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JD Shaw Appreciation Society


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I posted in the Regiment thread, and I think we need to discuss the top shows from JD Shaw's illustrious catalog. 

My top 5, as of this second and subject to change at a later second:

1. 2018 SCV. My Body is a Cage was perfection, and I loved the Metropolis closer. 
2. 2016 SCV. The "four seasons" kind of show has been done over and over, but this was a tremendous take on it. Love the last hook to end the closer. 
3. 2011 Regiment. I loved how he melded East of Eden and Mozart. 
4. 2004 Regiment. I don't listen to this show so much, but I think it's expertly arranged. I wish they'd had a better visual product - could've been more competitive (with fewer rewrites that took away from progress elsewhere).
5. 2010 Regiment. It gets a lot of love and deservedly so. Such an effective musical product, and he pulled it all from a lone source.

Edited by kdaddy
apparently ctrl+enter posts prematurely...
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3 hours ago, musicteacher said:

Unheralded is the work he did for the Sunrisers in the three years he wrote for them. He and Paul Rennick were huge factors in getting Sun back into DCA finals. Classy books well suited to the talent.

Hmm, I had no idea about this - what years?

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JD has a huge musical footprint, within and outside of Drum Corps. His work with the Boston Brass is stellar, for example.

For the first Tour of Champions in '04, he composed an opening fanfare and arranged the National Anthem for 150 trumpets, the combined sections of Phantom, Cavaliers, Vanguard, Blue Devils, Madison and Cadets:

https://www.dci.org/news/the-tour-of-champions-an-faq

I was honored to be asked to arrange the show's finale of Sing, Sing, Sing, but JD, who was teaching the combined 400+ brass, had my back. He called from the camp and said, "Hey, this is great. Eighty contras on the opening vamp from the front sideline! But would you mind if I tweaked the baritone parts just a little?"

"H*ll no", says I, "Tweak away".

He did, and it rocked.

Look, if Leonard Bernstein wants to fix the trombone part, what would you do?

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28 minutes ago, ironlips said:

JD has a huge musical footprint, within and outside of Drum Corps. His work with the Boston Brass is stellar, for example.

For the first Tour of Champions in '04, he composed an opening fanfare and arranged the National Anthem for 150 trumpets, the combined sections of Phantom, Cavaliers, Vanguard, Blue Devils, Madison and Cadets:

https://www.dci.org/news/the-tour-of-champions-an-faq

I was honored to be asked to arrange the show's finale of Sing, Sing, Sing, but JD, who was teaching the combined 400+ brass, had my back. He called from the camp and said, "Hey, this is great. Eighty contras on the opening vamp from the front sideline! But would you mind if I tweaked the baritone parts just a little?"

"H*ll no", says I, "Tweak away".

He did, and it rocked.

Look, if Leonard Bernstein wants to fix the trombone part, what would you do?

Fantastic story!

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I’m partial to “On Air”.
 

Not a huge fan of Phillip Glass but 1000 Planes was an incredible opener.

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Jim Prime will always be my favorite arranger. It begins and ends with Prime for me. So naturally, I tend to like shows and arrangers who feature that style or palette of Primes’ brilliant brass arrangements.

I know its likely the opinion of many that Shaw picked up where of Jim Wren left off.  I agree. But there is also a bit of Prime that I hear in Shaw’s arrangements. Its because Shaw always seems to give you, what seems like, a full, masterfully arranged piece. And of course, it doesn’t hurt that his music has been played with both Regiment and Vanguard horn lines that were in yearly contention for “the Ott”, with those arrangements. 

All of this noted, I would like to add my list of favorites to a thread dedicated to this  “Shaw Appreciation Society”. Really there isn’t a show I haven’t enjoyed that he has arranged in DCI. (And now that it was mentioned, I’ll also look at some of the shows from Sunrisers). So out of his large body of work, here is my best of the best list: 

1. 1991 Phantom Regiment member, Mellophone Solo - Nessum Dorma. 
2. 2005 Phantom Regiment - Rhapsody in Blue/ American in Paris. That show is a masterpiece.  I could listen to it in the car all day.  I absolutely love the minor key change he used in the main theme. Low brass and middle voices especially. 
3. 2006 Phantom Regiment- Ave Maria and the ending of the show with the reprised themes. In Ave Maria, Soprano voices picking up baritones on the sideline was a great touch to the arrangement. 
4. 2003 - Phantom Regiment- That year I saw them early in California, and many in the crowd with me were saying after the show how different and majestic the corps sounded. A huge difference  from recent years. As if they hadn’t heard this type of Regiment in quite some time. Especially in the Canon opener and the Maslanka closing piece. 
5. 2008- Phantom Regiment. One of the greatest shows of all time, and I would be anmiss to not mention as a favorite  Also saw them early in California that year, at the Oceanside show. At that time, early season, I remember sitting in the stands and thinking how intense the music was.. 2006 grabs you from the very first note in the opener. But opening with that majestic theme from Spartacus and then into the opener, just wow. I hadn’t seen a show that intense, live, since Vanguard 1999. I left that very early look at the show in 08, amazed. 

I could go on and on, but for brevity I’ll also note all of his recent Vanguard work makes up position 6 and and few more slots. He brought some pieces we never thought we’d hear, as well as some familiar pieces with masterful arrangement, ( Pure Imagination from 2015 comes to mind). 

Greatly looking forward 2023 show with Regiment, especially how the Muse songs are interpreted. 

Edited by Dmlkmen
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1 hour ago, kdaddy said:

Fantastic story!

 

1 hour ago, ironlips said:

JD has a huge musical footprint, within and outside of Drum Corps. His work with the Boston Brass is stellar, for example.

For the first Tour of Champions in '04, he composed an opening fanfare and arranged the National Anthem for 150 trumpets, the combined sections of Phantom, Cavaliers, Vanguard, Blue Devils, Madison and Cadets:

https://www.dci.org/news/the-tour-of-champions-an-faq

I was honored to be asked to arrange the show's finale of Sing, Sing, Sing, but JD, who was teaching the combined 400+ brass, had my back. He called from the camp and said, "Hey, this is great. Eighty contras on the opening vamp from the front sideline! But would you mind if I tweaked the baritone parts just a little?"

"H*ll no", says I, "Tweak away".

He did, and it rocked.

Look, if Leonard Bernstein wants to fix the trombone part, what would you do?

Seconded. What a great story. 
 

I attended the Tour of Champions show at the Rose Bowl. I remember how incredible that piece was hearing it live. 

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