Post Title. 02/10/2012
 
Fundraiser Time! Come out and support the section at there 2nd car wash. It will be on Lincoln and Crosby from 9-3. Thank you to everyone for your support and donations.
 


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Samuel Estrada
04/17/2012 12:28pm

The article "How It All Began" WOW!!! Thanks for the information, but I wrote this article and no one let me know it was going to be posted. I appreciate it being used, but whoever posted this should have given me credit. I did a lot of research gathering information over the years. FYI, a lot of information was left out of this article, That is called plagiarizing. Don't get me wrong, I want to share this information, but please give me credit where credit is do. Also FYI, Peppy did not write this article I did, I interviewed Peppy. He was and is a life long family friend.

Sam Estrada Head Drummer 70/71

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Samuel Estrada
04/17/2012 7:26pm

JOHN MUIR MIGHTY MUSTANG BAND
DRUM SECTION
THE BIRTH OF TRADITION
By
Samuel Estrada, Head Drummer 70 & 71
John Muir High School Mighty Mustang Band A.K.A. the SOUL of Pasadena, the nick name was given to Muir by the class of 1971 in response to cross town rival Pasadena High School Marching Band A.K.A the Pride of Pasadena. Over the many years of the heated rivalry between the two schools, not only was the rivalry between the football teams, but the marching bands. During the half time show at the Turkey Tussle, the fans would not leave the stands they would stay to watch and listen to both bands and cheer as their favorite band entered the field.
In the 60s and early 70s Pasadena had some of the best marching bands and music programs around. Some of the most talented musicians came out of the PUSD music programs. I proud to say most of them came out of Muir. To name a few, Trumpeter Nolan Shaheed , Flautist Valerie King, Vocalist and UCLA Professor Juliana Gondeck, Violinist Lisa Terry, Bassist Tony Dumas, Bassist the late Albert Stinson, Vocalist the late Benjamin Brown, Vocalist David Lee Roth, Vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson.
Very little is known about where the Muir Drum Section traditions came from. A long time family friend, Ernest Robinson “Peppy” De Moica, Muir class of 1957, recently sat down with me and gave me a brief history lesson on the Muir Drum Section. Peppy (as I grew up knowing him) told me he remembers me when I was about four or five years old. He said that our mothers were very good friends and supportive of the Washington Junior High and Muir Bands and that I would go to the practices and parades with my mother. Peppy and my sister Carmen attended Washington and Muir together.
The style of the Muir drum section did not start at Muir. It started at Washington Junior High under the direction of David Ledbetter who came from Florida A&M. The Washington Junior High Band had only two cadences at that time, Boom Tap-Tap and Bruin Special. Later the new Washington Junior High Band Director Mr. Margrove revised Boom Tap-Tap and added a military style Jodi, the words were:
Lift your heads and hold them high
Washington is passing by, sound off 1-2, 3-4
The configuration of the Washington Junior High Drum Section consisted of three bass drums, four snare drums and cymbals. The bass drums were the heart and soul of the section. The section leader was usually one of the bass drummers.
The Washington Junior High Band and Drums were so good they were invited to all of the local parades, the Hollywood Christmas Parade, the Junior Rose Bowl Parade, Altadena’s Old Fashioned Days Parade, the Monrovia Day Parade and the Temple City Parade. Washington would always take first place in the parades they attended. The Washington’s only competition was Eliot and McKinley Junior High Schools.
In 1955 all of the Washington Junior High Band drummers graduated and went to Muir. With them, they took the cadences and the “Swing Style Drumming” with them. Mr. MacFarland was the band director at Muir, he was mainly an orchestra type director. Mr. MacFarland told the Muir Drummers that he wanted a different style of drumming other than what was currently at Muir. He liked the style of drumming they brought from Washington Junior High. Each drummer contributed their own cadences to the Muir Drum Section.
Music always had an influence on our society. For some of you this might be difficult, but try anyway to imagine the sounds and music of Fats Domino, Elvis, Little Richard, Ronnie and the Ronnettes, The Supremes, Martha and the Vandellas, The Temptations, Ike and Tina Turner and the Wall of Sound of Phil Spector. The music and style of all of these performers had an influence on how the Muir Band marched and the type of cadences the Muir Drummers played.
In 1956 Dean Brown became the director of the Mighty Mustang Band. Under the direction of Dean Brown, the drum section configuration was seven snare drums, five tenor drums, two bass drums and five seventeen inch tenor drums and two cymbal players.
The drum section flourished especially around 1964 thru 1967 when John Beal, Craig Woodson and Denison Jackson created many of the cadences that are still played today. The main cadences that were played were: JB, Sherry, Lancer, Slauson and Six-Eight by John Beal. Swing-Low, was created by John Beal and Craig Woodson. Number 4 by Craig Woodson and Denison Jackson (Number 4 is the longest Muir cadence which had four parts) and Redman, by Denison Jackson.
Go-Go which was taken from the song Goin to a Go-Go by Smokey Robinson and Tequila (which was taken from a Tequila commercial). Later cadences were Dillinger by Mark Dillinger, Deb (by Kim Smock for his then girlfriend Debbie). L.A (a version of Swing-Low) Samba, the New One, Tahiti and Viskie came much later. These are just a few of the most popular cadences that were played by the Muir drum section. Unfortunately none of the Muir

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Sameul Estrada
04/17/2012 8:13pm

Unfortunately none of the Muir cadences were written, attempts were made to write them down, but the task was never completed. All of the cadences were passed on to the drummers by memory.
If you listen to the cadences, you can hear the influence the music and musicians mentioned earlier had on the style of each cadence. In the 1976 Rose Parade, the UCLA Marching Band played JB as part of their cadences used in the Rose Parade. JB was written into the UCLA drum cadence. I probably have the only copy left of that UCLA drum cadence.
In 1956, the Muir Band was invited to the Junior Rose Bowl Game Sacramento State verses Grambling. Muir was then given the honor of being the official Junior Rose Bowl Marching Band.
My musical training began at an early age. I began studying piano and music theory when I was 8 years old from Helen Basin in Pasadena. At 9 I began studying drums from Mr. Walter Larson who was a trumpet player and director of the Villa Street Boy’s Club Marching Band and Wind Ensemble. Mr. Larson told my mother that she needed to find a drum teacher for me because I had a talent for playing the drums and that he could not teach me what I needed to know about the drums.
My mother being a single parent could not afford to find a drum teacher for me. At 12 years old I became a member of the Boy’s Club Marching Band. I was also a member of the Washington Junior High School Marching Band. While I was a student at Washington, I began my formal drum training with the late John Tirabasso a well know local Jazz drummer and teacher.
In the Boy’s Club Band, I had the opportunity to play with drummers who played at Muir such as Harry Hardy who was Head Drummer in 1968, Mike Rias and Mark Dillinger who was Head Drummer in 1967.
The first time I remember hearing and paying attention to the Muir Drums I wanted to be part of that elite drum section and marching band. In 1967 I was a student at Washington Junior High School. Some friends and I went to the Turkey Tussle to hear the Muir Drums. As we models. The Muir drummers of that time had a certain demeanor. They were positive, mature and had respectful attitudes. Some of the drummers that had a positive impact were: John Barton, John Meyers, Ron Richardson (deceased), Preston Lux, Harry Hardy, Ron Okamura, Kenny Snare, Stanley Large, Louis Ledbetter and the Bigby twins.
We could hear the Muir drums at a distance, we ran like crazy to watch them march into the Rose Bowl. We caught up to the band, I saw Mike Rias on the right side of the band, Mike looked at me stopped playing smiled and patted me on the shoulder. It was as if a movie star touched me. That was the first time that I not only heard the Muir Drum Section, but I really listened to them. We followed the Mighty Mustang Band into the Rose Bowl as we did we could hear Mark Dillinger calling out the cadences.
The following Monday back at school we were in band room. We told the band director Mr. Hoolihan about the Muir band and the drums. He was not impressed. Why should he be, he had never heard them before, he was new to Pasadena and knew nothing about the Muir Band or Muir traditions. Not to mention, he was close friends with Mr. Larry Curtis the PHS band director. One day Mr. Curtis came to visit Mr. Hoolihan, Mr. Curtis tried to convince me to go to PHS and join the marching band. I told him no because I wanted to play drums at Muir. He just smiled.
The Washington Junior High Marching Band participated in the last Junior Rose Bowl Game. It was an exciting day. All of the local school bands participated in this event. We couldn’t wait for the Muir Band to march into the Rose Bowl. We could hear the drums at a distance, as they entered the Rose Bowl Mr. Hoolihan’s mouth opened and his jaw dropped when he saw the Muir Mighty Mustang Band and heard the Muir drums. He was impressed.
What was striking and memorable about the Muir Band were the uniforms. At a distance you could see the gold plumes on the band hats, the navy blue uniforms trimmed in gold with JM embroidered on the front of the uniform jacket with tails that would sway as the band members marched. All band members wore white gloves (even the drummers) and white bucks. When the drummers played, you could see the white gloves move in unison. Bringing up the rear of the band were eight Sousaphones that had covers on the bell that spelled out John Muir. The Sousaphone players had a routine they danced as they marched to the cadences of the drum section.
One Saturday morning during that summer, my friend Duane and I were riding our bikes. We saw Mark Dillinger working in his yard; we stopped and talked to him. It was like talking to a celebrity, to us he was one. He had just graduated from Muir; we asked him what it was like playing drums at Muir.
Mark explained to us the role of the drums to the band and the school. First he said without the band there were no drums. The drums were not the band, the drums were

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Samuel Estrada
04/17/2012 8:21pm

the drums were part of the band, it just so happened that the Muir drums had a style of playing like no other drum section around. He added that the drums although they were part of the band not the band being part of the drums, the band represented the school. The drums were an attention getter. We asked him about the drum circle and why they didn’t have one after every game. He said that the drum circle was only done if the football team won, it was a celebration. Mark impressed that the drums weren’t supposed to play too much because people would get tired of hearing them and that the head drummer was supposed to keep that in perspective.
After Mark graduated, the Head Drummer was Harry Hardy a very talented musician in his own right. Not only did Harry play in the drum section, he was an excellent oboe player.
Harry told me one of the most important things about the Muir drums was the tuning. He said that the Head Drummer was the only one that should have a key because if each drummer had one, they would be constantly changing the sound of the drum. Additionally, each tenor drum should have a bottom head because that was how the Muir tenor drums got their deep sound. At that time the Muir drum section used 18” tenor drums. He said you also had to find the tallest guys to play bass, because the bass drummers were on the ends and they made the section look and sound impressive.
I should note here that Harry Hardy and I started the Blast from the Past drum section. The purpose was for us and a few Muir drummers to play at reunions. Currently JAMADA is keeping the Muir Drum Section tradition alive.
In 1969, my first year at Muir, Kim Smock was our Head Drummer. There were a few drummers left over from the 68 drum section, Ronnie Richardson, Matthew Runnells, Kenny Snare, Ron Okamura and Louis Ledbetter. Most of us were alternates and were subjected to some of the most brutal and funny hazing that was lead by Kim. Kim was a funny character with a good sense of humor.
1969 was the year that we established who we were, the 70/71 Muir Drum Section. I can’t remember exactly what happened, but most of the 11th and 12th grade drummers were kicked out of the band including the Head Drummer Kim. All was that was left was us, the 10th graders. We had very little playing experience because the 11th and 12th graders had seniority.
It was a Saturday and the band was scheduled to participate in the USC Band Day at the Los Angeles Coliseum along with high school bands from throughout Los Angeles. The Muir Band’s reputation and Drum Section was well known.
The Cheer Leaders from USC announced that there was a band from Pasadena that was well known for their drum section. That well known band was us! We were asked to play. Because we had little experience we didn’t know what to play let alone how to play together.
We stood up, I gave four sticks and we played Swing Low. After that we totally fell apart. Embarrassed and ashamed, we the 10th grade drummers vowed and made a pact to never embarrass the band, Muir and ourselves again.
The following weekend we checked out the drums and went to Eliot Junior High School and practiced the entire day. Word got back to Dean Brown that we were at Eliot practicing. Mr. Brown asked why we were practicing at Eliot. We told him we never wanted to be embarrassed again like we were at the USC Band Day.
That event set the tone of who we were for the rest of the time we were at Muir. We knew how each other played, we could play at any tempo and maintain that tempo and made sure we used dynamics in all of our cadences. Before twirling and dancing we made sure the cadences were perfect. We would practice in the band room and rarely outside. Our idea was we did not want our fellow students to get tired of hearing us. Even while we were in the stands we would not over play, we had to be sensitive to the football team and what was going on around us.
The Turkey Tussle in 1970 was interesting. We had a snare drummer, Ray Demarjian a tenth grader. Ray spent the summer going to the PHS band camp. He thought he was going to PHS, but ended up at Muir. He taught us the PHS drum cadence ”The Down Fall of Paris”. To the surprise of the PHS band and drummers, we played their cadence while we were sitting in the stands.
Mr. Lyles thought very highly of us and respected our maturity. So much so he entered us in a drum competition at Arroyo High School in Rosemead. Years later he told me that he did not know what he was doing to get us prepared and what was expected at the completion. He also said he had faith in us and our talent. The 71 Drum Section was the first ever to win a trophy for the Muir Drum section.
Our drum section rivals Blair, the Blair Drummers had the small man’s complex when it came to the bragging rights to the City. On some of our rare occasions while we were practicing outside, some of the Blair Drummers would come to our pract

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Samuel Estrada
04/17/2012 8:26pm

practices and taunt us. We put their taunting to the test. We asked our Band Director Al Lyles and the Blair Band Director Mr. Newmann if we could go up against each other before half time ended. They both agreed.
The unforgettable spanking of the Blair drum section at the Rose Bowl. Blair had a powerhouse football team annihilating all of their opponents. That night wasn’t any different, but the Blair Drummers weren’t so lucky.
After we finished our halftime show we stayed in the middle of the field where we were supposed to have the challenge. Blair instead marched around the south end of the Rose Bowl to the Muir side. The Referee told me to get off the field because he had to start the game. We silently marched off the field to the sideline in front of the stands. The Muir students were yelling, “Why don’t you guys play!”
By the time the Blair drummers made it to our side we let them play the little hearts out. I gave four clicks of my sticks, the Muir Drummers clicked their sticks above their heads in unison, I yelled out SWING LOW! I gave another four sticks and we began to play, then the Blair spanking began. After playing Swing Low I called out JB. We drowned out Blair, we were so loud that they stopped playing. It was incredible our fellow Muir students went crazy cheering us on. Thanks to Eddie Williams, this spanking was tapped. Blair was good, but they didn’t give us any competition for us.
Playing drums at Muir was one of the best memorable experiences I had. Becoming Head Drummer was an honor and big responsibility. The honor I was given was the responsibility of maintaining one of the most important traditions at Muir. If we had a bad football season, the drums would uplift the student body and made them proud to be a Mustang. I had to forget myself and who I was and put the school first and the band second. I had to remember that the sound of the drums represented the school, the band and not me. I had to keep myself in check and not let the role of Head Drummer overshadow what my responsibility was to the school. I was truly surprised when a full page photo of me was taken and put in the 1970 year book. That photo was not staged. Subsequent years after I graduated, sadly the Head Drummers thought that was the norm. Our senior year the year book staff focused on the drum section as part of the theme of our year book. What an honor that was.
I would like to honor the drummers who were in the 70 and 71 drum sections. Without them I would not have had the great and fantastic memories and years playing drums at Muir. They are by section: SNARE: Rodney Bough, Ray Demarjian, Mark Gonzales, Brian Ingals, Assistant Head Drummer, Daniel Pollard and Eddie Williams TENOR: Head Tenor, James Boone, Sonny Flye, Porfirio Frausto, Robert Spurlock, and Ed Maruyama. BASS: Dave Bentley, Dereck Burks, Larry Walton (deceased) and Steve Sloan. ALTERNATES AND CYMBALS: 9th Graders: James Gutierrez (snare), Dave Link (snare) and Carl Hodgeman (snare).
Sadly, Muir had too many band directors who did not know and understand the established traditions of the school, the band and how the local community related to the Muir Band. To the local community the Muir Band represented their community with pride. Muir was probably one of the only high schools around that had traditions that would rival some colleges. During band practice and at the games it wouldn’t be uncommon to see people from the surrounding community cheering on the band.
Over the years the drum section has been one of the strongest of the traditions at Muir. Additionally one of the most notable traditions the band lost was the “rear-back” the second was the separation of the band with the drum section. The negative behavior and the attitude of entitlement the drummers displayed towards the band director, the band and the school caused the band directors not to want to put up with the lack of discipline the drummers displayed. Consequently, under James Storms the Dean of Students the drum section was taken out of the band and was made a club.

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