The Blue Devils Drum and Bugle Corps is a World Class competitive junior

drum and bugle corps Drum and bugle corps is a name used to describe several related musical ensembles. * Drum and bugle corps (modern), a musical marching unit * Drum and bugle corps (classic), musical ensembles that descended from military bugle and drum units retu ...

based in

Concord, California Concord ( ) is the largest city in Contra Costa County, California. According to an estimate completed by the United States Census Bureau, the city had a population of 129,295 in 2019 making it the eighth largest city in the San Francisco Bay ...

. The Blue Devils are members of

Drum Corps International Drum Corps International (DCI) is a governing body for junior drum and bugle corps responsible for developing and enforcing rules of competition, and for providing standardized adjudication at sanctioned drum and bugle corps competitions througho ...

(DCI). They have finished first or second since 2007, and have placed no lower than fifth since 1975. They also hold the record for the highest score in DCI history, winning the 2014 DCI World Championships with a score of 99.65. The Blue Devils are the current DCI Champions, with a record of twenty titles to date.

History

In 1957, Tony and Ann Odello and the Concord

VFW The Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), formally the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States, is an organization of US war veterans, who, as military service members fought in wars, campaigns, and expeditions on foreign land, waters, or ...

post assumed control of the Martinettes, a defunct drum corps and

drill team A drill team can be one of four different entities: # A military drill team is a marching unit that performs routines based on military foot or exhibition drills. Military drill teams perform either armed or unarmed. # A dance drill team crea ...

. They reorganized the unit as the Blue Devils. Initially, the group performed as an all-boy drum corps with an all-girl drill team. In 1958, the Blue Devils added

glockenspiels The glockenspiel ( or , : bells and : set) or bells is a percussion instrument consisting of pitched aluminum or steel bars arranged in a keyboard layout. This makes the glockenspiel a type of metallophone, similar to the vibraphone. The glo ...

, becoming a drum and bell corps, while the girls became a separate

baton twirling Baton twirling involves using the body to spin a metal rod in a coordinated routine. It is similar to rhythmic gymnastics or color guard. Description Twirling combines dance, agility, coordination and flexibility while manipulating a single bat ...

troupe, the Majorettes. The two units continued to perform together, winning numerous state and local competitions between 1957 and 1970. In 1961, the Blue Devils added a flag section to the unit that was then competing in the state's Junior division. In 1968, the drum and bell corps moved into Senior Division competition, and the new junior corps, Blue Devils B, was founded. In 1970, a group of buglers was added to the Blue Devils drums and flags, and the corps entered its first competition as the Blue Devils Drum and Bugle Corps. By 1972, the unit, now with over seventy members, advanced from Class B competition to Class A and traveled on tour outside California for the first time. The summer of 1973 marked the Blue Devils first national tour and their first appearance at the Drum Corps International World Championships in

Whitewater, Wisconsin Whitewater is a city located in Walworth and Jefferson counties in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Located near the southern portion of the Kettle Moraine State Forest, Whitewater is the home of the University of Wisconsin–Whitewater. As of the ...

. The younger Blue Devils C Drum and Bugle Corps was also formed in 1973. In 1976, the Blue Devils won the first of the corps' twenty DCI World Championship titles. Over the years, the Devils have often made use of

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

and

Latin music Latin music ( Portuguese and es, música latina) is a term used by the music industry as a catch-all category for various styles of music from Ibero-America (including Spain and Portugal) and the Latino United States inspired by Latin Amer ...

repertoires, notably Bill Reddie's ''Channel One Suite'' (made famous by

Buddy Rich Bernard "Buddy" Rich (September 30, 1917 – April 2, 1987) was an American jazz drummer, songwriter, conductor, and bandleader. He is considered one of the most influential drummers of all time. Rich was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, ...

) and charts from the music of Chick Corea and

Chuck Mangione Charles Frank Mangione ( ; born November 29, 1940) is an American flugelhorn player, voice actor, trumpeter and composer. He came to prominence as a member of Art Blakey's band in the 1960s, and later co-led the Jazz Brothers with his brother ...

and that written for

Stan Kenton Stanley Newcomb Kenton (December 15, 1911 – August 25, 1979) was an American popular music and jazz artist. As a pianist, composer, arranger and band leader, he led an innovative and influential jazz orchestra for almost four decades. Though K ...

big band A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s ...

. In 2014, the Blue Devils won their sixteenth DCI World Championship. At the DCI Finals in Indianapolis on August 9, the corps received a record high score of 99.650. The Blue Devils are also the only corps to have crossed the 99-point threshold twice in DCI World Championship history, achieving a 99.050 in 2009, and a 99.650 in 2014. In the Blue Devils' 2017 program, voiceovers were used from a newly-discovered audio tape recording of the late former director Jerry Seawright addressing the crowd at the Blue Devils' first appearance as a drum and bugle corps in 1972.

Sponsorship

The Blue Devils Drum and Bugle Corps is sponsored by

BD Performing Arts BD Performing Arts is the corporate entity that manages several performance groups for young people in Concord, California. Included in these groups are the three Blue Devils Drum & Bugle Corps, designated "A", "B", and "C"; the Blue Devils Interna ...

, a 501(c)(3) musical organization. BD Performing Arts also sponsors the Blue Devils B, the Blue Devils C, the Blue Devils Open Class and A Class Winter Guards programs, the Diablo Wind Symphony, and BD Entertainment. In 2015, BD Performing Arts added the Blue Devils International Corps, a 97-member unit made up of alumni of the Blue Devils and 8 other DCI World Class corps. The corps spent more than a month traveling and performing in the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and Switzerland, concluding with 9 days and 15 performances of their show at the

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in Switzerland. A similar tour was planned for 2020, with stops in Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, and the Basel Tattoo in Switzerland, but was canceled due to the

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Show summary (1972–2022)

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Caption awards

At the annual World Championship Finals, Drum Corps International (DCI) presents awards to the corps with the high average scores from prelims, semifinals, and finals in five captions. The Blue Devils have won these caption awards: Don Angelica Best General Effect Award * 2003, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2017, 2022 John Brazale Best Visual Performance Award * 2001, 2003, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012 (tie), 2014, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2022 George Zingali Best Color Guard Award * 2001, 2003, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 Jim Ott Best Brass Performance Award * 2001, 2003, 2004, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2014, 2022 Fred Sanford Best Percussion Performance Award * 2007, 2009, 2012, 2015 Prior to 2000 and the adoption of the current scoring format, the Blue Devils won these captions: High General Effect Award * 1976, 1977, 1979, 1981, 1982, 1986, 1994 High Visual Award * 1976, 1978, 1982, 1986, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1999 High Color Guard Award * 1979 (tie), 1982, 1984, 1986, 1990, 1992, 1995, 1997, 1998, 1999 High Brass Award * 1976, 1977, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1984 (3 way tie), 1985 (tie), 1986, 1988, 1991 (tie), 1993 (tie), 1994, 1995 (3 way tie), 1997, 1998, 1999 High Percussion Award * 1976, 1977, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1994, 1996, 1997

Blue Devils B Drum and Bugle Corps

The Blue Devils B Drum and Bugle Corps are an Open Class competitive junior

based in

. The corps is a member of

and has grown from a feeder corps for the Blue Devils Drum and Bugle Corps to a full-fledged Drum Corps in its own right. The corps has won the DCI Open Class World Championship five times.

History

In 1968, the original Blue Devils corps moved up from B Class competition to A Class, and the Blue Devils B was started as a younger cadet corps. In 1973, the Blue Devils B converted from a drum and bell corps to a drum and bugle corps. As a cadet corps, the unit performed for years almost exclusively on the West Coast. Only when the World Championships were held in Pasadena, California did the Blue Devils B become a regular competitor in the Division II & III (now Open Class) Championships. The Blue Devils B won the first of three consecutive Open Class World Championships in Indianapolis in 2009. In 2011, the corps also competed in World Class preliminaries, finishing in 19th place and earning membership in DCI. On September 5, 2018,

, Vanguard Music & Performing Arts, and Drum Corps International announced that the Blue Devils B had "decided to travel and compete only in California for the 2019 season" and that both the Blue Devils B and the Vanguard Cadets Drum and Bugle Corps would not attend DCI Open Class Championships in 2019.

Show summary (1977–2022)

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Blue Devils C Drum and Bugle Corps

The Blue Devils C Drum and Bugle Corps are an Open Class competitive junior drum and bugle corp and a feeder corps for the Blue Devils Drum and Bugle Corps. As a junior cadet corps, with members aged 8–14, the unit for many years performed only as a parade and exhibition unit, not entering actual competition. The corps began entering field competitions in 2001, but the corps still performs almost exclusively on the West Coast.

Show summary (1995–2022)

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References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blue Devils Drum And Bugle Corps Drum Corps International World Class corps Organizations based in Contra Costa County, California Culture of Concord, California Musical groups established in 1957 1957 establishments in California