Drum corps percussion history question

[ironlips]

8 hours ago, musicteacher said:

This reminds m of the great brass pedagogue Frank Williams' classic line, "Trumpets, this is your new part here." Then...silence.

Frank Williams has always been brilliant. He's my hero.

[OldSnareDrummer]

15 hours ago, ironlips said:

Frank Williams has always been brilliant. He's my hero.

And back to George Tuthill for a sec. I feel the same about him, God Bless his soul. 

[MikeD]

11 hours ago, OldSnareDrummer said:

And back to George Tuthill for a sec. I feel the same about him, God Bless his soul. 

Absolutely. When Garfield let him go fter the 71 season, a good part of the drumline quit and joined the Hawthorne Caballeros DCA corps where George was already teaching, Hawthorne being close to Garfield. I decided to rejoin Garfield, but I decided to play baritone and not drums. I mean, why would I want to play for another drum instructor...Fred Sanford!

🤪

OTOH, I did get to play horn under Don Angelica in 72, plus I had brass class coming up at college, where I was a music ed major.

Garfield membership was very young in 71. I sometimes wonder how good we might have been in 72 if George had remained on drums and Ironlips had remained on horn. We would not have lost the drumline for sure.

[denverjohn]

20 minutes ago, MikeD said:

Absolutely. When Garfield let him go fter the 71 season, a good part of the drumline quit and joined the Hawthorne Caballeros DCA corps where George was already teaching, Hawthorne being close to Garfield. I decided to rejoin Garfield, but I decided to play baritone and not drums. I mean, why would I want to play for another drum instructor...Fred Sanford!

🤪

OTOH, I did get to play horn under Don Angelica in 72, plus I had brass class coming up at college, where I was a music ed major.

Garfield membership was very young in 71. I sometimes wonder how good we might have been in 72 if George had remained on drums and Ironlips had remained on horn. We would not have lost the drumline for sure.

With all due respect, as section leader with basically zero percussion staff on tour, I feel that our entirely new snare line and the rest of the battery held their own quite well with Fred's percussion book. I once saw some recaps on soundmachine or elsewhere indicating that percussion in prelims recap was in the middle of the pack.

[ironlips]

16 minutes ago, denverjohn said:

With all due respect, as section leader with basically zero percussion staff on tour, I feel that our entirely new snare line and the rest of the battery held their own quite well with Fred's percussion book. I once saw some recaps on soundmachine or elsewhere indicating that percussion in prelims recap was in the middle of the pack.

I don't think Mike is dissing Fred. He's mocking himself for missing the opportunity to learn directly from him.

Fred had just come East to take the job at Bergenfield High. His credentials and credibility were stratospheric. His career surpassed even those, as everyone knows.

With their deep understanding of both rudimental and "legitimate" percussion, and their extraordinary pedagogical chops, Freddy, Shellmer, and Tuthill moved drum corps to it's next (much more musical) level, paving the way for youngsters like Poole, Aungst, and Hardimon. (Sounds like a law firm, no?)

[MikeD]

16 minutes ago, denverjohn said:

With all due respect, as section leader with basically zero percussion staff on tour, I feel that our entirely new snare line and the rest of the battery held their own quite well with Fred's percussion book. I once saw some recaps on soundmachine or elsewhere indicating that percussion in prelims recap was in the middle of the pack.

Oh, what we ended up with was great, especially with a new snare line, as you said. Sorry if I implied otherwise.  I still think if the exodus had not happened after 71, both staff and members, we might have been even better in 72. I mean, I came back in February 72, and with zero horn training I was one of the better 3rd baritones. 😀

Without the overtime penalty at prelims, we would have made finals, in actually 10th. Our staff really hurt us late season, adding and adding without removing anything, so we had a huge overtime penalty. You could tell that we were not the staff priority. Oh well...the show was actually amazing. "No More War" theme. 

[MikeD]

12 minutes ago, ironlips said:

I don't think Mike is dissing Fred. He's mocking himself for missing the opportunity to learn directly from him.

Fred had just come East to take the job at Bergenfield High. His credentials and credibility were stratospheric. His career surpassed even those, as everyone knows.

With their deep understanding of both rudimental and "legitimate" percussion, and their extraordinary pedagogical chops, Freddy, Shellmer, and Tuthill moved drum corps to it's next (much more musical) level, paving the way for youngsters like Poole, Aungst, and Hardimon. (Sounds like a law firm, no?)

Absolutely! 

Don Angelica was personnel director of the Bergenfield school system at the time, and he used that to hire people all the time. Hiring Fred was, of course, a no brainer. He was a great teacher and a wonderful person, as I found out later. 

Those three percussionists was amazing. I used to walk to the Robin Hood Inn near Montclair State, where I went to college, to see George play drums in a great jazz trio. Good times! He also brought me in to work with the Glen Ridge marching band, where your brass assistant Larry Schilings was band director. I taught them in 71, 72 and 73, as it was an easy bus ride from Montclair State to Glen Ridge. I also worked with his concert band percussionists, and I got to play some of the harder mallet parts his kids just could not play.

[Jeff Ream]

3 hours ago, ironlips said:

I don't think Mike is dissing Fred. He's mocking himself for missing the opportunity to learn directly from him.

Fred had just come East to take the job at Bergenfield High. His credentials and credibility were stratospheric. His career surpassed even those, as everyone knows.

With their deep understanding of both rudimental and "legitimate" percussion, and their extraordinary pedagogical chops, Freddy, Shellmer, and Tuthill moved drum corps to it's next (much more musical) level, paving the way for youngsters like Poole, Aungst, and Hardimon. (Sounds like a law firm, no?)

when your flamacues need musicality, call Poole and Aungst and Hardimon at 888-CAN-FLAM!!!