, their accomplishments, especially through the mid-50's, were legendary.

It led Pepe Notaro to state that the admission to heaven would depend on whether you marched with St. Vinnies.

His other standard was whether you ever won the Dream, which the corps hosted for many years.

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On 5/29/2020 at 12:03 AM, ironlips said:

Elphaba,

Do you recall what became of Spencer Webb, by any chance?

Incidentally, Jim Donnelly was my first bugle instructor, at Xavier High School in NYC in 1960. I was so naive I didn't have a clue who he was, nor St. Vincent's either for that matter. He was just a nice old guy who taught me the C scale on a single valve bugle, as far as I knew.

That blissful ignorance was soon to change.

Spencer Webb:

No idea as to what became of him.   I saw his name in the St Vincents History, and they had no idea either.  

Elphaba

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On 5/29/2020 at 12:03 AM, ironlips said:

Elphaba,

Do you recall what became of Spencer Webb, by any chance?

Incidentally, Jim Donnelly was my first bugle instructor, at Xavier High School in NYC in 1960. I was so naive I didn't have a clue who he was, nor St. Vincent's either for that matter. He was just a nice old guy who taught me the C scale on a single valve bugle, as far as I knew.

That blissful ignorance was soon to change.

"Patches" Watson":

Robert "Patches" Watson was a baritone player in St Vincents Cadets in the mid 1950's.  He joined the Navy after Vinnies and did his boot camp at Great Lakes.  He then joined the Drum and Bugle Corps at the Base after pointing out in an issue of Drum Corps World that he had placed third in the VFW National indie contest held the preceeding year.  His first rating in the Navy was "Bugler/Field Music".

He wrote a book about his career and experiences in the Navy, titled "Point Man".   In the book he wrote about his time in the St Vincents Cadets,  and his involemt in the US Navy "Seals", of which he is a "Plank Owner"  (Founding Member).  

After retirement from the Navy he became curator of the US Navy's "Seals Museum".

Elphaba

 

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