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Letterman musicians rock Cav Band
by Hawes Spencer
The Cavalier Marching Band has been getting some pre-season help from members from David Letterman’s house band.
Lead trumpeter Al Chez, for instance, shown here at left chatting with Marching Band director Bill Pease, has been part of the Late Show with David Letterman for twelve years. But he’s been here all week while Letterman’s on break during the Olympics, coaching some of the now 260-strong Marching Band members. Why?
“I grew up doing marching band,” Chez said this morning in a sideline interview. “And it gave me a career.”
Pease hopes that students will be inspired by Chez, who didn’t major in music. “It’s not about a degree,” says Pease. “It’s about passion.”
Eight days from now, Chez’s bandmate Sid McGinness will give a special guitar performance during the half-time show at UVA’s first home football game, against the University of Southern California at Scott Stadium. Each fall football game, Pease notes, will feature a fresh half-time show.
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Oh, that’s right, U.Va. now has a lame marching band. The pep band was horrible, but still they should have just scrapped the band idea all together. I think Al Groh actually wanted a real marching band. He’s a joke. U.Va. should look to the Pac 10 and get a hot dance team. U$C will stomp U.Va. regardless.
Man…you’ve added absolutely nothing…congratulations…I’m sorry you didn’t make the band.
The pep was/is better than the stupid marching band. The number one NCAA athletic program in the country (Stanford) has a pep band. Marching bands are nothing but a salute to the military industrial complex.
Here we go again. Stanford does not have a pep band. They have a scramble band - which means they don’t march in the traditional fashion. Stanford’s band takes their gig very seriously - they do this thing the Virginia pep band never did much of: they practiced. As a result, they have a repertoire of over 1,000 songs. They’ve released 13 albums of their music.
But unlike Virginia’s dismissed pep band, it’s a great band. Virginia’s pep band - you may want to sit down for this - sucked. They were abysmally bad. Waaaaaaaaaaay too small, they could barely be heard. Which is probably good - when they performed at non-football games they could barely carry a tune. They seemed to be far more interested in finding new ways to paint their tubas and insult people than they were in, you know, becoming better musicians. Nobody is convinced they ever practiced - and when they were disbanded one of their complaints was Virginia couldn’t have a “proper” band because of the academic demands and lack of practice time.
The pep band wasn’t given the heave-ho because of their antics, but because the band just flat-out sucked. However, the antics get most of the publicity. The new band isn’t the most amazing college marching band on the planet yet, but one thing is clear: they do not suck.
Music lover you rant is filled with opinion and guess but little fact. The Pep band and a scramble band have have almost ZERO difference. If your compliant was they need to practice more than fine but they were clearly removed for their antics.
It was the Tire bowl in Charlotte and it was against WVU. That is fact. It turned into a cause because WVU got beat and the Governor of West Virginia was involved in a sex scandal.he was desperate to change the new cycle and this was just what he was looking for. He ranted about the honor of his state and the athletic department used the opportunity to make it’s moved. The athletic dept. were looking at a big pot of money they were promised if they did start a “real” band.
The performance they got in trouble for was APPROVED by the athletic department in advance. The Athletic department hid behind the canard that the overalls of the girl portrayed during halftime put it over the top. Rubbish
As to their antics, where do you think the term sophomoric humor comes from?
Stanford’s band is known for their musicianship? I thought that they were known for their drinking, which has gotten them disciplined various times.
Oh and there mascot xmas tree got drunk and suspended once as well.
They are not that great musically but it’s impossible to compare them to the pep band on quality. I’ve heard both and still can’t make much of a comparison.