D. Gibbs: Drum Corps in Exhibition
Supertbone
eventually being noncompetative performing units
http://www.bluedevils.org/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=3146
...The idea of going exhibition has been proposed by The Cadets for
the last 8 or so years. I have been opposed to it for only one reason.
If The Cadets get an opportunity to work outside the bounds of the
rules, The Blue Devils would also like that opportunity if we so
choose. Well this past year the issue was raised again, and the DCI
BOD decided that they would consider the possibility of a number of
corps going exhibition. Two of them could be The Cadets and BD.
Now .. Are we going exhibition this year. NO. Would we consider
experimenting with equipment outside the current rules in the future
... Yes. Let's just picture only one possible opportunity. What
musical piece of equipment are we really missing if we play Jazz ala
Duke Ellington, Count Basie, etc ???
Jimmy Cricket
I KNOW!!!!!!
Piano? Saxophone? String Bass? Slide Trombone? Maybe even some clarinet
would be nice?
But wait, something's wrong...those are bugl....PUNCH!...hey! what are
y....KICK! I was j.....TACKLE!!! (muffled mumbling, glass shattering)
PUNCH, PUNCH, PUNCH.........(twist, CRACK!!!!!)
(echo of foot steps, satisfied wiping of dust off hands.....)
"Supertbone" <jonath...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:470cd8.011120...@posting.google.com...
Chuck
I concentrate on only one portion of this post in response: Missing
essential instruments if I were wanting authentic jazz sounds on a football
field:
1) Saxophones - Alto, Tenor, Bari (no need for soprano saxes - rarely a
color used by Basie or Ellington, though much more popular once Wayne
Shorter and John Coltrane started playing the instrument in the 60's)
2) Bass Trombone - (baritones can possibly cover the parts of a regular
tenor trombone, though with a different timbre and less attitude on
glissandos, etc. -- but we do not have a Bass Trombone voice in today's drum
corps instrumentation -- closest thing would have been the old D.E.G small
bore contras that Spirit played in 1980.)
3) Upright Acoustic Bass - sure, contras/tubas can cover a walking bass
line, but not like the pizzicato effects and delicacy of a master bass
player. Ray Brown, Ron Carter, or Chubby Jackson on contra? Not a good
trade-off. . . )
4) Piano - we don't have this timbre anywhere in our instrumentation.
5) Common woodwind doubling instruments: Clarinet, Flute, Bass Clarinet.
Can't play Ellington the way he wrote it without having these colors
available.
6) Acoustic Guitar - Basie without Freddy Green????
These suggestions are just in answer to the question presented about
essential instrumentation of a jazz band.
Can we play jazz without them on the football field? Sure, we do it every
year. No problem. Do we make some sacrifices as a result of not using the
instruments listed above? Depends on your point of view. Would I love to
have saxophones for the upcoming Crossmen show this year? You bet! Will I
force it to become a rule? No. . . but I'll take the flugel horns!
Food for thought -- just don't mistake my leg for a drumstick.
:-)
Chuck Naffier
Ken Norman
ala Duke Ellington, Count Basie, etc ???"
Duke Ellington and Count Basie
Chuck
:-)
Chuck
"Ken Norman" <kno...@rootcom.net> wrote in message
news:e79b6362.01112...@posting.google.com...
DRUMAJOR
> we play Jazz ala Duke Ellington, Count Basie, etc ???"
>
>
> Duke Ellington and Count Basie
Sure beats what I was thinking. ;-) Further on down the list would
be the intimacy and acoustic properties of a theater or ballroom.
Mike D.
> "What musical piece of equipment are we really missing if we play Jazz
> ala Duke Ellington, Count Basie, etc ???"
>
>
> Duke Ellington and Count Basie
That's definitely the winner!!!
:-)
Mike
Scott Gordon
: What musical piece of equipment are we really missing if we play Jazz ala
: Duke Ellington, Count Basie, etc ???
The notion that the genius of Duke, Count, and jazz in general is somehow
inexorably tied to the particular instruments that were used, misses the
point of jazz. Great jazz has been played on every instrument imaginable.
Lousy jazz has also been played on traditional instruments. To say that
you need different instruments to play great jazz is, in my opinion, a
cop-out and belies the great BD corps of the 70s and 80s, that really
did play great jazz. It's not what you do, it's the way that'cha do it.
Scott