Jim Ott
Another one for the drum corps folks.
The brass players of today’s drum corps can be thankful for Jim Ott. Jim’s presence in the drum corps world was too short-lived. The power & passion that comes from the brasslines of so many decades gone by all have a common origin in Jim’s teachings and horn lines back in the day.
Jim’s influence to the brass community is essentially what helped shape the sound of drum corps (especially coming out of the late 70s when drum corps really started to become more powerful and almost a force of nature).
I first read about Jim Ott when I was like 16 or so, mainly because I saw some footage of the 1980 Spirit of Atlanta Drum and Bugle Corps (that CLOSER - my GOD) and found out that Jim Ott had died in a car accident during the summer of 1980 while on tour with Spirit of Atlanta. I had read various personal recounts of when the staff members had to break the news to the corps in the high school gymnasium the corps was being housed. A lot of people were obviously broken down in tears as it was a tremendous loss - and it was evident in Spirit’s performance finals night (I still haven’t seen a corps blow the house down like that with an overwhelming amount of powerful emotions - with their black bands on their sleeves for Jim’s memory).
I kept those stories in mind with me, which gave me a true sense of purpose in my own personal journey in seeking to march in a corps back when I was a kid. Looking back, especially after more life experience - it’s humbling to know the profound influence a single individual can have (that continues to be shared decades after his absence). There were approximately 200 brass players from various corps that performed in tribute to Jim Ott (under Wayne Downey’s direction) - in which case many people have stated when that hornline played for Jim - it opened up the clouds as they played into the heavens. That imagery still stays with me to this day.