Download of the Week: 1999 Blue Devils

“Rhythms…At the Edge of Time” explored how the evolution of music is influenced by rhythms from various cultures, with a heavy predominance of Latin percussion. The show earned the Blue Devils their 10th DCI World Championship, tying at the Finals with Santa Clara Vanguard while winning the Visual, Brass, Color Guard and Ensemble captions. It was the last year the corps played on G bugles, (2000 being the season that BD and The Cadets moved to B-flat horns), opening up the floodgates of transition for most other World Class corps in 2001. The show explored the rhythmic styles of Afro-Cuban, rhumba, samba, tango, jazz and swing, united by a heavy dollop of drum features; such as the grounded Latin surdo drums that opened up the show with a lengthy pounding proclamation that could be heard in the next county. When the bass drums joined in, it was almost a shock that the drumming could be even louder. The first featured rhythm to hit the field was the Afro-Cuban-inspired “Malambo: Danza Final” from Argentinian composer Alberto Ginestera’s “Estancia.” Almost more rhythmic than melodic at times, the piece let the horns rip some major volume after sneaking onto the field backward before turning around for the opening fanfare. A wide variety of Latin percussion in the front ensemble offered a richly complex cauldron of Latin rhythms, each drum color skillfully scored to be heard individually and to complement the other intertwined rhythms. One of the joys of this show was watching the color guard members interpret each featured rhythm with body movements reflective of each of the six different styles. The main rhumba segment from Australian composer Graeme Koehne’s “Powerhouse, Rhumba for Orchestra” was the next selection, kind of keeping the lid on the boiling rhythms underneath. The following samba section from the same work gave the sopranos a chance to unleash a flurry of continuous fast notes that was a hallmark of the corps’ brass charts (particularly) through the 1990s. It was during this segment that the horns aptly demonstrated that they could deliver as much volume as the drums. (A portion of the rhumba and the entire samba segment from the Koehne work are included in this week’s video clip.)