The 1997 Thread

[Jeff Ream]

19 hours ago, jwillis35 said:

I wanted to piggy back on some of your comments because I tend to agree with so much of what you said. When it came to Blue Devils in 97 I was amazed (and just watched it again today to remind myself of the show) at how CLEAN they were. I kind of wonder if this was their cleanest show of the 80s and 90s. The musical arrangements were also just perfect. Honestly, for field presentation in a competitive art I am not sure anyone could have arranged the music any better than Wayne Downey did with the brass, along with the percussion staff. Night in Tunisia was simply perfect arranging and perfect visual design. 

Was their a cleaner BD show in the 80s and 90s? Maybe 82 or 86...94 possibly?

86 or 94 come to mind

[Tim K]

On 5/26/2020 at 5:07 PM, MikeN said:

Phantom '97 was a weirdly paced show, and I just went back and listened to it.  The big horn opening was at 1:14 in, and then it went straight into the first ballad.  No traditional opener.  The show doesn't pick up any speed again until 4:22.  Another ballad at 6:50 that briefly picks up to the fake out ending at 9:45 then the slow and stately recap of the first ballad.  Its amazing how little uptempo there is for a drum corps program.  

 

You make some excellent points in your comments regarding Phantom in 1997. It was as you say, weirdly paced. Wagner is brilliant and much of his brilliance comes from how he placed the music. The Ring begins and ends with the same themed music and the pieces of the four operas lead up to each other to tell the story. This did not happen in Phantom’s 1997 show. The pieces were all over the place and didn’t even work as a symphonic poem. Still musically it may have been the most demanding book of the season. The problem is taking music from four operas that combined are 16+ hours of music, and shrinking it down to ten minutes. Focusing on one of the operas could have worked. It was an “A” for effort show, but it just did not come together.

[jwillis35]

This is cool to watch. Madison marching onto the field in 1997 at one of the regional shows in Madison, WI. Talk about an attention "getter" before the show begins.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhvnDseijrs

[jwillis35]

One of the things I so much appreciated about 1997 was repertoire across the board. Almost every corps was playing some pretty awesome charts.

Edited May 31, 2020 by jwillis35

[Ghost]

9 hours ago, jwillis35 said:

 

I agree with you completely JW.

[jwillis35]

I agree with others that Magic of Orlando had a fantastic and engaging opener with Lil' Liza Jane. Their Carnivale show was a stab at New Orleans jazz with a down-easy style of visual and fun. The opener was an attention getter, but the show felt somewhat vanilla after that. Solid closer.

Bluecoats were very good. A strong jazz show. They just didn't have the overall GE and performance caption excellence like they did in 95 - which I think was their best 90s show. But I appreciated the demand in the brass book in 97. Every chart they played was excellent but the opener did it for me. I thought competitively the corps was ready to make a jump after the 95 season but placement began to suffer in 97 (though a really good and talented corps). They managed to take 10th in 98, but fell out of the top 12 in 1999. During that same time the Glassmen would move up to 5th place in 98 and 99. I believe that sparked some change in Canton, OH for sure.

It was again nice to see Carolina Crown in the top 12. It was obvious this corps was going somewhere. Their Postcards from Britain felt a little like the show Star of Indiana performed in 1989. Great arranging.

The Colts Blood, Sweat, and Tears show is definitely one of my favs from them. God Bless the Child has always been one of my favorite tunes. I wonder how many 13th place finishes this corps has had? They have been on the doorstep of top 12 so many times it seems. Truly a great corps.

Kiwanis Kavaliers blew me away. I love that music. All those great arias and ballad from Evita. Also, I want to say the great Doug Thrower was arranging for them as well as Bluecoats in those days...but I am not positive. I know he wrote for some Canadian corps back in the day. Very easy to root for this show and if you can find a recording or video of this I think you will like it.

I have to admit to not remembering this show from Boston so I might see if I can watch some video to get a feel for what they were doing. The rep looks great to me. The same is true with Acadamie Musicale.

[jwillis35]

The Cavaliers taking 7th place was odd for them since they had won championships in 92 and 95 with excellent finishes in 90, 91, 93, and 94. Their Firebird show was a bit ahead of its' time. It was a great visual production with a strong musical finish.

The Glassmen were, once again, proving to be a real competitor. The Age of Gold show with all the George Bizet music is really a great listen. I think I like 93 the best from the 90s, but the repertoire here is excellent. I forget who arranged their music back in the 90s but I was a real fan. That 8th place finish was solid and they beat their home state corps, Bluecoats, to grab some bragging rights. At this point in the 90s it felt like Glassmen were pulling farther ahead of Bloo. It was also clear they had talent and staff and a killer percussion section. Come 98 and 99 we would see Glassmen make top 5 both seasons.

I might have been one of the few, but I loved BK from tip off to the end. The music of Ben Hur was well done, and BK was really know for some visual mastery. They were often considered the Cadets of the West by some friends of mine, mostly because of their visual packages. But they could also drum and play. Very interesting music and solid performance captions for the most part. Brass had moments that made my ears perk up for sure.