The 1979 Drum Corps International World Championship marked the first time in DCI’s eight years that the event series headed to the South, taking place at Birmingham, Alabama’s Legion Field. The Blue Devils, in winning the corps’ fourth title with a then record score of 93.550, came within a tenth of a point of a perfect General Effect score. Phantom Regiment finished in second place for the third year in a row. The Cavaliers had a rough season the previous summer, finishing out of the Finals competition in 16th, the corps’ lowest DCI placement ever and the only time since 1973 that the group hasn’t advanced to the top 12. In 1979, the Green Machine rebounded into 11th place and introduced audiences to “Santa Esmeralda Suite.” Based on the disco-flamenco rendition of “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood” by the U.S./French disco rock band, Santa Esmeralda, the song had originally been a hit with the Cavaliers’ winter guard the year before. The corps’ rendition started with multiple snare drummers performing on homemade castanets, leading into the bullfight call of a soprano bugle. Most of the piece was high-energy, continuously pushed forward by new drum major Jeff Fiedler, who went on to be the corps’ director for 17 years and later the executive director of Santa Clara Vanguard.
The next selection was Earth, Wind and Fire’s funky yet mostly laid back “Fantasy,” off the pop band’s Grammy-winning 1978 album, “All ?˜N All.” The band was famed for its horn section, making its music perfectly suited for drum corps. Written by Maurice White, Verdine White and Eddie del Barrio, the song was covered by Maynard Ferguson on his 1978 “Carnival” album, but that arrangement had little if any impact on the Cavaliers’ rendition. Johnny Richards wrote “Cuban Fire Suite” for Stan Kenton’s “Cuban Fire!” album of 1956, penning a groundbreaking use of Latin jazz rhythms and Latin percussion with big band instrumentation. Like Blue Devils’ introduction of the work the same year, Cavaliers’ production was based on the sixth movement, “La Suerte de Los Tontos (Fortune of Fools).” The percussion feature of “Sambandrea Swing” was the first of three years in a row that the corps performed the Don Menza work, originally written for drummer Louie Bellson’s “Dynamite!” big band album of 1979.
Harold Arlen’s “Over the Rainbow,” with lyrics by E.Y. Harburg, had long been the Cavaliers’ corps song. Written for the 1939 film classic, “The Wizard of Oz,” it became Judy Garland’s biggest hit and has been rated by the American Film Institute as the greatest movie song of all time. This was the 15th and most recent time the corps performed the song in its show. The 1979 version was a simple statement of the melody, just over one minute long, performed as a gentle and soft ballad. The corps’ closer was Chuck Mangione’s stirring and rhythmically percussive theme to “Children of Sanchez,” written for the 1978 film of the same title starring Anthony Quinn. The song title was also the title of jazz flugelhorn player Mangione’s 16th album that won the composer the Grammy for Best Pop Instrumental Performance. Having made it back into the Finals, the Cavaliers were never to fall out of the top 12 again, and in a few years started moving up through the ranks working toward the first of its seven DCI titles.
This week, you can save on the Legacy Collection DVD that contains this complete Cavaliers performance, along with all finalists from the 1979 DCI World Championships.
Buy the 1979 Legacy Collection DVD.
(Available this week only for 20% off. Regular price: $35.95.)
1979 Overview
Discount DVD offer ends Monday, March 2, 2015.
Michael Boo was a member of the Cavaliers from 1975-1977. He has written about the drum corps activity for more than a quarter century and serves as a staff writer for various Drum Corps International projects. Boo has written for numerous other publications and has published an honors-winning book on the history of figure skating. As an accomplished composer, Boo holds a bachelor's degree in music education and a master's degree in music theory and composition. He resides in Chesterton, Indiana.
