Freelancers

[socalcontra]

Man, do I miss the Freelancers!

[BD2Rings]

I have read this entire thread, and have not seen anyone mention this, so I will:

Bellavia

Am I the only one who misses this?

[charphar]

I have read this entire thread, and have not seen anyone mention this, so I will:

Bellavia

Am I the only one who misses this?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Oh, yeah! "Bellavia"...and all the other Chuck Mangione stuff that seemed to be in vogue back in the day!

Freelancers must have been one of about 5 or 6 corps who did "Bellavia" in '76 or so, huh? Good stuff!

[socalcontra]

You know, I envied them-they ate like kings on tour. While we had zitti, they would have steak (of course, not every night). They always had a different meal for snack-ours was leftovers. They were a great bunch of folks and I had a number of friends over there. I guess being in 8th place "perpetually" kept me from marching there. Even with the Mandarins in Sacto, I still wish they would field a corps again.

[felixh]

I remember a baritone player by the name of Steve Johnson..he also marched with the Bridgemen in 1980 and I guess later unless he aged out...we were close we called each other cousins....you out there Steve?

Edited May 24, 2005 by felixh

[Jared_mello]

Strange that this thread should pop up again.

I was driving into work this morning and was listening to the '91 show. I don't remember how the hornline ranked that year, but wow. I was listening to the  show for the first time without wishing we had articulated something differently, or wishing I hadn't heard a sop frak, somebody suddenly go WAY sharp, or somebody play a one-note solo right in the middle of the "slap section".

This was a very good hornline and a well written brass book. I never realized it! Especially good, were the bari, euph, and contra sections. They had an extremely FAT sound. Not to mention most of them were or are fat today. :P The mellos did some nice work and I won't mention the sops.

Today was the very first time that this show gave me goosebumps and I was completely surprised.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The show gives me goosebumps every time I listen to it. I actually looked up the horn scores myself a few days ago, to be honest. My favorite song was the opener....Dave, don't feel bad about the sops at all. I have to say, that the Freelancers' sop lines, from every year of theirs that I've ever heard, are something I've always admired. You guys ALWAYS had one of the most aggressive sop lines in DCI in all of the competitive years, and if ownership of that position means there's going to be a few fracked notes, then I personally don't mind. I wish the DCI season pass was working again so I could listen to '89 again. That was one of the only Freelancers shows in that era that I hadn't heard, and it was amazing. I love '91 (one of my favorite shows of that year), like '92 (admittedly slightly boring, but with lots of good moments), liked '93 more (surprisingly out of their element, but still a really interesting show), love '90, like '84 (only listened once, and wish I did more), have only heard Emmanuel from '85 but liked that, and '88....that's my favorite Freelancers show ever. The corps always had a very characteristic sound, and I for one loved it.

[torn8o]

You will know who I am in a minute- first let me share some of my memories.

1985 at La Sierra Community Center in Carmichael Ca. right behind my house. I was 11 years old and heard a bunch of drumming coming from what I almost thought was my back yard. Went around the corner and there was this "band" as I called it (bad bad bad slaps wrist now). I played in a Community youth band at the time and was first chair trumpet in my elementary school district honor band and had both trumpet and percussin chops (there is your first clue who I am). I watched 3 snaredrummers do about 7 laps around the track playing rolls (OMG). When they took a break I intruduced myself. Told them I played trumpet and percussion and Tom Slabaugh (can't remember the spelling) handed me his sticks. "He holds traditional?" he said to one of the other drummers under his breath (I had learned that in youth band because we had a director that swore that everyone should learn that grip). They seemed pretty impressed and said something along the lines of "dude, get him on the bus" (11 years old and I'm thinking great these guys want to kidnap me now and give me Koolaid, THAT'S why I'm not supposed to talk to strangers. Really I think I DID get a little nervous cause I didn't know WHAT they were talking about. All I heard was the word "BUS"). Then, being up to more no good, I found the hornline and played the same game with the sops. I met Mike Geech for the first time and he gave me his horn and when I played above a high C and he said "YO NOT SO MUCH PRESSURE!" but he was impressed anyway. I was such a little snot!

So that's memory number 1- Any guesses yet?

So I started investigating this "drum corps thing". Got a hold of a bunch of videos and records (for those of you youngins, that's like a big black CD). Set my sights on wanting to do it. In 1987 I talked my mom into taking me to a rehearsal to join (at age 13). Mike Geech remembered me, handed me a horn and I'll tell ya what, they were ready to go with me and so was I. Then, John Zimney and my mom talked, decision- let's wait and do 88. Season is starting in two weeks and it will be to much for him to handle so soon and so young.

And the rest is known history.

1988- Soprano (split between 2nd and 3rd part)

1989- upper lead

1990- lead soloist

1991- lead soloist

1992- lead soloist

1993- TOTALLY HATED BY THE ENTIRE CORPS FOR GOING TO BLUE DEVILS (except for Augie, Clint and Carl Sarf who were usually the more forgiving ones) ;)

Scott Steward

Edited June 4, 2005 by torn8o

[byline]

I don't have any specific memories I can recall, but I do have some photos:

This is from the back stands at the Rockford show in 1978:

And these are a few guard pictures I always liked from Drum Corps World:

Edited January 1, 2008 by byline

[jwscv87]

I loved the Freelancers as a kid (still do). I tend to favor the shows I grew up with - early to mid 80s. Nobody performed a classic pop ballad like the Freelancers. My favorite show had to be the TOP show in 84.

My favorite memory was as a member of the Marauders. In 84 we were fortunate enough to be able to arc up intermixed with the Freelancers and play through some warmups under the direction of one of the Zimny's (John?). I was in a bit of awe, standing in the horn arc in the middle of the Freelancer lead bari section.

[Jay B]

I loved the 1977 show. I don't know that it scored well, but it was top 12 and the music book was entertaining. I am probably one of the few people that would put their uniform on my favorites list. Dark gray jacket, black pants, and red plum/sash. There was just something about it. As I recall they had a killer 11 man snare line.