The 1983 Drum Corps International World Championships traveled to Miami’s Orange Bowl Stadium, the southernmost venue ever to host the big events.
Two records from the ’83 Finals remain to this day:
1. Bridgemen, finishing in 11th place, earned a spot in the top 12 after starting the season with a score of only 47.15, picking up 30.55 points over the course of the season. In comparison, the 2018 11th place corps, Phantom Regiment, picked up 22.95 from its first to last show.
2. The 20.65 point spread between first and 12th place was 20.65 points, compared to a spread of 11.875 for the same two placements in 2018.
Garfield Cadets became the first DCI champion from the east with a show that introduced audiences to visual designer George Zingali’s concept of flex-drill, the forms mutating in ways audiences hadn’t seen before. Florida’s Suncoast Sound became the state’s first DCI finalist, in what would be the first of seven appearances among the top-12 corps.
Sixth tenths of a point behind the Cadets, Blue Devils placed second. The Concord, California corps’ production brought back three works the group performed the previous season, starting with Rob McConnell’s “T.O.,” originally written as the theme song for the daily show emceed by Toronto jazz radio personality Ted O’Reilly. The work appeared on the jazz trombonist’s 1981 album, “Live in Digital,” one year before McConnell accompanied DCI Hall of Fame member Steve Rondinaro as co-host of the PBS-aired 1982 DCI Finals broadcast.
Watch the 1983 Blue Devils on DVD
Visually, the show opened with a series of six rays that quickly evolved into rotating arcs, soon meeting to form a circle that slipped into a long swirl. It was a classic Blue Devils move that played with expanding geometry, accompanied by a color guard that was at the forefront of wearing bodysuits to allow for the freedom of jazz dance, which was in the early stages of use by drum corps.
The second musical selection was “Everybody Loves the Blues,” the third track from Maynard Ferguson’s “It’s My Time” album of 1980, one of the trumpeter’s more obscure productions. The song, co-written by Ferguson and Nick Lane, achieved a much greater distribution when it was brought back out on “The Essence of Maynard Ferguson” compilation album, released in 1993.
During this segment, 16 members of the color guard utilized assemblages of giant white feathers as fans, akin to what 1930s dance icon Sally Rand popularized with her famous dance. Soon the entire color guard section was dancing with the fans, seeming to fill the field with a fluffy cloudlike whiteness.
Next came a percussion feature called “Paradox,” co-written by Kerry Kivgren and Steve Walsh of the rock band Kansas. Blue Devils also utilized this piece in the corps’ 1982 show. The work was originally written for the 1977 Kansas album, “Point of Know Return,” the band’s highly successful fifth studio album that included the hit, “Dust in the Wind.”
The guard performers quickly went from the feather fans that filled the field to long sticks with striped tape on the body of the equipment. This served as a palate cleanser for the long rhythmic gymastic ribbons that popped out of them, allowing the performers to create artistic swooshes and swirls in the air as the melody was taken up by a series of small tuned gongs in the front ensemble percussion.
1983 Blue DevilsPercussion break with the 1983 Blue Devils Drum & Bugle Corps More on the corps' '83 production: http://bit.ly/Spotlight83BlueDevils
Posted by Drum Corps International on Sunday, November 4, 2018
Gene Puerling’s “One More Time, Chuck Corea,” served as a standstill concert number, which was rehashed from the Devils’ 1982 and 1981 productions. From The Singers Unlimited “A Cappella III” album of 1980, the Latin-style selection was a tribute to Chuck Mangione and Chick Corea.
The piece was a bit peppier than in its previous Blue Devils incarnations, and somewhat shortened. Eight color guard members accentuated the piece visually by fluttering huge lavender butterfly wings, an iconic maneuver first employed by the corps in 1982.
The show ended with brass arranger and instructor Wayne Downey’s joyously Latin-flavored “A New Beginning,” following up on Downey’s original opener of “New York Fantasy” performed by the Blue Devils in 1980 and 1981.
Yet another unique piece of color guard equipment was incorporated by way of thin white-tapered banners attached to the end of spinning poles. Finally, the entire guard section picked up lavender butterfly wings for the last push of the production as the horns brought back a reference to Downey’s “New York Fantasy” to wrap everything up with one final blast of power.
1983 Overview
Michael Boo was a member of the Cavaliers from 1975-1977. He wrote about the drum corps activity for more than 35 years while serving as a staff writer for various Drum Corps International projects. During his lifetime Boo wrote for numerous other publications including an honors-winning book on the history of figure skating. He also was an accomplished composer. Boo passed away in 2020 and was inducted into the DCI Hall of Fame posthumously in 2021.