[Dixielandjazz] RE: Stanford Marching Band

[Bill Gunter]

Hi Listmates,

Jim Beebe and Bob Williams and others have commented on collegiate marching 
bands being musically abominable. Bob (World's Most Modest) Williams done 
writ:

>As a high school drum major for three years, I abhorred marching band,
>although I did march with the UCLA Bruins for one year.  I agree with Jim
>Beebe, it is an abomination.

Hey listen . . . if you really wanna hear an atrocious, abominable 
performance by a band in our "so called" educational system go and listen to 
the band my grandson is in at a local (Sacramento) middle school. He's in 
the 7th grade and you'd expect that he could sound a bit more professional! 
Of course I'm proud of the little guy but the music leaves something to be 
desired.

And then, when these musicians get to be 18 and wind up in a college 
marching band we naturally expect them to perform at the highest levels.

Or maybe I'm missing something here. My wife keeps saying we should "make 
allowances" for the fact that our 7th grader's middle school band is a bit 
off in the "intonation" department but what does she know?

Bob "TWMMM" Williams goes on to say:

>I envied the Stanford Band because they satirized the institution 
>beautifully.

Generally I laugh vigorously at good satire. But for some reason I perceived 
the Stanford band to be more of a sophomoric attempt to put down the genre 
and demonstrate that they are "well above such foolishness." I regard it 
(the Stanford Band) as a collegiate form of musical masturbation.

A pox on their house!

Respectfully submitted,

Bill "Of course I could be wrong" Gunter
jazzboard@hotmail.com

ps - I was a drum major too (Hayward High - 1945) and I recall the 
experience fondly and never once regarded it as an "abomination."

-bg

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