So I had video of that thing Weckl did with BD in '96, but I always kind of wondered how that came about. Did someone from the Blue Devil organization know him, or can totally unaffiliated groups or individuals just contact someone like Dave Weckl and say, ";Hey, we're doing this thing. Can we hire you?";

I just ask out of curiosity.

Most likely it was set up through a common sponsor, perhaps Vic Firth? Yamaha? Remo? Our stage show in 1998 had a Yamaha trumpet artist since BD was a  Yamaha corps at the time.

Gabe

Interesting. Bonus karma for being in that 1998 corps. You don't hear people discuss that year a lot, but the music was great. And I always really liked that [i]13th Hour[/i] on-field warmup, too. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBcTqr-vKI4&feature=related). The drumline did this recording with Roger Carter playing a drumset part to it, and it was awesome.

I still don't get it, though. Why do those companies do that? Like, financially, what's in it for them? Or is it done more in a spirit of altruism? Does some guy who works for Yamaha say, ";Hey, you know what'd be fun? If we had Weckl go spend a day with that Blue Devil marching band from California.";

???