| Fred
Sanford
1947-2000
Fred
Sanford, one of the pioneers of contemporary marching percussion,
lost his brief battle with cancer in Denver, Colorado on January
23, 2000. Surrounded by his wife and other family members, he died
as he lived - with courage and good humor...and the "Freddy" smile.
Raised
in Casper, Wyoming, Fred followed his older brother Ken, also a drummer,
into the Casper Troopers Drum & Bugle Corps at the age of 12
in 1959. He was a proud member of the Troopers for ten years until
he aged out following his 21st birthday in 1968. Although he attended
school at California State University in Fullerton and taught the
newly organized Anaheim Kingsmen from 1965-1967, each summer he would
return to teach and perform with his hometown corps.
In
1968, Fred moved to northern California where he attended San Jose
State and studied percussion with Tony Cirone. During this time he
also began to instruct and write for another new drum corps - the
Santa Clara Vanguard with whom he would work for 12 seasons. During
his tenure there, the Vanguard drum line won an unprecedented five
national "high drum" titles.
Following
his graduation from San Jose State in 1970, he taught high school
music programs in Bergenfield, New Jersey where he met Dennis DeLucia. "Fred
Sanford made his mark on the world of percussion with his extraordinary
arrangements for the Santa Clara Vanguard," recalls DeLucia. "For
the first time in drum corps, percussion charts were magnificent
orchestrations that beautifully captured the style and elegance of
the music and made the horn line sound much better than it would
have sounded by itself! My personal favorite - "Young Person's
Guide to the Orchestra" (1974) - was a landmark in voicing,
rhythmic interest and accompaniment that featured the drum line in
the most musical way imaginable."
The
'70s also saw Fred begin his association with the Slingerland Drum
Company where he was instrumental in designing the TDR snare, Cut-a-way
timp-toms and Tonal bass drums. He also began another important aspect
of his career, teaching educational clinics on marching percussion
around the country and eventually around the world. During that decade,
Sanford also worked with the Madison Scouts, the Alberta All-Girls
Drum & Bugle Band and The Blue Devils.
During
the early 1980s, Sanford joined the Ludwig Drum Company as a Product
Development Manager and Staff Clinician. In addition to his drum & bugle
corps experiences, Sanford was the percussion coordinator for the
1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles and also worked with the McDonald's
All-American Band at various national parades.
Since
1985, he served as a marching percussion consultant for the Yamaha
Corporation of America and developed the SFZ marching snare drum
and the Power Lite Marching Series. Fred developed the Yamaha Sounds
of Summer band camps which each summer attracted over 10,000 students
who studied under Fred's direction.
Fred
Sanford was also active in the Percussive Arts Society, serving on
the PAS Marching Percussion Committee as well as being the "voice" of
the Marching Percussion Festival for almost two decades. Fred is
a member of the DCI Hall of Fame. |
