Blast

[ClarinetGlissandoInBlue]

anyone heard of this?

 

apparently they are composed primarily of people too old for DCI and can play 20 different instruments.

 

they have some woodwinds marching.

 

idk, i just heard about them last saturday

[manuel_pablo]

"Blast! is a Broadway production created by James Mason and Cook Group Incorporated, the director and organization formerly operating the Star of Indiana Drum and Bugle Corps. It was the 2001 Winner of the Tony Award for "Best Special Theatrical Event" [1] and also won the 2001 Emmy Award for "Best Choreography" [2].

 

Blast!'s instrumentation is exclusively brass and percussion, a nod to the show's roots in the drum and bugle corps activity. Blast!'s performers use trumpets, mellophones, baritone horns, tubas, trombones (including one on a unicycle during Gee, Officer Krupke!), french horns, and a full complement of percussion instruments including snare drums, tenor drums, bass drums, xylophones and marimbas, tympani, and other standard percussion equipment. In addition, Blast! adds instruments not normally found in drum corps, such as French horns, concert euphoniums, trombones and bass trombones, and synthesizers. [3][4] Accompanying the wind and percussion is the Visual Ensemble (or VE for short), a group of dancers who manipulate a variety of props, similar to a color guard.

- Wikipedia

 

Malaguena -

Medea -

Bolero - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1x3QoibhlY

Loss - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxnPR4EEZqY

 

There's a couple more on there.

[barisaxy08]

i love their shows...they are bad brASS...

[crazyjakeup]

dont they have DvDs cuz i think i have seen them.

[aggietrumpet327]

I saw it in summer of...02, i think? Right after they finished taking Broadway by storm and they were doing their first national tour. It's one of those things that you just have to experience first hand; the DVD's really don't do it a lot of justice (Kind of like drum corps itself. The recordings are great but just can't beat a live show). If I'm not completely imagining things, i think a while back they used to show it on PBS fairly often.

 

blast! website

[Fortisimo]

Saw it around the beginning of the school year in '05. They pretty much ****. Don't they have a new show this year? Blast 2?

[NSUMusician]

I went to college with Todd Mason, the son of Blast! Producer Scott Mason. I don't know about any Blast 2!, but I do know that they did produce a show called Shockwave!. Maybe that's what you're thinking of? Todd played a few shows on tour of Shockwave during the summer when we werent in school.

[itsstephenyo]

Shockwave, I believe, has woodwinds in the production. Blast! does not.

 

Edit: They do have DVD's. I own the Blast! one. It was pretty pricey, too.

[bossman]

nice.

[cordefrancais]

I saw Blast! live last year. I had watched the DVD before seeing the actual show. At my university, we're trying to put a full-time ensemble following this exact concept. We have the numbers and talent, but we don't necessarily have access to the equipment we need.

[itsstephenyo]

  cordefrancais said:

I saw Blast! live last year. I had watched the DVD before seeing the actual show. At my university, we're trying to put a full-time ensemble following this exact concept. We have the numbers and talent, but we don't necessarily have access to the equipment we need.

That's quite a commitment for a college student. Those musicians in Blast! rehearsed several hours a day. My ex-band director claims that he was a part of the design group (I don't know if this is true) but when we went to see them live few years ago, he knew everyone and got one of the soloists to talk to us. Pretty difficult stuff to pull off.

[chickora]

  crazyjakeup said:

dont they have DvDs cuz i think i have seen them.

Yeah, they do. It's pretty BA.

 

I like how they went in the audience during the break and played on stools.. They were definitely some BAMF.

[bluebellbrass07]

They did announce Blast! 2 a while back.

http://www.txbands.com/forums/index.php?sh...hl=Blast!+2

 

They won't be in America for a while though

[cordefrancais]

  itsstephenyo said:

That's quite a commitment for a college student. Those musicians in Blast! rehearsed several hours a day. My ex-band director claims that he was a part of the design group (I don't know if this is true) but when we went to see them live  few years ago, he knew everyone and got one of the soloists to talk to us. Pretty difficult stuff to pull off.

Sorry for the delayed response.

 

Our production is not on such a large scale. We have six main pieces. We have seven trumpets, five mello/horns, six trombone/euphs, and two tubas. We have a moderately sized battery and grounded percussion section. We have four true visual ensemble people, and the brass players will also be doing visual stuff too. We have our own design team including a music performance grad student running the music rehearsals, two people doing choreography/drill, two people arranging the brass music, one person arranging the percussion book, and I'm the "president" who does all the behind the scenes stuff like making sure everyone is doing their job.