Drum and Bugle Corps

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(www.marines.mil)

MARINE BARRACKS WASHINGTON, Washington D.C.(Jan.19) — Morning colors started the day on a historical note here at Marine Barracks Washington, Jan. 19. Sgt. Clint Owens of Arlington, Va., rang the bell and sounded the familiar tune using a valveless bugle – the first time the United States Marine Drum and Bugle Corps has used this traditional type of horn since after the Korean War.

“We’ve reinstated these straight bugles for the same reason we still fly the 1801 flag at Evening Parades here at the ‘Oldest Post of the Corps,’” said Chief Warrant Officer Brian Dix, D&B director. “The Marine Corps boasts tradition. This is our heritage, and it represents where we have come from.”

Owens, who auditioned for the honor, said it was a priviledge to be the Marine chosen to reinstate this tradition.

“I love playing on that horn,” said the soprano bugler. “The sound is completely determined on how fast you blow the air through it and the movement of your lips. It’s loud; it looks cool, and it takes us back to the old days.”

(www.bergen.com)

HAWTHORNE – Civil War-style drumming enthusiasts threw a surprise party Saturday afternoon for percussion icon John S. Pratt at St. Clement’s Episcopal Church.

“He’s the Mick Jagger of rudimental drumming!” someone shouted after Pratt, who turned 75 Friday, entered the room, in a pink jacket and slicked-back hair.

Pratt’s eyes welled up with tears as he registered the 50-odd drumming enthusiasts who had come to pay tribute to the man who has popularized the traditional style of drumming. These drummers came from nearby and from as far away as Arizona and Canada. Pratt had been fooled to believe that the church needed to photograph him that day for its records.

Pratt’s 1959 music book “14 Modern Contest Solos for Snare Drum” is still the bible for high school and college drumming instructors, said Mark Reilly, a drummer with the U.S. military band that plays for the White House and at presidential inaugurations.

Many at the party gushed over Pratt’s role in popularizing the old style of drumming with his easy-to-read music books, as well as his virtuoso status as a drummer.

“He’s about the best marching drummer I ever heard,” said Frank Bourke, who rat-tat-tatted alongside Pratt with the Drum and Bugle Corps of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, known as the “Hellcats,” from 1950 to 1966. Bourke said he hadn’t seen Pratt in four decades.

Pratt, a 37-year Hawthorne resident, took a position onstage, alongside a dozen drummers beating replicas of Civil War-style drums, and began calling the shots.

“Crazy Army?” he queried, with a sly smile, to the other drummers on the stage, in reference to a rhythm he invented that injects syncopation into a classic snare drum beat known as “The Army 2-4.”

Although his hands are now arthritic, he executed the percussive rhythms with ease. You can tell he’s a legendary “rudimentary drummer,” or Civil War-style drummer, just from the way he picks his sticks up, Reilly said.

Pratt is most famous for his music books and for leading West Point’s drum corps for more than a decade. But the musical groundbreaker also made his mark at Hackensack High School, where he taught English for more than two decades. Pratt retired in 1995.

“You warmed the cockles of my heart. I’m perspiring, and it isn’t from the drumming,” he told the crowd.

(www.dallasvoice.com)

Did you know that North Texas has its own drum and bugle corps? Formed in the summer of 2004 by gay executive director Chris Green, the Frontier Drum & Bugle Corps holds auditions at its open house on Saturday.
Frontier Drum & Bugle Corps’ Chris Green says, “If you’re a former band geek or flag girl, dust off those chops and join the fun.”

Green says about a third of the membership is gay and is open to musicians of all skill levels. Last year, about 55 members marched in the Drum Corps Associates Championships, which were held Sept. 2-4 in Scranton, Pa. Frontier placed 16th in the “open class” competition. For the past two years, Frontier has performed at the Turtle Creek Chorale’s Christmas Concert series. This year, Green hopes to boost membership to 90 members.

Green says most of last year’s horn line hadn’t touched their instruments in five, sometimes 20 years. The group welcomes beginning woodwind players and those learning brass instruments for the first time.

“Talent isn’t the basis for membership. Determination, hard work and a passion for music and colorguard is,” Green says.

Creekview High School, 3201 Old Denton Road. Carrollton. Jan. 14 from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Audition fee $35, which goes toward season dues. frontiercorps.org