Greatest Street Band of All Time?

[fidave]

The Arcadia "videos" of Long Beach were shot from the balcony of an apartment building, approx. three stories up. Many of Arcadia's 1970's and early 1980's Long Beach performances were transferred to VHS format in the early 80's. By the way, the term coined by someone at Arcadia regarding the straight overhead shots of the band was called "marching graph paper". When the band was directly below the balcony, all you could really see moving were the white shoes.

In terms of the greatest Southern California street bands, most of them have been mentioned but I have a couple of others including Antelope Valley, Orange Glen, Thousand Oaks, Montebello, West (Torrance), Loara, and certainly Poway.

In terms of quality of gauging the quality of performance over the years, I've seen band reviews since the mid-70's (Santa Monica, Long Beach, Arcadia, Mt.Carmel, etc.). I don't believe that the actual judging has changed much. What I think has negatively impacted street performances is that bands don't spend as much time as they used to working on the street.

In my opinion, the street performance requires a great deal more precision and discipline than the field performance. With a limited amount of practice time, I think directors are forced to spend more time on getting the longer field show performance to the required level.

[vore]

Well put...

vore

[guarddude]

I remember watching when my sister was in band a group called Antelope Valley HS. They were very cool at awards as well. They all stood up and clapped in perfect unison. I also remember the booster club draggin me along back to the parade route to watch Arcadia, Mater Dei and Orange Glen (boom!....hated that because it always scared me...yet I spin rifle). Go figure. I gues I always stuck with guard because marching band was always so straight lined. No back drops or floors to drag around. I've tried to explain parade to my buddies in Florida and the East Coast but they still don't get it. Tate HS has a banner that is similar to some of the banners they have in So Cal and so I showed some of my Florida friends how we do things once with the Tate girls. They thought it was cool that the "up front" kids got to put on a show, but they weren't blown away by it.

GD

[altohack]

Just reading this thread brought back a bunch of memories...sadly, in my freshman year at Pasadena HS under the direction of David Wickham (from Michigan incidentally to chime in on where directors came from that was talked about earlier), he didn't get our application in to the All Western Band Review on time, and hence, lost the chance to perform there as my brother had with PHS back under Kandy Schoenholz and John Work (who went on to Arcadia and then moved to Colorado and became a cop????). ANYWAY...my point is that I have in my possession a gift given to me by Tom Landes up at Arcadia, and while I don't remember the year it was filmed, it is a video of an actual FILM transfer taken of Arcadia at All Western. The cameraman was either dangling from a blimp directly above the parade route, or he got a cool seat in a relatively tall building, because the view is basically straight down on the band. Now, I spent all 4 years at PHS doing band reviews (not very successfully but we tried--although I DID win Arcadia in the DM Mace division in 1983--but I digress...), and then went on and drum majored and then taught the TofR Band for 7 more years. I KNOW about diagonals. I KNOW how to rehearse "The T" (impressed John?? Yeah I thought not...). I KNOW how to handle "the turn" at Orange Grove and Colorado. But man oh man...I have NEVER seen a band like Arcadia on that video. You've heard of diagonals?? Yeah, their's were straight. Big deal...their block was so well spaced and marched SO perfectly they had SECONDARY diagonals. Don't know what that means? It's another diagonal you can see by looking (correct me if I'm wrong) from one marcher back two ranks and over one file, and so on. So the angle is steeper. THOSE were straight. It was amazing.

And coming from a program like Pasadena where ALL facets of music were taught (concert, jazz, chamber, orchestra, marching-field and parade), and working several years with Phil at Valencia and with Marc Davis at Poway, I too applaud those directors that spend the time to do their best in both areas.

And as for the comments about how the field show scene changed so radically from "back then" with the multiple half time shows to what they are now...I was but a little kid scurrying around with my band booster parents watching PHS kick booty with Loara and Glendora all over southern California in the field competitions. And I DISTINCTLY remember even after my brother graduated in 1974 of still going to PHS rehearsals in preparation of me being there someday, and listening to my mother gripe about the "same old music every week" being done as PHS started to go into the "new" way of perfecting one show. Yeah...ancient history...but it's still important to know where southern California came from.

Do you by any chance know the march that was played in that video?

[EP]

I would like to submit Chad Humpal as on of the best of the best...
Even tho' from the 80's, this kid was magic.....

EP

[EP]

Dude, can I get a copy?
Will pay for shipping and cost. Reply directly to eparviso@cox.net
Thanks... EP

[punkbandgurl127]

i think that all so cal bands that do parade are alright i mean they do what they do best and thats march. well like top bands like Rancho Bernardo, Mt.Carmel.
Arcadia are bands that have a rep of being great and they live up to what they do and thats what i think. well i dont know much about the histroy of street bands only what i have read on this forum.

[vore]

Huh?

vore

[Brich]

Well, in my recollection, the best street bands in SoCal didn't just march well, but they played to the same high standard as a fine concert band...all of the elements of pitch, timbre, intonation, blend, balance, phrasing...all of these were attended to at a high level of execution and consistency.

[JLGORMAN]

John: Hurry up with your book, after reading that comment from the young lady we are in desperate need of some history. I was listening to the 1965 All Western Record recently and am still amazed about the great sound the big 4 Bands had that year, Arcadia, French National Defile, Anaheim, Collossus of Columbia, El Capitan, Joyce'71st and of Course the Great Pasadena Sound of Father of Victory. It is a shame that we don't value those who went before us mucn. One of the interesting things about the Band at permian high in Odessa, Texas, is that the walls in the Band room are covered with the pictures of each permian band for the last 50 years and what they accomplished. It is a constant reminder that you are held to not only today's standards but of those who went before.

[Brich]

John: Hurry up with your book, after reading that comment from the young lady we are in desperate need of some history. I was listening to the 1965 All Western Record recently and am still amazed about the great sound the big 4 Bands had that year, Arcadia, French National Defile, Anaheim, Collossus of Columbia, El Capitan, Joyce'71st and of Course the Great Pasadena Sound of Father of Victory. It is a shame that we don't value those who went before us mucn. One of the interesting things about the Band at permian high in Odessa, Texas, is that the walls in the Band room are covered with the pictures of each permian band for the last 50 years and what they accomplished. It is a constant reminder that you are held to not only today's standards but of those who went before.

It would be great to be able to hear some of those great 1965 All Western performances you mentioned...can you or anyone post mp3 files or point us toward a source to hear these classic performances?

[LBRSR]

Hands down, the Long Beach Jr. Concert Band, in the 70's, was the best parade marching band, becuase of it's tradition and great syncopated drum section.

[Ryan H. Turner]

Hands down, the Long Beach Jr. Concert Band, in the 70's, was the best parade marching band, becuase of it's tradition and great syncopated drum section.

I had the great great honor to see the Syncopated Drums perform a standstill at the Impulse Drum Corps show a couple of years back. WOW!! You guys were a --excuse the pun!-- smash!! VERY VERY cool!

[LBRSR]

Thanks for the compliment. How long ago was the show?

Glenn

[EP]

Man, I must be entering the twilight years....

THE BEST PARADE/STREET BAND OF ALL TIME:

ANY BAND THAT SHOWED UP AND COMPETED. TO ALL YOU CHAMPIONS OF THE ART (YOU DIDN'T HAVE TO WIN SWEEPSTAKES TO BE A CHAMPION) - JOB WELL DONE!


nuff said