John Sasso leaves bright musical legacy

One of the most influential talents in the long history of drum corps left us when John Sasso passed away. If it can be said the activity has a “greatest generation,” surely he is to be counted in that category. Anyone present at a drum corps performance over the past 40 or so years has witnessed some of his legacy.

As an arranger he had few peers and his charts rank with the finest ever scripted for the medium. He enjoyed the respect of masters like Ken Norman, Truman Crawford, Hy Dreitzer, Joe Genero, Ray Baumgardt and so many others, but it was as a teacher he will be best remembered. Garfield Cadets, Sunrisers, St. Catherine’s Queensmen, George Washington Carver, Wanderers, St. Lucy’s Cadets, Long Island Kingsmen and dozens of others enjoyed the benefit of his guidance.

His students like John Arietano, Wayne Downey, Ray Fallon, Steve Buglino, Ted Sasso, Bob Murphy, Ken Soper, Frank Diliberto and Dennis Dewey count among the finest instructors of the past several decades and by virtue of their work, John’s musical DNA permeates countless drum corps today.

Learning his craft from legends like Bill Hayes (Queensmen, Blessed Sacrament, Caballeros, et al.) and Jim Donnelly (Xavier HS, St. Vincent’s, Skyliners, etc.), he passed that knowledge to others who went on to work with champion calibre groups like the Cadets, Anaheim Kingsmen, Skyliners, Hurricanes, Bridgemen, Crossmen, Bushwackers, Sunrisers, Bluecoats, Santa Clara Vanguard, Blue Devils, 27th Lancers, Westshoremen, Madison Scouts, Chicago Cavaliers, Freelancers, Reading Buccaneers, Hawthorne Caballeros, Colts, Long Island Kingsmen, Boston Crusaders, Mandarins, Seneca Optimists, Yokohama Inspires and a host of others.

He may be the only instructor to win two national xhampionships on the same day, when the Sunrisers and St. Lucy’s Cadets took home American Legion titles in the senior and junior divisions in New Orleans, 1968.

He was among the first to bring truly “professional” standards to drum corps brass playing when he studied with Joe Singer, Principal Horn of the New York Philharmonic under Bernstein, applying those techniques directly to the horn lines he was instructing, long before anyone else had those insights.

It’s no co-incidence that today’s finest brass instructors emulate that approach. Many were either taught by or played his music. Still more received instruction from his students. Virtually all were touched by his talents.

John was a master, hands-on, nuts and bolts instructor whose rehearsal style was intense. There might have been 120 performers in the ensemble, but each of us felt like we were getting a private lesson and had his complete, individual attention. As detail-oriented and precise as he was regarding the notes on the page, there was always more. John Sasso took everything he touched to another, higher level. Consider the following anecdote as an example.

At a rehearsal in the winter following the 1968 season, the Sunrisers were learning John’s arrangement of Mussorgsky’s Great Gate of Kiev and the classic Rimsky-Korsakov march, Procession of the Nobles. Again and again he detailed and refined that iconic trumpet fanfare section, shaping the articulations and dynamics. We began to feel very good about our obvious progress and were anticipating acknowledgement thereof.

“Okay”, said John, “the notes are starting to line up in the right places, but they’re just notes. You’re not done. It’s not music . . . yet.” The rookie lead soprano standing next to me, whose own musical career would skyrocket when he moved west a year or so later, turned to me. “Here we go”, he said.

John continued. “Picture this. It’s dawn. The sun is rising behind the hills of Rome and standing along the ridges is a line of a thousand men, each one seven feet tall, wearing long purple robes, holding silver shields and ceremonial pikes. Their helmets reflect the blazing sunbeams. One of them shouts a command, they all step off and a hundred trumpets sound a fanfare!”

“Got it?” he asked, rhetorically. “Good. Horns up.”

Imagine the result.

When Isaac Newton was praised for his great accomplishments, it is reported that he said, “I stood on the shoulders of giants.”

In the arena of drum corps, John Sasso was indeed a giant whose influence will be felt for a long time to come and even those who didn’t know him owe him great respect.