Southwest Corps Connection 2008

Last night I had the opportunity to attend the Southwest Corps Connection, an event in the Drum Corps International “summer music games.” Five groups performed at the stadium in Glendale, Arizona including three world class groups, The Academy, Phantom Regiment, and Santa Clara Vanguard. My daughter was with me and made me rate them. Some impressions:

Academy. I liked the music selection with the Mozart excerpts and the overall effect. The crowd was really pulling for them for sure and the low brass sounded great. The mellophones did well too but the high brass came across not as strong as it needs to be. They are playing the new Jupiter line of marching brass. I gave them a 73. One note for those that might hear them later in the summer, their scoring in the brass is a bit different than most corps, more like a brass band than others with Flugelhorns in the mix.

Phantom Regiment. When I saw the list of works in their show I flipped, the opener is Ein Heldenleben! As a hornist I was a little disappointed to hear they didn’t do the opening excerpt we all know and love but where they started was certainly a better opener and impressive. The group had a noticeably bigger sound on the field (King) and the mellophones had a number of great screaming high Cs. A great show with a big finale, I gave them an 80.

Santa Clara Vanguard. Their opener was also a wow and a bigger wow really, with the John Adams The Chairman Dances which I have played a number of times in orchestra. Very impressive opener. For me personally the show drug on a bit toward the end as the music became unrecognizable but they had a big sound (Yamaha) and are contenders! I also gave them an 80.

My daughter didn’t like that my scores left two groups tied so we decided that we would give the edge to the Phantom Regiment. We had to wait for the real scores and found out that The Academy got a 70, Phantom Regiment 80.5, and Santa Clara Vanguard an 80.6! My daughter was impressed I was so close but did not agree with the result. We liked the Phantom Regiment show better but I can see why in judging the Santa Clara Vanguard might have come off better. In all the groups though there are many small things to improve, spacing between people, lines, intonation, etc., that they will work on until the finals in Indianapolis.

I should also mention that two open class corps performed, the Velvet Knights and Mystikal. The Velvet Knights also did a nice job with their show, they got at 65, and we enjoyed hearing them at the end of their warm-ups before the event.

At the very end of the event the combined brass lines of The Academy and Phantom Regiment performed together. It was interesting to hear the big sound from all those players but there were noticeable intonation problems in the trumpets.

In any event, a memorable evening and if you have the opportunity later in the summer it is worth going to a drum corps event of this type, lots of entertainment value and an activity that many horn players are involved in.