Azusa Aztec Marching Band
1980's
|
 |
Aztec Band Directors of the 80's
|
|
Scott
Taylor
Fall 1979 ~
Spring 1987 |
|
Ted
Burton
Fall 1987 ~
Spring 1992 |
Joe Esparza '85 |
Aztec
Band Drum Majors of the 80's
|
| Kelly Eisenbise |
Fall (1978?) 1979-1980 |
| Angel Karatachea |
Fall 1980-1981 |
| Sandy Senne |
Fall 1981-1982 |
| Kevin Massie |
Fall 1982-1983 |
| Brian Salsbery |
Fall 1983-1984 |
| Joe Esparza |
Fall 1984-1985 |
| Adrian Acosta |
Fall 1985 - 1986 |
| Chris Massie |
Fall 1986 - 1987 |
| Luis Lopez |
Fall 1987 - 1990 |
The Aztec Marching Band from 1979 to 1987 saw some
momentous events. We were never a very large band, 50-55 musicians (jr.hi bands
at the time were very small and didn't send us many freshman) but we were known
for our excellent marching and showmanship scores as well as 450 to 460 (out of
500) music scores.
'79-'82 were transition years from the "Landis" band which had a great
reputation. Starting in the fall of '82 with Drum Major Kevin Massie our band
started placing in every event we entered (one every weekend for 8 weeks). This
was still the era of major Band reviews, Chino, Montclair, Arcadia, National City
and the All-Western in Long Beach. The band placed no lower than third that year
and for the first and only time as far as I know, placed first at Arcadia playing
"Eagle Squadron".
Over the next five years the band would place either first or sweepstakes in each
of these events. We were also the only Azusa band to win the title of "Blue
Ribbon Band" at the L.A. County Fair (banner picture). During these years
the band took week-long tours to Sacramento, San Francisco and Arizona
where we marched in the Tucson and Phoenix Rodeo parades. We purchased a 28' band
trailer from money raised from the field tournament we hosted. It was custom painted
and pulled by a van painted the same way donated by Mr.
Acosta of Acosta Nurseries. His son Adrian was Drum Major from '85-'86 (see drum
major list)
In 1987 my final competition with band took us to the Maytime Band Review. We
were small that year and only 25 students
were allowed to march through competition (those that had "passed-off"
the march). Under Drum Major Chris Massie
'86-'87, Kevin's brother,
we won the high marching score, the high
showmanship score and Sweepstakes - the first
time
since 1965, beating bands three and four times our size again playing "Eagle
Squadron"
 |
Scott Taylor
Band Director
September 1979 - June 1987
|
| 1981 Aztec Marching Band,
Director - Scott Taylor |
|
~~ Thank you Scott for your contributions to
this page.
If you have any information, photo's, corrections, whatever (?)
and would like to share it with us, or have it included on this site, please
feel free to contact me.
Updated:
January 27, 2004
