Drum Corps in New Orleans.

[Shutta Bug]

GNODCA (Echoes Drum & Bugle Corps) Mardi Gras 2006

Best of luck to you guys and the drums look great!!! :)

[mgailp]

Thanks so much for letting me 'crash' your parade gig. It was a lot of fun getting to meet other drum corps folks & learning more about the area--Nikki is a great tour-guide. I hope your rebuilding efforts continue to meet with success!

Glad to have had you, hope to see ya again!

[Jumpin2drums]

Jen wrote:

That would be me & the state is Pennsylvania.

Thanks Jen. So that would make participation from the great states of Pennsylvania, Florida, California, and Texas. Everyone's participation from near and far is greatly appreciated. We hope to see you again, and anyone who wants to come from out of town to join us next year.

Gary wrote:

Are those TDR snares?,................who did all the work on the drums?,.................Bass drums look cool!,............."oh my achin" back" no more!

Yes, those are TDR snare drums (10 to be exact, but only five used this year, which leaves enough snares available for anyone coming from out of town to march the parade, or fuller participation by members we have "on paper"). Those drums were bought by the second snare from the right (without the glasses) out of his own pocket off eBay. This GNODCA member snare drummer used his own tools and hands to cut, recover, repair, and refurbish the TDR snare drums, and also cut the rudimental bass drums in the spirit of the Hurley-Vogel (HV) model snares produced by Lugwig at one point in the past. They really do sound sweet to the ears, and much louder than the snares (tin cans [in my opinion]) played now-a-days. Our individual members, have their own high tension snares bought mostly off eBay, of varying models and colors (covered for performances) that were used the last two years, but we love the return of a true snare sound, not to mention that we now look uniform without drum covers, and the sound carries better also on those rudimental basses you see from the prior link to the pic.

Side Note:

Marty Hurley (most famous as former Phantom Regiment percussion/drum caption head), who lives here in New Orleans, has brought New Orleans excellence in rudimental drumming from New Jersey in the early 70's, as Marty, and I presume his brother also, Jimmy, were taught up north by Bobby Thompson.

We still have to borrow the rest of the battery instruments as needed from a couple of high schools, whose band directors are old corps alumni on the board of our organization. Silks are made by hand, we have a screen printer in our organization that helped us with the creation and provision of our shirts at cost, and some are putting money out of their own pockets to meet needs for bugles also. After we have enough decent equipment, and written performance music for at least a mini-show production, then maybe we can possibly keep the interest of some younger members who come out from time to time with their vision of drum corps being only what they know from the broadcasting of DCI finals on TV.

Edited March 22, 2006 by Jumpin2drums

[Jumpin2drums]

...

Edited September 15, 2006 by Jumpin2drums

[Jumpin2drums]

GNODCA's only performance unit, Echoes of New Orleans, is gearing up again for next year's Mardi Gras parade in February 2007, with our new rehearsal schedule, GNODCA.org, and everyone from anywhere is invited to come and participate in the 7 mile Mardi Gras parade with us again, or just drop in for one rehearsal if you're passing through.

As for what is new for our drum corps association, we are attempting the formation of a new more active small performance unit under the GNODCA umbrella. In our first year (maybe two), we'll be playing the old jazz sounds of New Orleans (how fitting). The thought is that there are not many corps that can play the music that there city is known for, so we should proudly take advantage of that? That new unit should hopefully get off the ground in the coming weeks, if we indeed have the necessary minimal level of participation. Hopefully, this group will be able to venture outside of the New Orleans area within the next couple of years, but we have many obstacles to overcome to accomplish that.

Edited September 15, 2006 by Jumpin2drums

[ravedodger]

Wow! I forgot about this thread.

I'm the non-local sop player that had local fans at the parade.

I had a blast last year at the parade. I even have Watermelon Man stuck in my head still. I still appreciate the warm welcome I received.

I'm hoping I'll make the Mardi Gras parade next year.

[MHSmirage]

Rehearsals start up once a month starting next week. I'm so excited. I marched with GNODCA last year and had a blast. Come and see what we are about!

Laissez les bons temps rouler!!!!

[LSU GRAD 82]

This is my first time visiting Drum Corps Planet, so pardon me if I am not placing in the proper section.

I am from New Orleans, LA. I have been in Valley Forge, PA at my company's disaster recovery site. The last time I was this far north was when I was instructing the drum line for the Bleu Raeders Drum Corps in 1979/80. I joined drum corps with the Southern Rebels at 15 in 1974 in New Orleans. We have had a rich junior drum and bugle corps history over the decades in New Orleans. Many of our local junior drum corps members over the years have peformed in the top DCI drum corps. For myself, I have never seen a DCA show, but have heard of the many famous senior corps from up in the notheast around these parts. I am sorry to have arrived a month or so too late to enjoy some great drum corps rehearsals and competitions in this area.

For the last couple of years, a number of my fellow New Orleanian Drum Corps alumni have made steps, beginning with nothing but an idea, to bring back the drum corps experience to New Orleans, starting with no funding using what old bugles could be found from the last junior corps that existed in New Orleans, purchasing old bugles and drums off eBay with our personal individual funds, and covering individual's various drums for uniformity sake, trying to gather old bugle scores and write new ones, making silks for flags, using many indivudal pickup trucks to move equipment as needed, and we were making some headway, achieving a unit of around 65 or so to march in Mardi Gras parades the last two years under the organizational unit GNODCA, Greater New Orleans Drum Corps Association (www.gnodca.org), until the recent disaster struck.

I will be returning to New Orleans next week to travel and work in Baton Rouge, LA, luckily having one of the few houses on the west side of the New Orleans metropolitan area that did not get water inside the house, and not too much damage to my roof, though there was barely a house left without some degree of damage requiring repair if not demolishing. At the moment we are all scattered around the country, but are slowly making our way back to New Orleans.

I am only a performing member of our organization, and not anyone who is in a position to officially speak on the behalf of the organization, but it is my hope in making this post that I can find GNODCA help in it's efforts to rebuild drum corps in New Orleans once again, while we are rebuilding New Orleans itself. If there is anyone in the drum corps community who can provide us assistance in any way at all, or just provide suggestions that we will find helpful to gather needed equipment that we need to bring back the sounds of drum and bugle corps to New Orleans and beyond, it would truly be greatly appreciated. Please visit our site at www.gnodca.org.

I hope someday to visit back up this way, and experience the DCA experience that I've only heard about since age 15, and hopefully even participate as a performing member in that experience with my fellow DCA corps members from New Orleans.

Thank you.

HEY JUMPIN, SHOOT ME AN E-MAIL THROUGH THE SITE. I WAS AT L.S.U. IN 79 AND 80. TWO OF OUR MEMBERS IN THE LINE WERE BLEU RAEDERS. (FRED MOOLEKAMP, CLAYTON KAUL) WE STARTED USING THE RAEDERS STREET BEAT IN 77 OR 78. I WILL BE MOVING FROM HOUSTON IN EARLY 07 TO EITHER BR OR PENSACOLA, FLORIDA. IF I WIND UP IN BR, I'D LIKE TO GET INVOLVED IN THE NEW ORLEANS CORPS.........

[LSU GRAD 82]

Jen wrote:

Thanks Jen. So that would make participation from the great states of Pennsylvania, Florida, California, and Texas. Everyone's participation from near and far is greatly appreciated. We hope to see you again, and anyone who wants to come from out of town to join us next year.

Gary wrote:

Yes, those are TDR snare drums (10 to be exact, but only five used this year, which leaves enough snares available for anyone coming from out of town to march the parade, or fuller participation by members we have "on paper"). Those drums were bought by the second snare from the right (without the glasses) out of his own pocket off eBay. This GNODCA member snare drummer used his own tools and hands to cut, recover, repair, and refurbish the TDR snare drums, and also cut the rudimental bass drums in the spirit of the Hurley-Vogel (HV) model snares produced by Lugwig at one point in the past. They really do sound sweet to the ears, and much louder than the snares (tin cans [in my opinion]) played now-a-days. Our individual members, have their own high tension snares bought mostly off eBay, of varying models and colors (covered for performances) that were used the last two years, but we love the return of a true snare sound, not to mention that we now look uniform without drum covers, and the sound carries better also on those rudimental basses you see from the prior link to the pic.

Side Note:

Marty Hurley (most famous as former Phantom Regiment percussion/drum caption head), who lives here in New Orleans, has brought New Orleans excellence in rudimental drumming from New Jersey in the early 70's, as Marty, and I presume his brother also, Jimmy, were taught up north by Bobby Thompson.

We still have to borrow the rest of the battery instruments as needed from a couple of high schools, whose band directors are old corps alumni on the board of our organization. Silks are made by hand, we have a screen printer in our organization that helped us with the creation and provision of our shirts at cost, and some are putting money out of their own pockets to meet needs for bugles also. After we have enough decent equipment, and written performance music for at least a mini-show production, then maybe we can possibly keep the interest of some younger members who come out from time to time with their vision of drum corps being only what they know from the broadcasting of DCI finals on TV.

WE USED THOSE SPLIT SHELL SNARES AT L.S.U. BACK IN THE LATE 70'S-EARLY 80'S. WE USED THE ONES FROM LUDWIG. IF MY MEMORY SERVES ME, WEREN'T THOSE SPLIT SHELLS DESIGNED BY MARTY HURLEY? ( SP )