Best Baritone Soloists

[DDANN]

I don't know John Simpson but Billy Hightower (St. Catharines Queensmen) 1961 - 62 was the best I've ever heard and I've been to DCI Finals in 1974 and after that every year since Montreal in 1981. Billy was THE BEST!!!

Eddie Irwin.

Jerome Kimbrough.

I agree Jerome is a great player. I know 'cause I play beside him at least once a month. So as soon as I hear his version of Black Bottom (a la Billy Hightower, 1962) maybe I'll slip him up to the top of my list.

What do you say, Jerome? Maybe an encore at the VFW afer the T.O.S. on Saturday?

[Dennis Argul]

I must add Dennis Argul. You are one of my heros. You were always one of the best horn players that I've ever been around. An absolute beast.

The 1980 Bridgemen Bari line was phenomenal. No Bari solos in that show, but you guys were the best section of that horn line, in my opinion. Thunder & Blazes, Big Noise, In the Stone. Nothing was watered down for that bari line, and you were the line sergent, if I remember correctly.

Wow. You, Brian Law, and others were the real deal. Just think if Sully (David Sullivan, Bari soloist from the 1978 North Star) played in that bari line instead of the flugel line with the likes of me (because he was late coming on board for the season). Also, imagine if Jerome came up that year (he was new to DC and only played for like 1.5 or 2 years at that point - but he was a real animal also - amazing). Wow, what a horn section. You guys were beast.

C Clay

Clarence,

Thanks man....the check is in the mail! That line was great and it was a blast playing that show with those players!

But, I ain't no soloist. That goes to the guys that stepped out there and laid it on the line all on their lonesome. I had some moments in 1982 Bush, but that was very different than my playing with the Bridgemen. Eddie and Jerome took bari solos to another level.

I remember listening to a judges tape about Jerome, who started the show off with a solo and the judge says on the tape "well, if you are going to have the courage to start off with a bari solo, that's the guy you want playing it! Wow!"

Nuff' said!

Peace,

Dennis

[BayonneBum]

Clarence,

Thanks man....the check is in the mail! That line was great and it was a blast playing that show with those players!

But, I ain't no soloist. That goes to the guys that stepped out there and laid it on the line all on their lonesome. I had some moments in 1982 Bush, but that was very different than my playing with the Bridgemen. Eddie and Jerome took bari solos to another level.

I remember listening to a judges tape about Jerome, who started the show off with a solo and the judge says on the tape "well, if you are going to have the courage to start off with a bari solo, that's the guy you want playing it! Wow!"

Nuff' said!

I hear ya, Dennis. It probably does require a certain personal quality (fearlessness; arrogance, maybe - like a great ball player??) to be a really good soloist. I don't know, just guessing. But to be center stage at DCI/DCA finals is more than my heart could take, I do know that.

I've been away from the activity for too long. I have to get a recording of Jerome's solo work with Bush.

I also have to get recordings of your solo work there (I hear you wrote their horn book this year - you are the man). I'll see if I can get both recordings from Artie.

See you soon at your place (is it the Art Factory??) I know it's across from the YMCA on Ave. E, so I know where to go. Good luck with all your endeavors. But you really don't need luck. You ozooze success.

Peace Man.

[3rd_Star_Brigade]

Phantom Regiment I&E Solo 1989 James Hosmer

Edited July 20, 2007 by 3rd_Star_Brigade

[Bob Murphy]

John Simpson and Billy HIghtower are outstanding talents. Individually they are as good as, or better then, anyone who's ever lifted a leg on a drum corps field. Together they were incomparable.

Don't hold me to a specific date, but sometime during the winter of 1962 or 1963, John and Bill played a duet during an intermission, on stage, at an individual contest. Keep in mind that these guys were playing on GD horns with ring slides. The piece they played was Vivaldi's Concerto for Two Trumpets. They absolutely wailed on it! The stopped the show cold. They learned the piece that afternoon.

BTW-Billy's regular individual piece was Cugat's version of "Tico, Tico". Try that on your three valve some time.

Simpson is probably best known for his "Rhapsody in Blue". But when he got tired of that he started competing with Haydn's Trumpet Concert. He played it in "C", flawlessly.

Edited July 6, 2007 by Bob Murphy

[McDuffy]

John Simpson without a doubt.

McD

[ffernbus3]

John Simpson was, indeed, my idol all through the early and mid-60s while I was competing in bari individuals here in California.

RON HOUSLEY

[leadsop97]

Gennevieve (sp?) from the Syracuse Brigadiers. amazing. no other word can describe her.

There was a soloist in 2005-06?, I dunno when really, from Spirit? who was really amazing too.

Baritone soloist Madison 99. One of the nastiest lip trills on the baritone I've heard.

cadets Baritone soloist the past however many years he's been marching and has had a solo.

[G-horns]

John Simpson and Billy HIghtower are outstanding talents. ..... Keep in mind that these guys were playing on GD horns with ring slides.

That's why you can't compare eras. The equipment back then was primitive, some would say "junk", as compared to today's horns.

[Cabstuba04]

Kent Pennell Hawthorne Caballeros