Thomas J. West Music

This past Saturday, The Cadets Drum and Bugle Corps won their tenth world championship. Throughout this summer, the organization has made available for free their All-Access service, a great behind-the-scenes series of videos and recordings normally offered at a subscription rate. This video is from the parking lot of the new Meadowlands facility in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

It's so fantastic to see and hear this video - not just because The Cadets performance is so precise and emotional, but the quality of the recording equipment and camera work helps to enhance the moment. There are other versions of this on YouTube, but this one will be one of the best. They also filmed a great version of their unofficial anthem, Ron Nelson's Rocky Point Holiday, at the same session.

As an alumnus of the corps, I am proud that their 2011 program, Angels and Demons, beat out a highly competitive field to win this year. When I watched this video, my heart melted a little. I was a member of the 1993 incarnation of The Cadets of Bergen County, when On a Hymnsong of Philip Bliss was used as the ballad in our 1st place show In the Spring at the Time When Kings Go Off to War, featuring the music of David Holsinger. I posted this video on Mr. Holsinger's Facebook wall on Saturday, thanking him and corps director George Hopkins for giving me the opportunity to be a part of something so special.

This article (c) 2011 Thomas J. West. All content on ThomasJWestMusic dot com is licensed under a Creative Contributions Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. Please contact the author before publishing on or off-line.

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