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Post by 78haworth on Apr 30, 2021 11:17:46 GMT -6
I remember watching Western at State many moons ago. My favorite show was the one where the guard wore black capes and teased us with little flips of the cape and then fully exposed the underside at the first big hit. WOW!! Big florescent pink and orange strips blew everyone away. I would love to see that show again but it was when they held the contest at Indiana State University, don't think they have many show online from that era. Videos of Western go back to at least 1980, when the state championships were at Indiana State Univ. I really think the show with the capes that you describe was 1984 (perhaps they also did it in an earlier year), which was in the brand new Hoosier Dome. I posted that video in an earlier post. I will post it again here. They won the Indiana Class C state title with that show. It was considered the best performance in Class C of the decade (according to the Hoosiers of the day). Western took that show to Grand Nationals and ended up placing 5th and winning their first Grand National Class A title. In my opinion, that was the best show Western ever put on the field. The quality of the video is not the best, so the effect with the capes does not have as much impact as what I am sure it did watching it in person. WOW! Thank you, I think you're right it must have been in 1984 (also many moons ago!). I guess l didn't realize this was the same show because of the poor video quality. But yes, it was an incredible show.
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Post by boahistorybuff on May 14, 2021 3:41:13 GMT -6
The End of Summer Nationals
After winning five consecutive summer national titles in 1988, Marian Catholic ended their summer competitive program. Like so many other marching bands who had both a summer and fall competitive season, Marian would focus on the fall season. For many years I actually thought that the BOA Summer Nationals had ended with 1988. It was many years later that I learned the the last summer national competition actually occurred in 1989. The summer competitive circuit had been so popular among high school marching bands in the 1960s and 1970s, especially across the Midwest and California. During the course of the 1980s, a lot of bands started ending their summer competitive season to focus on the fall. I am sure a big factor was that show design and music arrangements had become more complicated. It was probably beneficial for bands to place a lot more focus on teaching basics in the summer in preparation for the fall program. I am sure there was also an economic factor as well. The Summer Nationals had always had a huge workshop component to them. While the competition aspect of this was dropped in 1990, the workshop component carried on as the BOA Summer Symposium.
So the winner of the 1989 BOA Summer National Title was the Christian Brothers Marching Band, composed of students from Brother Rice and St Laurence high schools from the Chicago Area. I am not sure if this is the case today, but back then I believe that with approval from BOA (and of course other circuits), smaller private high schools could merge into one band. Otherwise, the rule was that the band members had to all come from the same school district. So if a district had multiple high schools, you could have a band comprised of members from more than one high school (ie Plymouth-Canton and more recently Lawrence Township).
I have not seen a lot of references to Christian Brothers band in the fall circuits, so perhaps they were more active in the summer or maybe they only had a summer competitive program. Earlier in the decade, I have seen references to St Laurence in the summer competitive season, so perhaps at the time there was a more recent merger with Brother Rice to form Christian Brothers. Here is the video (in two parts) of Christian Brothers winning performance at the 1989 Summer Nationals. It was obviously taken in the stands from an enthusiastic parent. It looked like some of the performance may have been cut out. Anyway, here is the last BOA Summer National Champion performance.
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Post by ohioguy2 on May 14, 2021 5:10:12 GMT -6
This is still a very common practice, at least in Ohio, mainly because many Catholic schools there are still single gender schools. Combining schools allows girls that attend an all-girls school to march with the boys at the all-boys school. From a BOA perspective, the school that immediately comes to mind is LaSalle, which has been a Class A semis qualifier in the past. LaSalle is an all-boys school, but I believe two or three all-girls schools have students in their marching band. Students from Roger Bacon High School, which is a smaller co-ed high school that no longer has a marching band, also send kids to LaSalle. More recently, Moeller (boys) and Mount Notre Dame (girls) have created what they're calling the Moeller/MND Marching Band and that group is also now competing. The End of Summer Nationals I am not sure if this is the case today, but back then I believe that with approval from BOA (and of course other circuits), smaller private high schools could merge into one band.
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Post by Allohak on May 14, 2021 5:42:34 GMT -6
Was Christian Brothers just the 2 schools? I thought it was 4: Brother Rice, Mother McAuley, St. Laurence, and Queen of Peace (which would presumably be 2 all-boys schools and their all-girls affiliates)
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Post by LeanderMomma on May 14, 2021 7:03:57 GMT -6
What about Father Ryan?
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Post by Allohak on May 14, 2021 7:31:28 GMT -6
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Post by LeanderMomma on May 14, 2021 7:36:10 GMT -6
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Post by boahistorybuff on May 14, 2021 8:45:57 GMT -6
Was Christian Brothers just the 2 schools? I thought it was 4: Brother Rice, Mother McAuley, St. Laurence, and Queen of Peace (which would presumably be 2 all-boys schools and their all-girls affiliates) Yes you may be right on that. I have seen references to all 4 and just the two (Brother Rice and St Laurence). It may be possible that in 1989 it was just Brother Rice and St Laurence, with the other two schools joining at some other time. Or maybe Mother McAuley and Queen of Peace had much smaller memberships in the band than the other two schools. Perhaps one of our Illinois members may have more knowledge on the history of this band.
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Post by srv1084 on May 14, 2021 10:36:27 GMT -6
That is also the case with Calvert Hall College School in Maryland. They're an all-boys school and I believe some join the colorguard, but they also open up their colorguard membership from the nearby all-girls Maryvale Preparatory School.
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Post by boahistorybuff on May 15, 2021 3:22:37 GMT -6
The 1990s, What a Decade
I will start focusing on the 1990s with future posts. If I find some interesting earlier videos, I will still post them. This may just be my favorite decade. It is probably more for nostalgia reasons. I was in high school at the start of the decade and then marched in college, so I guess I kind of feel that this was my era, yes kind of a 'back in my day' moment.
Now I know there is a lot of variability in shows today, but for me I always kind of think of the 1990s as having some of the most diverse spectrum of show styles. There were some bands that really set out to push the envelope in terms of innovations, while there were others that seemed to not want to stray too far from more traditional style shows of years past. A lot of things that first made their appearance in the 1980s, like electronic amplification, vocalists, props, etc were really expanded upon this decade by several bands, but not all.
At the start of the decade it was clear that theme based shows were becoming the norm. Shows that dealt with Broadway or motion picture soundtracks often had some of the most innovations as they tried to tell the story through the music and visual design. There were also show themes that focused on a specific composer or group of composers. Some of these shows were noted for really pushing the envelope in terms of musical difficulty. Toward the end of the decade, show themes were trending toward that of story telling or exploring a topic through music and visual design, types of shows that became highly popular in the 2000s. So during the course of the decade, show themes started becoming more complex and abstract. The idea of putting a creative name on your show also gained popularity.
I for one absolutely loved what was going on in DCI this decade. The level of difficulty skyrocketed in DCI. The corps were moving faster, with some insanely complex drill maneuvers. These trends made their way into the high school marching band shows as well. Musical arrangements became more complex and bands were really challenging themselves musically. Drill design, now very asymmetric and abstract, became faster with more complicated drill maneuvers. Although bands were not doing as much with various body movement as today, the visual difficulty was in the drill maneuvers. I think I saw more kids take some hard tumbles this decade than any other.
The de militarization of the color guard really become complete this decade. First off, the guard was really tasked with selling the theme to the audience. We really started seeing the costuming of the guards and their look changed from season to season depending on the show. Modern dance moves became as much a part of the color guard performance as using flags and weapons. I think a huge growing popularity of winter guard and introducing guard instruction to elementary and middle school kids helped make the guard performances in the marching band much much stronger.
There was also a huge increase in the number of competitive marching bands, not just in BOA but in circuits all across the country. I think BOA went through the biggest expansion this decade than any other. The number of regionals per season more than doubled by the end of the decade, Grand Nationals went from a prelims/finals format to a prelims/semi finals/finals format with an expansion of the number of participating bands. The growth of upper middle class suburbs added many new larger bands to the competitive field. During the 1980s we saw this affect the Class A bands, making it more difficult for them to place in the top echelon of bands by the end of the decade. This decade, that started happening to a lot of mid sized schools (Class AA) bands as by the end of the decade it was becoming more difficult for them to place in the top group at nationals, with a few notable exceptions obviously.
In a few days I will start posting some 90s videos. I just wanted to give this little intro first.
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Post by kvgdc on May 15, 2021 7:27:40 GMT -6
Fare the well! Oh era of "Four songs and great marching!"
Onward we go.
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Post by boahistorybuff on May 17, 2021 4:08:30 GMT -6
The Hard Fought Battle for the 1990 Grand National TitleThe 1990 Grand National Final was a great group of bands and a highly competitive one at that, even without Kiski and the top level Indiana bands in attendance. It was very geographically diverse with the 14 finalists bands comprising 11 different states. The top 7 bands in finals broke 90 points, with 4th through 7th place separated by a fraction of a point. One of the biggest headlines was that the Grand National Champion was determined by a razor thin 0.05 points, with the top two bands scoring over 95 points. Plymouth Centennial (now Plymouth-Canton) from Canton, Mi edged out Westfield from Houston, TX for their first of what would be three Grand National Titles. Of course, anytime there is such a small point spread between 1st and 2nd a heated debate often ensues. One camp thought Westfield was robbed and another thought Plymouth was the rightful champion. In reality, we had two bands that gave Grand National Champion caliber performances, but we could only have one champion. My band participated but did not make finals. We stayed and watched finals but were in the cheap seats; way up in the top deck between the 10 and 20 yard line. It was a terrible viewing angle with horrible acoustics. So during finals, I could not have told the difference between a 1st place performance and a last place performance. When the VHS tape of finals came out, I watched that (OK let's just say I watched it more than once ). In an earlier post I highlight Westfield's rapid rise to the top after the school opened in the early 1980s, which included multiple Texas UIL State Championships and BOA Texas regional titles. Prior to 1990, they had only attended Grand Nationals once, back in 1985 where they finished 2nd and won the Open Class Title. They had however improved markedly since then. Westfield was arguably the best band in Texas at the time and was the Texas band that probably had the most challenging and BOA friendly visual packages, thanks largely to their drill designer Steve Brubaker (I think he was still the designer in 1990). In 1990, Westfield skipped the Texas UIL in order to focus on Grand Nationals as this would be their first appearance at Grand Nationals since 1985 (and marked only the second time a Texas band came to Grand Nationals). At the BOA Southwest (Texas) Regional, they not only won, they scored over 5 points higher then second place Klein (one of their biggest rivals) and they swept the highest achievement awards. This and their success the last several years had them on the forefront as a contender for the Grand National Title (and yes several bands set out to deny Marian a four peat this year). Under the direction of Philip Geiger, they performed selections from Copland's Symphony Number 3. Westfield really had no weakness this season, simply strong on all fronts. Of course their music was certainly their strongest suit. This was a well balanced show between brass, woodwinds and percussion with some high impact brass moments and a fantastic percussion section. This combined with a demanding and interesting visual package made this an awesome show. There were a few things I found interesting. They had french horn soloists, the first I had ever seen that. Looking back on old videos online I see that several Texas bands did that back in the 1980s. They had a cymbal line that did some neat visuals, also done by a lot of Texas bands. They also had a group of male color guard members. Now I had seen male guard in DCI and WGI at the time but never high school. That was almost unheard of in high school back then. I highlighted Plymouth's more gradual ascent in two earlier posts. From their founding by director James Griffith in the early 1970s, they had a gradual rise before reaching the top echelon of Michigan bands in the early 1980s until winning the state titles in the mid 1980s. After an off season in 1987, where they lost the state title and failed to make both regional and Grand National Finals, Plymouth reinvented itself in 1988. They added Steve Brubaker as visual designer, Ralph Johnson as music arranger and a slew of talented instructors. They ended up 5th in the 1988 Grand National Finals (their first finals appearance after four failed attempts) with their show The Music Man. In 1989, they were 7th in Grand National Finals (they actually won prelims) with their show Sweet Charity. In 1990, now under the direction of Glen Adsit, Plymouth did another nod to Broadway, this time paying tribute to Stephen Sondheim. They did not do one particular show, instead they did selections from Sweeny Todd, A Little Night Music and Company, masterfully arranged. Plymouth went undefeated in Michigan competition. They were just at another level than all other Michigan bands. They easily won the 1990 state title. The only caption that my band and Jenison beat them in was percussion. In fact, percussion was their Achilles heal this season as all other components of the band were rock solid. After the awards ceremony at the state championships, I talked with some of Plymouth's band members. They mentioned that the very next day (a Sunday), they had an all day practice scheduled to get ready for regionals. I remember thinking, WOW don't they give you guys a day off. In fact, the weekend before Grand Nationals, Plymouth rented the Pontiac Silverdome for a day to get used to the acoustics in a dome (yes we were a little jealous of that because no way could our band afford to do that). So at the BOA Mideast (Toledo) Regional, held late in the season in early November, Plymouth held back a little in prelims and then delivered a powerful show in finals. They won the regional title, their first BOA regional win, and swept the highest achievement awards. What turned heads a bit was that Plymouth broke 93 points (at the time it set a record for highest score at regional, of course it helping being so late in the season). When we heard that score, we all thought, Plymouth is actually a contender for the Grand National title. Here are a couple interesting points about their show. Despite it still being a bit polarizing, Plymouth used electric keyboards and used them very effectively. At the end of their show, the woodwind section dropped their instruments in the back of the field and picked up flags, making the closing of the show all brass with a ton of flags. During Grand National Prelims, Plymouth had the highest score and were .2 points ahead of Westfield. Westfield however had a .3 point penalty, so they actually would have won prelims. Westfield did not get a penalty in finals. That was the last year that the Class Championships were determined in finals. So the main point of prelims at that time was to make finals and to leave a good impression with the judging panel. Back then finals performance order was a random draw (so the top placing bands in prelims did not always perform later in finals). Westfield performed early in Finals and Plymouth later. Again, both bands gave performances worthy of first place. Westfield won music performance and rightfully so, just awesome ensemble sound and amazing percussion. Plymouth was 5th in music performance, I think in part due to their percussion. They also a few subtle tempo issues in the beginning. While their percussion were much improved, still no comparison to Westfield. Westfield actually scored .7 points higher in music performance. In the visual performance, Plymouth won. They were exceptionally clean in their marching. Westfield was still very good in visuals and like I said had a pretty demanding drill. They were second in visual and .25 points behind Plymouth. The music effect judges were split, one had Plymouth first and the other had Westfield first, which ended up in a tie for highest music effect score. The amazing musicianship of Westfield and some of their high impact music moments (like in Fanfare for the Common Man) certainly made them deserving of their music effect score. For Plymouth, they had wonderful flow and phrasing (heard that from a director). Plymouth was also brilliant at putting an emotional impact in their music (notable in their rendition of Send in the Clowns). So up to this point, Westfield still had a .45 lead over Plymouth. The results came down to the visual effect judge. Plymouth got what they needed to win, they scored .5 points (they got an impressive 19.80) higher than Westfield in visual effect to put them over the edge, giving them high GE and the Grand National Title. Both bands of course did an excellent job in execution of the drill, Plymouth was just a little cleaner. While yes Westfield's guard was good, Plymouth had a very strong guard this year. Had Union not attended, Plymouth likely would have won the coordinated auxiliary award. Plymouth's guard certainly aided their visual effect score. After Plymouth was awarded the Grand National title, several of our band member went down to field level to congratulate them. After my band had been penalized out of the Grand National Title 10 years earlier, Michigan finally got a Grand National Championship. There were two things I saw from this band that night that struck me. First, I know that there was a lot of pressure put on the percussion section during the season. Like I said, they improved a lot by nationals and I am sure that came with a ton of work. The other was the look on some of the seniors who had been with the band for all four years. When they started as a freshman, this band did not even make Grand National finals or even win the state title. Now here they were as seniors of the 1990 Grand National Champion band. Finally, here are the videos; The video online of Westfield is actually their prelims performance. I never saw this until it was posted (I have always seen their finals performance). Somewhat hard to tell from the video, but I got a sense that they may have been a little cleaner visually in prelims. Who knows, if they had given their prelim performance in finals, we may have had a different outcome. The sound quality in this video is not the best. The multi cam version in prelims actually cut away from some of their more challenging and interesting drill maneuvers, something the multicam version in finals did not do. Here is the video of Plymouth. This is their finals performance which won them the 1990 Grand National Title.
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Post by boahistorybuff on May 21, 2021 5:05:30 GMT -6
The Hard Fought Battle for the 1990 Indiana Class A State Title
This season featured some heated competitions in the state of Indiana between two future BOA powers; the Center Grove 'Trojans' under the direction of Thomas Dirks and the Carmel 'Greyhounds' under the direction of Richard Saucedo. Both of these two bands had risen to the top echelon of Indiana bands during the latter half of the 1980s, with Center Grove finally capturing the state title in 1989. In 1990, the BOA Midwest (Bloomington IN) Regional was held early in the season. Even though both of these bands did not attend Grand Nationals this year (Center Grove only participated and won the GN Percussion competition), they both attended this early season BOA regional. Center Grove had attended the 1983 MBA Grand Nationals and probably had attended some other of the early MBA events. They had however not participated in BOA during the latter half of the 1980s. For Carmel, this regional marked their first ever BOA competition. Despite both Marian and Lake Park in attendance at this regional (it was very early season and these two bands had a lot of difficulty), Center Grove and Carmel ended up the top two placing bands. In prelims, Carmel won and nabbed the Class AAA Title. In finals, the tables turned and Center Grove edged them out for the overall regional title (Center Grove's first regional win). Later in the season, the tables turned again and Carmel edged out Center Grove for their first state title. Both of these bands did not have a fancy theme to their shows, just a collection of well played songs and excellent marching.
These two bands have remained consistent participants in BOA ever since (well Carmel missed the 93 regional). Center Grove returned to Grand Nationals in 1993 and Carmel made their Grand National debut in 1994. After their state win in 1990, Carmel struggled in placement in both BOA and ISSMA until 1996, when they made another rise to the top and a more permanent one at that. They would however have to wait 11 years for their next state title. The two videos that are posted are the state finals performances for Center Grove and Carmel. Gotta love the enthusiasm of the announcer, way to play up the excitement. Also check out those old Carmel uniforms, which the video quality made a bit static. While it is hard to tell how well these two bands would have cleaned had they attended Grand Nationals this year, they most definitely would have made finals.
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Post by kvgdc on May 21, 2021 11:04:18 GMT -6
Oh those were the βthey sprayed the kids with glue and marched them through the Nashville sequin minesβ uniforms for Carmel. Or at least thatβs how our band director described them.
And yeah. βFour songs and great marchingβ was still top of the game in ISSMA for a few years. Center Groveβs 88 Mikado show featured earlier introduced the theme show but they really broke through in 89 and 90 going the way our band (Northrop) did in 88 with a drill centric show.
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Post by Marching Observer on May 22, 2021 0:43:04 GMT -6
That announcer was truly one of the best. I am so glad I got to march state and experience it the final year he did it (2001).
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Post by boahistorybuff on May 24, 2021 10:12:43 GMT -6
A Small Band That Made A Big First Impression At BOAAlthough the rule change where Class Champions were determined based on Prelims and not Finals was made at the regionals in 1989, that change did not occur at Grand Nationals until 1991. So the 1990 Grand Nationals was the last year that Class Champions were based on finals results. The rules back then stated that Grand National Finals would consist of the top 12 bands from Prelims regardless of class and the top two bands in each class from Prelims if those two bands were not in the top 12. That is why during the late 1980s up through 1990 Grand National Finals often consisted of 13 or 14 bands as it became routine that one or both of the top two Class A bands from Prelims would not finish in the top 12. The inclusion of more participating bands at Grand Nationals during the late 1980s and the influx of larger school bands had made it more difficult for small school bands to reach top 12. So in 1990, there were 14 bands in finals because both of the top two placing Class A bands from Prelims did not finish in the top 12. So the top two Class A bands were advanced into finals. And let me make it clear, these bands were considered to be competing in finals, not performing in exhibition like the class champion bands who miss the top 12 do today. So these bands were credited as being a Grand National Finalist band. The final three years of the 1980s saw Western IN and New Philadelphia OH be the two bands to advance into finals on class (well in 1988 Western actually finished in the top 12 in Prelims). Halfway through the 1990 season, it was determined that New Philadelphia had just enough students to push them into Class AA and they moved up in class mid way through the season. So we all wondered, who the other Class A band in finals would be as we all assumed Western would be in again (as they were). It turns out that band was Adair County HS from Columbia, KY. In fact, Adair was actually the highest placing Class A band in Prelims (finishing ahead of both Western and New Phily), so they would have advanced to finals even if New Phily remained in class A. In Finals, Western edged out Adair for the Class A title so Adair ended up finishing 14th and being runner-up to the Class A Title. So while Adair County has performed in finals in exhibition as the GN Class A Champion 6 times (2005, 2007, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017), 1990 was the only year that they competed in Grand National Finals. During the course of the 1980s, Adair County had risen to become one of the most successful small school bands in the state of Kentucky. 1990 marked the first season that Adair competed in Bands of America. At the 1990 BOA Midwest (Bloomington IN) regional, they made finals and won the Class A Title. Then they made their Grand National debut later that season. When they came onto the field in Finals, it was the first I had ever heard of or seen the Adair County marching band (remember no internet back then; yes I know it was like the stone age ). During their performance we all watched them, with some of the comments being; I love their uniforms, nice drill design for such a small band, good marching and wow they really know how to project. I think they had just a little over 60 members total in the band. I have not seen all of the GN finalist bands of the 1970s Whitewater era. Of all of the GN finalist bands that have competed in Grand Nationals since 1980, I would probably say that 1990 Adair County is the second smallest band to be in Grand National Finals (1993 Jackson Academy being the smallest); they may actually be close with 1980 Southern Garrett, MD it has just been a very long time since I saw that performance. Adair really proved that a small band can be very good and enjoyable to watch. Adair also proved that they had staying power as it is not that common for small school band programs to remain so good for many years. Since 1990, Adair County has won a ton of Kentucky State Titles in their class. They were not as frequent of a competitor on the BOA circuit through the rest of the early 1990s, but that changed in the mid to late 1990s. In fact they have won numerous regional Class A titles (even outright won a BOA regional in 2007, marking the last time a Class A band has been named overall regional champion) and they went on to win 6 Grand National Class A titles; making them one of the most successful Class A bands in BOA history. I have not been able to find Adair County's 1990 Grand National performances online. The best I can do is show an earlier season performance from 1990. Still worth watching.
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Post by twhsalumniparent on May 24, 2021 11:40:54 GMT -6
My wife marched in that 1990 show (alto sax). She only makes a cameo around 6:04. The video is from the KMEA finals.
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Post by LeanderMomma on May 24, 2021 12:37:22 GMT -6
My wife marched in that 1990 show (alto sax). She only makes a cameo around 6:04. The video is from the KMEA finals. You are missed, friend!
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Post by dbalash on May 25, 2021 15:44:30 GMT -6
Was Christian Brothers just the 2 schools? I thought it was 4: Brother Rice, Mother McAuley, St. Laurence, and Queen of Peace (which would presumably be 2 all-boys schools and their all-girls affiliates) Yes you may be right on that. I have seen references to all 4 and just the two (Brother Rice and St Laurence). It may be possible that in 1989 it was just Brother Rice and St Laurence, with the other two schools joining at some other time. Or maybe Mother McAuley and Queen of Peace had much smaller memberships in the band than the other two schools. Perhaps one of our Illinois members may have more knowledge on the history of this band. It was indeed Brother Rice, Mother McAuley, St. Laurence and Queen of Peace (now closed). Rice/McAuley now have their own marching band (my boss' son and daughter have both been in it, and I think they may be trying to be locally competitive again), and St. Laurence/QOP had their own band as well.
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Post by boahistorybuff on May 26, 2021 5:53:49 GMT -6
Massive, a Bit Traditional, Huge Sound, and Just Plain Awesome
During Grand National Finals in 1991, my band had just taken our seats in the back of the field with the other finalists bands, still coming down off the shock of having made finals. West Genesee has just finished and the next band was entering the field. That band was Duncanville HS from Duncanville, TX. The band just kept coming out of the tunnel and onto the field. We are all in amazement, this band is huge. We joked that they probably filled the tunnel and stretched out of the stadium and onto the streets of Indy. Once the whole band was on the field we tried counting. We had at least 300, probably much more. We got a kick at how the field judges had to really move around the field with this band. Duncanville had a section of flags and they had an auxiliary line who focused more on dance (I believe they called themselves the high hats). We were looking at that and said "this band is so big they have two color guards". During the finals award ceremony, it seemed we were standing there for ever waiting for all of the bands to get onto the field. Turns out we all had to wait for just one band to finish packing themselves onto the field; Duncanville. Duncanville attended Grand Nationals (and made finals) twice; 1991 and 1993. I am not sure which year had the bigger band. While there have certainly been some huge finalist bands since Duncanville, I would still guesstimate that Duncanville is the largest band to ever compete in Grand National Finals.
Of course it was not just their size that stood out with Duncanville, it was their amazing music performance. It was this amazingly good ensemble sound which just completely filled the stadium. They had very powerful brass moments that were just incredible. While I often credit Westfield and Spring for being the most influential Texas bands during this era, I would at least have to credit Duncanville for first perfecting this big sound filled with huge brass moments. While Duncanville was a corps style band, they maintained a lot of traditional style elements. Whereas Westfield and Spring had very difficult DCI type visual packages, Duncanville's drill seemed to me to be more of a large college band style. It was still very clean and enjoyable to watch. I loved how different it was as it added some nice variation among finalist bands. The way that the Texas UIL judging went, Duncanville did well in the visual scores. On the BOA level, Duncanville just did not meet all of the components that the visual judges looked at, so during their brief years in BOA, their visual scores held them back a bit. Their music scores of course propelled them high enough to be very successful.
In an earlier post I showcased the 1986 Duncanville band in the performance that won them the Texas UIL State Title in their conference. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Duncanville remained at the top of the Texas UIL circuit. They won their second UIL state title in 1990 (might have helped that Westfield did not attend that year). In 1991, Duncanville entered Band of America competition for the first time. At the 1991 BOA Fort Worth regional, they edged out Westfield in finals and won their first of two BOA regional titles. They attended Grand Nationals in 1991 and finished 6th in finals, winning the music performance award. In 1992, they won their second BOA regional title in Denton, TX (this was the first year there was more than one BOA regional in Texas). In 1993, they finished 4th at the BOA Houston regional (behind Spring, Westfield and Klein). They made their 2nd and last trip to Grand National in 1993 and finished 9th in finals. A little bit of irony here as the smallest band to ever compete in Grand National Finals (Jackson Academy MS) finished ahead of them in 8th place. Perhaps this did not sit well with Duncanville as this would mark their last appearance in a BOA competition during their glory years (in recent years they have started competing in BOA regionals again).
Below is a timeline of Duncanville during their glory years 1987 - 1994 (again 1986 is in an earlier post). I think the performances are from the Texas UIL Championships. The exception is 1991 and 1993 which are from Grand Nationals. Video quality is not the best (a lot of audio issues in 1992) but again we take what we can get.
1987
1988 Multicam
1988 High Cam
1989 Multi Cam
1989 High Cam
1990
1991 - Grand Nationals
1992
1993 - Grand Nationals
1994
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Post by LeanderMomma on May 26, 2021 6:30:27 GMT -6
Great post boahistorybuff! Too bad Xenon doesnβt post much here for he is quite the Duncanville aficionado. π
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Post by Allohak on May 26, 2021 10:53:35 GMT -6
So Jackson Academy is next, yeah? *hides*
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Post by dbalash on May 26, 2021 10:54:58 GMT -6
So Jackson Academy is next, yeah? *hides*
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Post by boahistorybuff on May 26, 2021 13:06:53 GMT -6
So Jackson Academy is next, yeah? *hides* Perhaps Will give people some time to absorb all the Duncanville videos. Expect a lot of 90s posts.
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Post by Marching Observer on May 26, 2021 13:34:20 GMT -6
Let's just say a lot happened in the 90s lol ππ
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Post by hewhowaits on May 26, 2021 14:05:55 GMT -6
Let's just say a lot happened in the 90s lol ππ And readily accessible videos became more common.
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Post by boahistorybuff on Jun 1, 2021 5:05:40 GMT -6
1993 Jackson Academy: A Tiny Band Had A Huge Moment
I was actually going to post this a little later. After the Duncanville videos, I get the sense that y'all feel Jackson Academy should be next. So we will jump ahead a bit. Don't worry, I have not even scratched the surface with 90,91 and 92.
Jackson Academy is a small private school located in Jackson, Mississippi. Per wikipedia, they are a K-12 school with a total enrollment of around 1100. Yes that is for K-12, so you can imagine how small the 9-12th grade student body is. This may be why I have heard that some 7th and 8th graders have participated in this band. I have been unable to find any reference of this band prior to 1990. So it is very possible that the Jackson Academy marching band came to fruition in 1990, the brainchild of director Bruce Carter. It was at the 1990 BOA regional held in Mississippi (my program books say 1990, not 1991 like the video), that Jackson Academy won the Novice Class. Back in the late 1980s and early 1990s, some regionals had a Novice Class which was for bands brand new to competitive marching or bands who lost their competitive marching program and were now redeveloping their program. These bands did not compete with the other bands so they are not listed on the recap sheets. I have seen other references to Jackson Academy at competitions in the deep south in 1990 and 1991. In 1992, Jackson Academy competed in the BOA Mississippi regional. They were named Class A Champion and just edged into finals. Once in finals they ended up in 6th place. In 1993, Jackson Academy went to the BOA Atlanta regional. They again won the Class A Title and finished 6th in finals. This was a little more competitive regional so 6th place was quite an achievement. Later in the season, Jackson Academy made the trip to Grand Nationals for the first time. They ended up winning the 1993 Grand National Class A Title.
I had heard of Jackson Academy but had never seen them at the time. Now after the 1991 rule change which based Grand National Finals solely on the top 12 placing bands from prelims, I actually thought we would only see a Class A band in finals night performing in exhibition. I never thought a Class A band would make finals again. There were just more and more larger suburban school bands competing. So I was very surprised to hear that the Class A champ had actually made finals. I was even more surprised when I saw this band perform for the first time, which was in finals. When they started performing, I was like 'is this the whole band?". I counted around 38 total in the band with only 20 horn line players. For me, that was actually not the most surprising part. Their show was so different from any marching band show I had ever seen at the time. First off, they had a tarp on the front half of the field that went from 35 yard line to 35 yard line that the band used to perform on. The tarp looked like the bottom of the sea, with a beach at the front of the field and several props around it. There was an oyster prop in the front of the field which at one point in the show was opened to reveal a black pearl which a guard member then performed with. The band also had their entire percussion in the pit (at one point a snare drummer was marched on the field) and the pit was placed in the back of the tarp, basically on the center of the field. The way the show was staged was very much like winter guard with the whole band on the tarp at times and then other times some of the band was hidden behind props. I remember thinking that I would hate seeing a larger band do this, but for this tiny band it seemed to work. The tarp and the placement of the pit also made it easier to focus on the small band. They would get swallowed up by the large field if they had not staged it this way. This design would remain a feature of Jackson Academy for years to come. The drum major spent almost the entire show performing in the horn line section. So the band had to listen closely to the drums in the back to maintain their tempo. The one exception was during the ballad where the drum major ascended the podium to conduct as this section had no background drums. The guard, which was actually a decent size compared to the tiny horn line section, did as much dancing as they did flag work; very on par with the guard trends at the time. What was really unique at the time was that the band would occasionally break form to do intricate body movements and even dance with the guard. While there is nothing unusual with that today, back then that was a totally new concept. In fact, I think this show could be performed today and fit right in with the current style of marching band shows. It was so far ahead of its time. Of course the other aspect of this performance was that these 38 or so kids were really good. They had superb marching technique. For as small as horn line section was, the drill still put a lot of demand on the performer. I was amazed that they could do all that with no yard line markers as it was the first I had seen an entire band perform exclusively on a tarp. They of course played well. I believe several horn line members played multiple brass instruments throughout the show. For the first half I thought this was kind of like a mini drum and bugle corps because it was all brass and percussion instruments. Then, at one point, all of the brass and some of the guard picked up woodwind instruments (I think they were all Clarinets) and performed. I was sitting there thinking, this is amazing, what a talented group of kids.
Years ago, Alan Irons wrote incredible summaries of several BOA performances, posted on various forums back in the day. Here are his comments on this performance. "Jackson Academy High School Marching Band. Repertoire: See the World, In Her Name, and Minuano Comments: A tarp stretched from 35 yard line to 35 yard line. The design of the tarp was of a sandy beach and the ocean calm. A prop that seemed to be a tower made of sand was on the tarp, and on the back corners of the tarp were props that looked like waves, and on the front corners of the tarp were props that looked like mounds of sand. The pit was centered in the mid-part of the field. Wind players seem to come out of nowhere from behind the "mounds" and the "waves." I counted 20 wind players total. Each horn player had his or her horn angled to the box, probably to get the maximum sound from it. The drill is complex with pass-throughs and ripple movement. The first trombone soloist sounds like a pro. Some members are doing intricate body movement. This group, though small, sounds big. The end of the first movement has a rotating triangle form with a circle form spinning from within, and the it ends with wind players dropping to their knees. Some of the wind players dance with the auxiliary in the second movement, while one percussionist takes to the hand-held bells up-front. The trumpets, I think, switch to alto horns, while the mellophones stay the same. One of the auxiliary members "discovers" the giant oyster prop, opens it, and finds a black pearl inside. The auxiliary member takes the black pearl and does a few eye catching flips across the field with it. During the incredible synthesizer soli, the brass players ground their horns to pick up woodwinds, and even the guard is now marching with woodwinds! (There is a marching snare drummer at this point, too). After this marvelous showmanship, the primary musicians hand off the woodwinds to the guard and pick up the horns they had at the start of the show. The music and marching near the end of this show is on fire, with complex rhythms and drill whiplashing all ways. " One of the things I wish I could have seen was this band's reaction to hearing that they made Grand National Finals. I would also have loved to hear what the director said to these kids in the warm up area and in the tunnel heading into Grand National Finals. I can not imagine what kind of nerves they had at the start of this show. The Hoosier Dome (I think it was the year before it was renamed the RCA Dome) was packed and these kids were so front and center. As small as this band was it probably felt that to each member that he/she was a soloist. Performing on a tarp also makes it pretty easy for any visual mistake to be easily seen and with such a small group, no mistake is going to go unnoticed by the judges. Given that they were so small, they did not have a huge cheering section of parents like the other bands. You will hear in the video, however, that the whole audience kind of filled that role a bit. We knew this was something special and at the end everybody rose to their feet (back then a standing O was not standard after each finals performance as it is today). During the finals award ceremony, you could see their surprise when they were announced in 8th place. I mean this was a highly competitive Grand National for the times and had a lot of big name bands of the day. Not only had Jackson Academy beat Duncanville, the largest band to ever compete in finals, they had finished only two placements and around a point behind Marian Catholic. It really cemented the fact that they deserved to be in finals and were not just over scored by the Class A judging panel (this was during the years preceding the semi finals format when prelims was called the class championships and each of the three classes had their own separate judging panel). The following year, 1994, Jackson Academy did not attend Grand Nationals. They were however a finalist and Class A Champion at the BOA Atlanta regional. Had they attended nationals, I am sure they would have done well. I don't know about them making finals again. I just kind of think that 1993 was a special moment, with the right show and an incredible group of kids. They did attend Grand Nationals in 1995 but were just not at the level they were in 1993 and did not place very high. That was kind of how the rest of the 1990s went for this band. They did however make a bit of a comeback in the 2000s, winning several regional Class A titles and making regional finals on several occasions. They become a more frequent participant at Grand Nationals and made Semi Finals several years. They ended up winning their second Grand National Class A Title in 2004. They were still very good and still very small but not able to even come close to making Grand National Finals. They did at least get to perform in exhibition in finals. Finally, here are some facts and some of my opinions about 1993 Jackson Academy. - At around 38 total members, Jackson Academy is the smallest Grand National Finalist band ever. - They are the first Grand National Finalist band to have the entire performance (minus the pit) take place on a tarp. - To my knowledge, since the development of the pit in 1982, they are the first band to place the pit on the field and not along the front sideline. - They are the first Grand National Finalist band to have their entire horn line section play a woodwind instrument during a segment of the show (sorry Marian, but Jackson Academy had you beat). - They are the first and one of only two Class A bands to make Grand National Finals since the 1991 rule change that dropped the requirement for the top two bands in each class be advanced to finals. - They are the last Mississippi band to be in Grand National Finals. - In my opinion this was one of the most innovative/groundbreaking shows of the 1990s. - There have certainly been a lot of heartwarming moments and moments of disappointment (and everything in between) over the last 45 years of Grand Nationals. Now of course watching the band that wins the Grand National Title is pretty heartwarming, but not all amazing moments involve the Grand National Champion band. If I had to select just one of the most heartwarming/inspirational moments in Grand National history, it would be the time a tiny little band from a very small school in Mississippi came to Grand Nationals for the very first time and made finals; 1993 Jackson Academy. So I think I have rambled on long enough. Here is the video of 1993 Jackson Academy. While the description of the video says prelims, this is indeed their Grand National Finals performance.
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Post by LeanderMomma on Jun 1, 2021 6:45:14 GMT -6
The Little Band That Could. βΊοΈ
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Post by srv1084 on Jun 1, 2021 7:34:51 GMT -6
Jackson Academy has always been one of my favorite stories in the marching arts. What was being asked of those kids (several as young as 11-12 years old) is crazy. Think about us at that age, just trying to master one instrument, and out comes Jackson Academy's band juggling 2-3 instruments/responsibilities each. The move was actually quite genius - they knew they needed to maximize their sound by having everyone on brass, but they fulfilled exactly what they needed to on the sheets by bringing out woodwinds and marching percussion for just long enough to check the box. We were watching a fully-realized WGI winds show about 25 years ahead of its time. This has to have been their largest band, as well. I remember watching 2004, and while also very impressive, I don't think they broke 30 total members.
I never really thought about Duncanville and Jackson Academy going back-to-back. What a contrast that must have been to audience members. Is Duncanville still the largest to have performed in finals? I know we've had some other large ones along the way (Lassiter, Vandegrift in 2019, etc.) but not sure Duncanville's numbers have ever been beaten.
Great posts!
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Post by MadScientist on Jun 1, 2021 10:49:01 GMT -6
Then, at one point, all of the brass and some of the guard picked up woodwind instruments (I think they were all Clarinets) and performed. I was sitting there thinking, this is amazing, what a talented group of kids. Yes, it takes a lot of talent and skill to play the Clarinet. Thanks for recognizing that!
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