There have been some iconic non-field recordings of drum corps throughout the years: in 1961, it was Fleetwood Records’ Brass By Night, which included the St. Catherine’s Queensmen and a young Frank Dorrite. In 1980, Dorrite himself produced the classic State Of The Art, utilizing the latest studio recording techniques to give us the best sounding drum corps album to date (having the Concord Blue Devils and the Santa Clara Vanguard as your performing groups didn’t hurt, either). In 1993, Drum Corps International convinced a number of corps to submit performances of various holiday charts for a Christmas CD like no other, Ornaments In Brass.
Full disclosure – I was fortunate to perform on one of those tracks with the Glassmen, one of my two best memories of the 1993 season (the order making DCI Finals for the first time). While I am adding myself to my list of Christmas corps, I think you’ll agree that this Christmas album should be on any drum corps fan’s list.
The performances on this CD range from full brass and percussion, such as Madison’s Procession Of Bacchus or our own God Rest Yet Merry Gentlemen, to the powerful horn line only tracks from the Phantom Regiment and the Troopers, to small brass or percussion from Bluecoats and Southwind. In all, 14 tracks were produced by 13 drum corps, with Phantom providing two.
If I remember correctly, there were at least two locations where recordings took place during the summer tour, which made scheduling both rehearsals of the music as well as the recording sessions for the corps an added logistics problem for them. Glassmen got our session in while we were in Boulder/Denver for Drums Along The Rockies. It’s been 30 years, so I don’t remember many of the details, but I think it’s safe to say the final results are excellent.
A few years later, the Blue Devils and Cadets would collaborate and begin the trend of preseason recordings which they and other corps would continue into the digital download era. There has not been a collaboration like Ornaments In Brass since, however, and the CD itself is considered a collector’s item, with only a single re-release in 2001 and then an expanded digital release called Silver Bells in 2008. Fortunately, drum corps fans have preserved these recordings for posterity and enjoyment every holiday season, including the recordings below.
