Download of the Week: 2004 Blue Devils

The beginning of Blue Devils’ 2004 “Summer Train Blues Mix” was inspired by Eric Whitacre’s “Ghost Train Triptych,” with the sound of a train starting up and rolling out of the train yard to the clanking of sledgehammers against rail spikes (heard in the front ensemble and seen in the color guard as the rifles were brought down with force upon the spikes). The brass section then kicked the show into high speed, nailing a series of instrumental jabs as if picking up the sledgehammer-against-spikes theme. This was the year that the use of amplification in the front ensemble became legal in DCI competitions. Blue Devils jumped into the use of the new electronics in a big way and developed the first self-contained system that relied on individually miked instruments as opposed to a centralized system, eliminating cords sitting on the ground. As explained by the corps’ front ensemble arranger Mike Nevin, every pit drum was miked, including a large Brazilian surdo drum (that created the effect of a train starting up and slowing down) and an udu drum, (a clay drum that otherwise would never be heard). Eight mallet keyboards were amplified in such a manner, as well as the timpani. The journey was more a journey through blues than it was a journey on a train, but it was the train that led us up the Mississippi River from New Orleans and into cities such as St. Louis and Kansas City, where blues wasn’t a form of expression as much as a way of life. The screeching trumpet intro of “Blues in the Night” led into a smoking hot segment with the guard section spinning as furiously as the wheels of the train. After all that runaway excitement, the train came to a stop for refueling to Gershwin’s “Summertime.” It was here that drum corps got its first udu feature. The exotic sound helped make the piece all the more memorable. This was one of the most beautiful pieces on the field in 2004—the corps allowed it to breathe and fully develop, which greatly added to its mesmerizing effect.