Blue Devils

The organization’s official history says the Blue Devils formed in 1957 after Bill Martin resigned as manager of the Martinettes, an all-boy drum corps paired with a girls’ drill team. Ann and Tony Odello, together with the Concord branch of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, acquired the unit and established the Blue Devils. The name linked two local references: “Blue” to the V.F.W. color and “Devils” to Mount Diablo, the landmark overlooking the Concord area. The founding story therefore begins with an existing youth ensemble and a local service organization, rather than with a newly assembled national touring corps.

Ann and Tony Odello are identified by Blue Devils Performing Arts as co-founders. Their contribution was organizational as well as musical: they helped create a durable home for young people who wanted to perform and compete. A 2021 remembrance by the organization describes Ann Odello’s involvement as the start of a multigenerational family legacy in the program. A fuller account of the founders’ individual responsibilities, the first rehearsal location, and the names of the original members would benefit from oral histories and contemporary records. This archive will record those details when the organization or its alumni can confirm them.

The earliest Blue Devils were fewer than fifty young people. The 1957 unit used percussion only, with a separate all-girl marching team. In 1958, glockenspiels—then commonly called bells—were added to the percussion line. This changed the group’s description to a drum and bell corps. The Majorettes became a separate unit, while continuing to receive musical accompaniment from the drum and bell corps during parades and shows. The early structure already had several strands: performance, parade participation, competitive field activity, and a place for young people to learn together.

In 1961, the organization added a color guard and entered California state junior-division competition. The official history reports that the junior drum and bell corps went undefeated in the California State Championships from 1957 through 1970. The record is an important measure of the unit’s early strength, though a season-by-season list of contest names, scores, and opponents remains a worthwhile archival project. In 1964, Tony Odello resigned as manager of the drum and bell corps; Jerry Seawright took over those duties, while Erlene Shaffer managed the Majorettes. The separation of leadership roles shows that the organization was already coordinating distinct performing units.

In 1968, the original junior unit chose to compete as a senior unit, and a new junior corps was created. The growing program later moved its senior corps toward a full drum and bugle corps format. This transition was part of a wider change in the activity: organizations were expanding brass sections, visual design, and the scale of their competitive presentations. Blue Devils’ development was gradual, with the bell corps’ percussion and guard foundation joined by brass players rather than replaced overnight.

In 1970, ten brass players joined the percussion and guard performers. On February 14, 1971, the Blue Devils attended their first standstill competition in Downey, California. A standstill contest emphasized musical performance without a moving field drill, an appropriate early step as the organization assembled a full brass-and-percussion corps. By spring 1972, the corps had grown beyond seventy members and took its first summer tour, traveling through the Pacific Northwest. That season it moved from B to A status, reflecting its competitive classification at the time.

The first national-level tour came in 1973, when the Blue Devils traveled to Whitewater, Wisconsin, to compete among organizations from across the country. Their 23rd-place result earned associate membership in DCI, which at the time was extended to a limited group of top national organizations. The same year, the organization established a B bugle corps from its junior drum and bell program and created a younger C bugle corps. These were distinct developmental ensembles, not simply different labels for the A Corps. The multi-level structure became one of the organization’s lasting features.

In 1974, a ninth-place finish at the DCI Championships in Ithaca, New York, earned the A Corps full DCI membership. The Majorettes also continued their own competitive path, later earning national and international honors. In 1975, Blue Devils rose to third at the DCI Championships in Philadelphia. The progression from 23rd in its first national tour to third place two seasons later illustrates how quickly the corps matured as a touring and design program.

In 1976, the Blue Devils won their first DCI World Championship. The organization’s official history describes the corps as sweeping the judged categories. It was a remarkable early culmination, but not the end of the development story: Blue Devils had to continue adapting show design, training, fundraising, equipment, travel, and member support as the competitive circuit grew more demanding. The first title helped establish a standard that later generations would inherit.

The Blue Devils won again in 1977, 1979, 1980, 1982, and 1986, then built another championship run across the 1990s and 2000s. The corps’ official A Corps history lists 21 DCI titles: 1976, 1977, 1979, 1980, 1982, 1986, 1994, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2003, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2022, and 2023. That source also reports that the corps has remained in DCI’s top five since 1975. A complete historical profile should eventually pair each title year with its show, repertoire, design staff, score, season record, and primary result page; those details should be added from official recaps and archival programs, not guessed from memory.

The organization’s story extends beyond the DCI finals. Blue Devils units and ensembles have performed and taught internationally, including appearances in Japan, Europe, Australia, Scandinavia, South Korea, Malaysia, Guatemala, and Taiwan. Official histories describe a 1983 appearance at Osaka’s “21st Century Celebration,” later Japanese tours and clinics, a three-week European tour in 2000, and a 2005 European tour that culminated in a World Music Contest championship in Kerkrade, Netherlands. In 2015, BD International brought together recent performers from Blue Devils and other U.S. world-class corps for a tour through the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Italy, and Switzerland. These activities show how the organization has used performance as cultural exchange and instruction, as well as competition.

The Blue Devils have also created theater-oriented productions and clinics. The official history dates its On Stage series to 1997, beginning with Exaltation, followed in 1998 by Exubero and in 1999 by {Jazz} Man in the Moon. The corps has performed with and learned from prominent jazz and percussion artists including Maynard Ferguson, Bobby Shew, Chuck Mangione, Stan Kenton, Buddy Rich, Dave Weckl, Peter Erskine, and David Garibaldi. The organization’s repertoire has drawn from many of these musical traditions, while the field show remains a distinct competitive product.

A significant milestone arrived in 2023, when Blue Devils won championship number 21 and achieved the organization’s first three consecutive competitive-season titles. DCI notes that 2020 and 2021 did not include competitive seasons, so the sequence refers to 2019, 2022, and 2023. The unusual pandemic gap is part of the corps’ historical context and should be kept clear in any title streak calculation. The 2023 achievement followed five earlier back-to-back championship runs, according to DCI.

Sources: Blue Devils Performing Arts history; Blue Devils A Corps about and history; Blue Devils co-founder Ann Odello remembrance; DCI on the 2023 championship and first three-peat.