hype of the week: 1979 blue stars

Admission: I loved Chuck Mangione when I was a teenager.

It's true. Chuck played a mean flugelhorn and provided the pageantry arts (marching band and drum corps) with some great material to turn into field shows in the late 70's and early 80's. And before you argue and say that the material was sometimes misplaced in an arena that was still struggling against its military roots, check out this old-school offering from the Blue Stars at the 1979 DCI Championship Finals, "Children of Sanchez". Dig the super-clean drumming throughout! Also note that, in spite of lesser instruments (those earlier two-valved bugles were notorious for intonation troubles), the hornline puts out a great sound here, tight and pretty full-bodied. Those "cracks" at 1:09 are gun shots from a starter's pistol, to signal the minimum time limit and the end of official judging time for the field show. The execution judges will leave the field at this point. (You won't see that at a drum corps show today; they did away with the starters' pistol sometime in the 1980's.)





Hype Of The Week ends next Friday (7/29) with a double-header, because I will be racing at both the OBRA STXC Championships AND the final night of the PIR short-track series.
If you're local, you have three chances left to check out short-track racing in Portland: Monday evening 7/25 at PIR, Saturday morning at Westview HS in beaverton, and Monday evening August 1 at PIR. Hope to see you there!