Marching Band/Drum Corps
Turns out my family was pretty tight with money. Who knew? My parents were champions of not letting us kids know we were pretty tight with money. We always had clean clothes, food on the table, and for the most part anything we needed. It wasn’t until I needed to have money for my band trips and drum corps that my dad told me that he would meet me half way, but I had to earn most of my way to get to those trips and cover other expenses.
It was around January of my freshman year of high school when I tried out for the Santa Clara Vanguard. All of us “contra” players were offered a spot to march that summer of 1976. I’ll never forget when the returning horn line members played the Fiddler show for us rookies. It was literally the loudest sound I have ever heard! Alas, my father decided I was too young to go on the road for an entire summer, so I gave up my spot to march with SCV. Around my birthday that same year in March, my Dad finally said I could march. Unfortunately, there weren’t any spots at SCV, but there was a smaller corps trying to move up the ranks of DCI called “The Knight Raiders.” The horn line was taught by Wayne Downey (Blue Devils) and his team. On the team there was a guy named “Mancho” Gonzalez. He was the toughest horn instructor I have ever met. His standards for excellence were really at a level that I didn’t think I would ever reach. By the end of that summer tour, I had reached to a very high level, to the point I won the “rookie” of the year award for the horn line. I decided to continue with that corps until it folded after the 1977 season. Most of the guys flocked to Blue Devils, except for a couple of us who went to Vanguard. I marched my first year at SCV that 1978 summer and we won the World Championship by 0.1 points over the Phantom Regiment.
During the fall of 1976, a new high school opened called “Independence,” so when I wasn’t touring with a corps in the summer, I went to this amazing high school that had two band directors: Bob Russell, who was an amazing jazz teacher, and Dan Smith, an unbelievable phenom from the Santa Clara Vanguard who designed the drill and the music for the marching band. Basically, all year round, I was getting some first-hand world class instruction.
By my senior year in high school, I had already marched four years of drum corps, marched at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York, the Tournament of Roses Parade, and took the SILVER medal at Bands of America in Wisconsin. The day after high school graduation, I moved to Concord, Ca. to march with The Blue Devils!!
I started teaching myself to spin rifle and started competing in solo competitions on rifle. It allowed me to create original choreography and exposed people to my talents, including Ramiro Barrera from Lincoln High School, where I started my color guard career at age 19.
The next few years, I went to college, kept marching drum corps, taught at Lincoln, and moved away from home to start the life of roommates, and you guessed it…. PB&J sandwiches and dinners of “Top Ramen” instant noodles. Both of those lovely treats are NOT currently my food of choice these days. I had a great time learning and creating. Those times and those teachers really shaped my life, including my 2nd father and mentor, the great Mr. Gail Royer.