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While DCA is great with Donnie in it, think of how much better it would be if BOTH Donnie and Frank were in it at the same time! I could see a tie for the showmanship award! You both are incredible muscians!!

Now thats a line I would wanna play in!! HAHAHAHA

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There were in for many years at the same time. Just different uniforms :)

ahhh, the Penguin Walk vs the Ponzo shuffle

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Party was awesome and the Cabs Latin Express mini corps debutted. Gordito is my new hero!!! If they add some more baritones and clean it up some, they will be a fun group to see added to the Friday night show at DCA.

Sorry for the late post to this thread.

Thank you Donnie,

Your evaluation is dead on. We were missing two baris, the Latin section and our keyboards. We have only been together for about eight rehearsals, so there is still more work to be done. This was our second performance and we still are getting our style together. Gordito and Christian are great trumpet players along with all of the musicians who have been working hard to make this group a success.

I wish Prime Time could have been there. It would have been fun to see another group in action.

Again sorry for the late post people.....

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You guys should get my good friend Eddie G. to play bari with you guys like the old days.

Donny

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We actually have 12 to 15 members in Sky Alumni who make the trip every other weekend and we all love it. As for size, we were missing several brass including contra so we should be as large or larger than last year. It has been a fun ride.

I am so glad I was invited to go with Erie to this show! That was the most fun I have had in years, playing and hanging out with good drum corps people.

I saw and heard some stuff, but not the whole show...St.Joe's has gotten over a slow winter start to be the entertaining corps that they usually are. Ace is always the man...and Brad DeWall was knocking the high ones out. They were really good and enjoyable.

Park City was loud!!! And actually quite good in an alumni way. It was cool seeing Mr. Bradley, Mr Glovna, and Mr. Findley back into performing!!! Genero and Luddee throwback arrangements were awesome..Rhapsody in Blue, Stormy Weather et al...

Now, I played with Erie and had a ball. Playing with those leads made me kick it up a notch. Jokes were made about me and Nick on the same stage, but that is actually how I got the job at Erie, by breaking Nick's chops on DCP...LOL. Erie has a very good drum line for alumni standards for sure. And while assisting Jeff in warming up the hornline...I note that if they took it seriously they could actually compete in DCA brass wise...a good bunch of people...thanks Gary Matczak.

Cabs Alumni was great as usual. Frank nailed his stuff and Larry Kirchner was a great replacement conductor. His charts are some of the greatest arrangements in drum corps history and stand the test of time. He is an arranger I studied when I was trying to learn how to do this. Some new stuff was received well. Cuban Pete I think was one of the new ones and the trio work was really cool.

Sky Alumni was extremely loud and powerful, and the 14 snares were quite a sight. The lead sops still have that sound I waited to hear on Labor Day as a kid. They had a lot more horns than I thought they would have. The Albany connection is back with Sky and Hank Staab was playing lead too. Dreitzer's charts...again the sound that I studied to find out how he got that sound. Now I remember that the leads were written in an extreme range, and these guys were nailing it. John Grass has always been one of mt heroes on soprano, and he played well on his "dizzy" horn. Conga is a a good dancer!!!

Cabs field corps will be in the hunt in September if I know anything about DCA corps. From the beginning of the walk on performed by the percussion battery, I could tell that Gary Gill wasnt lying to me about this being one of his most talented lines he has ever had. They played clean beats already in April. The horn line is playing very musically, with great soloists, and very deep in the lead trumpet line. Adam, Gordito, Jon, et al were getting the job done very well. The solost in concerto did a great job as well...a lot like the BLAST version. Adam POUNDED his note at the end, I think a trumpet double B.

I have questioned some of the brass arranging in the last few years, but NOT this year. Concerto is a GREAT arrangement, and Malaga is surprisingly well written. It is perhaps the best arrangement I have heard of the chart done by many good corps. If the visual arranging is as good as the brass and percussion arranging, the Cabs could very well be back in the hunt for another title shot.

Combined Cabs will make your ears bleed. It was funny watching the field corps holding their 3rd valves down to put the horns in G.

Party was awesome and the Cabs Latin Express mini corps debutted. Gordito is my new hero!!! If they add some more baritones and clean it up some, they will be a fun group to see added to the Friday night show at DCA.

Donny

PS...I was called a whore. I dont think I am. Then I was asked how many uniforms I have. I cannot help the fact that People call me to arrange for their corps and teach them. If I get a chance to play as well, I enjoy it. It so happens that The Erie Thunderbirds called me to do some stuff and I complied. I am glad that I did. I had a BLAST playing with Jeff, Nick, Dr. Joe Allen, Mike S. Mike H. Young Dan and the rest of the guys.

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