From: drapeau@oglala.Stanford.EDU (George Drapeau)
Subject: Re: A Comment About Zingali & "Two-Seven" in 1980
Organization: Libraries and Information Resources, Stanford University
	<1992Sep13.045538.5548@vela.acs.oakland.edu>
	<DRAPEAU.92Sep12234533@oglala.Stanford.EDU>
	<1992Sep14.025349.6434@vela.acs.oakland.edu>
Date: 13 Sep 92 22:28:23

Hey Folks,

If this public stuff is wasting your bandwidth, send me (and Brad,
too, I suppose) a private mail message saying it bothers you and I'll
reply via mail instead of news.

In article <1992Sep14.025349.6434@vela.acs.oakland.edu> bfhalls@vela.acs.oakland.edu (HALLS BRADLEY F) writes:

   I know exactly what you mean about the roll quality. The really amazing
   thing is not only were the individual segments just about perfect, but
   their sense of ensemble timing and unity was uncanny. They must have
   been *psychic*. I heard that the guy that really made those lines clean
   was Curt Moore. Are you familiar with that name? I have never met him.

I know about Curt but not too much.  He was one of the snares in the
Rob Carson days.  I don't know anything about how good he was as an
instructor, though.  But if 1980 is his portfolio, he must be pretty
good.  I thought Curt took over for Bob Kalkofen; later Bob K. came
back (as you mentioned), but I'm not sure why.

   We used to talk to him after a lot of shows. Suffice it to say that I
   wasn't really surprised when he left for BD in '86. I don't think he
   got along with Bob Kalkaufen (sp?) very well.

Yeah, I don't know who really *did* like Bob K.  He went over the edge
as far as instruction goes.  I remember one day in Minnesota, watching
the battery rehearse under his direction (I had the extra time
because, you know, we pit folks are clean in early July 8-) ).  I
remember that the drum line was playing pretty darned clean by then,
so Bob decided he was going to work on attacks, but with no preset
metronome marking.  In other words, he would tell the drummers to
attack at his direction; he'd raise his hands, and when he brought his
hands down the battery was supposed to play a single note, in perfect
unison.  I don't know how they were supposed to do that (directing an
attack for a unit so precisely tuned as a drumline is crazy, because
the hand motion is so imprecise).  I have no idea why he did that;
it's not like the show had any attacks that came with no warning.  It
was stupid, but I think that it was all Bob K. could think of to do.
It looked to me that it lowered the morale of the battery.  I felt
sorry for them.

   Did you have a guy in the pit named David Polk your year? He was in
   the pit at Phantom, and really took a lot of undeserved abuse there.

You bet; Dave-man was a really cool guy.  During a show in Dallas, we
practiced at a high school in Mesquite, where Dave lived.  His family
had the pit over for a barbecue.

I posted a message earlier this week about mallet percussion
technique; in it I said that I believe Dave was the best percussionist
in the pit.  I loved watching him play every instrument.  When I met
him and found out he was Phantom's tympanist in '83, I started teasing
him about it.  I loved Phantom's show that year, musically, but we
couldn't let Dave get a big head, you know.  We used to say amongst
ourselves that if only Phantom had gotten somebody who knew how to
play tympani, maybe they'd place better.

Dave's a good guy and a great technician.

   So what was the reaction when you guys found out?
   You must have thought we were really panicking. (Which we were. It
   was right around then that the drums burned up, as if we didn't have
   enough other problems. What a summer!) It really is a testiment to
   the guys in the line that we came through all the adversity, though.

Yeah, I remember thinking that you guys were panicked.  I also
remember a general feeling of vague disgust (there was a bit of
high-horsemanship: "Man, that just shows that they do drumcorps to
win; Santa Clara isn't that way, we do drumcorps to do our best."  You
know, that kind of attitude.)  I also remember that it felt bad to
hear you won drums, partly because there was that memory of dropping
two snares (but hey, it worked, didn't it?  I guess that's where the
sting was).  But then again, I heard from our own snares that they
didn't necessarily play their best show.  Wait, that sounds bad.  I
don't mean to imply that BD won drums only because SCV choked; I'm
just saying that it hurt to hear that the snare line didn't play as
well as possible.  It hurt mostly because you could see it coming; Tim
Griffin hurt his leg pretty badly during Finals week, screwing around
when he shouldn't have been.  There was some really stupid stuff
happening that week (in the snares, anyway), and I can't really
explain it.  Too many rim shots to the head, maybe.  I don't know.

Hey, good to talk to you.  While we're reminiscing, do you have any
opinions on the best drumlines you've ever seen/played in/heard, both
in '85 and other years?  I'd be interested in what impressed you, and
why.  I don't suppose you'd pay much attention to pit percussion, but
if you do, I'd love to hear about it.

	George
--
______________________________________________________________________________
George D. Drapeau			Internet: drapeau@sioux.stanford.edu
Libraries and Information Resources
Stanford University
Newsgroups: alt.drumcorps