PAS Hall of Fame:
Tom Float
November 19, 1952 - October 3, 2022
by Lauren Vogel Weiss
“Tom Float’s name is synonymous with excellence in marching percussion,” states Sean Womack, Chair of the PAS Marching/Rudimental Committee. “As a legendary instructor and arranger for multiple championship-winning drum and bugle corps, he shaped the evolution of drum line performance and instruction. His approach to technique, sound quality, and musicality set new standards in the marching arts, influencing countless percussionists who went on to become educators, performers, and innovators in their own right.
“Beyond his accomplishments in competition,” Womack continues, “Tom’s contributions to the broader percussion community — through clinics, workshops, educational materials, and instrument development — have cemented his status as a leader in the field. His passion for percussion education inspired generations, and his innovative approach to rudimental drumming was a benchmark for excellence.”
A DRUM CORPS BACKGROUND
Thomas Earl “Tom” Float was born November 19, 1952. Raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, his first exposure to drum and bugle corps was watching his older brother practice with a senior corps. Tom also credited his father with getting him started in drumming. In a 1985 interview, Float remembered one of his first teachers, Eugene “Babe” Fabrizi, who taught him the essential reading skills. Other early influences included Mike Blazer and well-known DCI judge Mike Kumer, who instructed Tom in the Golden Triangles Drum and Baton Corps.
In 1969, Float moved to California and joined the Diplomats Drum & Bugle Corps from Lynwood. During these years in southern California, he studied with Bob Buck, Forrest Clark and Chuck Delancey (both percussionists with the Los Angeles Philharmonic), and Willy Polachek. While attending school, Float played in concert band, orchestra, and jazz band. Besides percussion, Tom even tried playing French horn and viola!
In addition to his musical talents, Float earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and attended graduate school (for business administration and management) both at York University in Toronto and Georgia State University in Atlanta. “And that qualified me to teach drum corps,” Float said with a laugh.
In 1971, Float joined the Anaheim Kingsmen Drum & Bugle Corps. He recalled some of his primary instructors: “Jerry Kearby was more of a chop-and-hype guy; Donny Porter, Jr. was very musical; and Ed Bostwick was a ‘head guy’; he made you think about what you were doing.”
The following year, Float marched in the snare line alongside his friend Ralph Hardimon, who would go on to teach California’s Santa Clara Vanguard. In 1972, the Kingsmen won the first DCI championship, and Tom continued marching with the corps until he aged out in 1974.
“Tom and I joined the Kingsmen on the same night,” Hardimon remembered in 2022, “and we became forever friends. In the 1980s, we were big rivals in the competitive world of drum corps: Blue Devils versus Vanguard. Tom was a wonderful man, admired by everyone in the marching percussion world who had a chance to meet him. He was full of knowledge, talent, and was oh-so-much fun!”
After the Kingsmen folded unexpectedly in 1975, Float tagged along with the Sacramento Freelancers, learning more skills from their percussion instructor, Don Silva. While on tour, Float was intrigued by the Oakland Crusaders and decided to approach them.
According to the June 1986 issue of Modern Percussionist magazine, Float thought he could make their drum line win in a few years, so he moved to Canada, where he taught the Crusaders while going to grad school. Although the Crusaders won drums (with a score of 18.85 out of 20, over the Blue Devils’ 18.20) during the 1977 DCI Prelims competition in Denver, Colorado, the corps placed 15th overall and did not advance to Finals, so Float’s drum line could not win the coveted “High Drums” award.
In 1978, Float moved to Georgia and began teaching the Spirit of Atlanta, where he met his future wife and musical partner, Catherine. “I loved being in Atlanta, but it was a little culture shock for me!” Float admitted in the interview. “The first year I was there, the drum line didn’t have a whole lot of drum corps experience, but we had a lot of really good musicians who would do anything for you.”
What were some of Float’s favorite musical selections with Spirit? He recalled that “Devil Went Down to Georgia” was a fan favorite, but Float originally didn’t want to use it for a drum solo. “I had to listen to it enough to figure out what to do with it. I guess I wasn’t redneck enough to dig it!” He also remembered Spirit’s arrangements of “Let It Be Me” and the Buddy Rich classic “Nutville.”
During his four years with Spirit, the drum line finished in the top four each year, tying for first place (“High Drums”) with the Bayonne (New Jersey) Bridgemen in 1980, the first of the Bridgemen’s three consecutive drum titles.
BACK TO CALIFORNIA
In 1982, the Floats moved to California and Tom began his nine-year career (1982–90) with the Blue Devils, based in Concord, which included two world championships (1982 and 1986) and fourconsecutive “High Drum” titles (1983–86). The “four-peat,” which bested the Bridgemen’s “three-peat,” was a record that held until 2016 when Santa Clara won its fourth drum trophy in a row.
“Musically and stylistically, the Blue Devils have always been one of my loves,” Float told MP. “And I thought it was the right move as far as the career went.” He described how he decided the music for the drum solo. “I usually try to pick something that I think would be fun for the players to play and that has some musical interest to the average person. It also has to be something that I could listen to about 50,000 times and still like it, because I’ve got to! [laughs] Nobody wants to play a solo, or hear a solo, or have to work on it for a year, if it doesn’t get the players excited. So I go for something that’s going to satisfy all our needs.”
Scott Johnson, current Percussion Arranger and Caption Head for the Blue Devils, as well as a BD alumnus, taught alongside Float from 1982–88. Johnson recalled the 1983 season in a 2013 interview with Percussive Notes. “That was one of the cleanest drum lines I’ve ever been associated with. 1983 was one of those magical seasons. We won percussion that year by a full point, which I think was the largest spread from first to second.” The Blue Devils drum score was 18.9, followed by the Phantom Regiment with a 17.9.
Neal Flum, former chair of the PAS Marching Percussion Committee, was a member of that Blue Devils drum line. “Like so many of us, Tom Float changed the trajectory of our lives for the better. I would not be where I am today as a music educator if he had not given me the opportunity he did in 1983. He was truly one of a kind and an amazing teacher, arranger, and master motivator who changed the landscape of marching percussion. As one of my friends, Clay Sloan, once said, ‘There was no clean like Tom Float clean’.”
Jeff Moore, Dean of the College of Arts and Humanities at the University of Central Florida, admired Float’s Blue Devils drum lines in the 1980s. “Growing up in Northern California, I couldn’t help but be influenced by Tom Float. He blended contemporary rudimental drumming with progressive rock and big band grooves. It was the epitome of what we affectionately called ‘tap flam jazz.’ When I was teaching the Madison Scouts, I aspired to recreate the rudimental variety, vocabulary, and the overall cleanliness of a Tom Float drum line. He was a master technician, and even when he was vocalizing drum music, which created a number of his famous ‘Floatisms,’ his quality of articulation — either verbal or drumming with his fingers on a table top — was rhythmically accurate, smooth, and clean.”
Known for his clean drum lines, Float was among those popularizing the “grid approach” to rudiments in modern drum corps. He created repetitive exercises, varied with changing accents, movable diddles and double strokes, and adding ornaments to work on interpretation, stroke consistency, and stick heights. Float took the variations and applications of “gridding,” especially with flams, to new contemporary levels.
Jeff Prosperie, section leader and principal drummer of the West Point Band’s Hellcats, admired Float on multiple levels: as a performer, instructor, and designer/arranger. “His most notable contribution was perhaps the concept of ‘The Grid,’ which opened up vocabulary possibilities for the performer and arranger. The 1983 Blue Devil line was so clean, and Tom set a new standard for precision in the first year of the ‘four-peat’.”
LIFE AFTER THE BLUE DEVILS
After nearly a decade with the Blue Devils, Tom and Catherine moved back to southern California, and Float worked with the Velvet Knights, based in Anaheim (1992–94). He was also a longtime Disney performer, as a member of the 12-person Magic Kingdom Korps and Disneyland’s “Trash Can Drummers,” a trio that was always an audience favorite.
Float also contributed to Drumline Essentials: A Practice Guide by Pete Sapadin, a former Blue Devils snare drummer in 1989 and 1990. Sapadin, who performed at Disneyland, as well as their theme park in Tokyo, credited his former teacher with creating new jobs for rudimental drummers all across the world. During a tribute to Float at the 2023 Blue Devils Family Day performance, Sapadin said, “Together with his wife, the amazing Catherine Float, Tom taught some of the greatest drum lines in the history of drum corps. I worked with Tom to create the Trash Can Trio at Disneyland and magically, out of nowhere, he made musician-union jobs for all of us out of thin air. Tom Float was a legend because of the way he connected with people. He was kind, he was thoughtful, and he was hilarious.”
In addition to his drum corps legacy, Float worked with hundreds of high school and college programs across the country and gave marching percussion clinics around the world. He also presented marching percussion clinics at two California PASICs (1985 and 1991). As recently as 2022, Float was teaching drummers at Alhambra High School in southern California.
During his long career, Float worked with numerous drum companies, from Ludwig to Slingerland to Yamaha, as well as Remo and Vic Firth. In 2011, he became involved with Tama Drums and was instrumental in their launch of a line of marching percussion products. During the last decade of his life, Float, often accompanied by Catherine, could be seen in the Tama exhibit booth at PASIC, DCI, and state music educator conventions, demonstrating the equipment to a new generation of drummers.
Ward Durrett, a veteran in the percussion industry and member of the Winter Guard International (WGI) Hall of Fame, remembered his friend. “I first experienced Tom’s tremendous skills in 1975, when he was with the Etobicoke Crusaders and I was on the Phantom Regiment staff. I was also privileged to work with him as an artist in the early ’80s when he was with Spirit of Atlanta and I was the Marching Percussion Coordinator at Slingerland/Deagan. We crossed paths again numerous times when I was a DCI judge and Tom was with the Blue Devils and Velvet Knights. I even enjoyed his numerous skills as a performer at Disneyland! The one constant: Tom created excellence everywhere he went.”
Dennis DeLucia, a member of the DCI, PAS, WGI, and World Drum Corps Halls of Fame, agreed. “I admired Tom for his passion, talent, and success at a very high level. Every place he taught — Blue Devils, Spirit, Etobicoke, Disney — became wonderful, ‘clean as a whistle’ drum lines. It was a challenge, honor, and privilege to compete against his lines.”
Bob Morrison, founder of Quadrant Research and a fellow member of the DCI Hall of Fame, knew Float for over four decades. “Tom’s contribution to the marching arts is immense, and his impact has been passed down the percussion tree lineage he started. It lives in all those he taught who have gone on to teach others… and will live further as the branches of the Tom Float tree continue to grow.”
Scott Johnson remembered his friend, mentor, and fellow DCI Hall of Fame inductee. “I learned so much from Tom about drumming. But more importantly, I learned it’s not always about drumming; it’s about the hang, telling stories, the camaraderie, and just being good friends.”
Jeff Prosperie concurred. “Tom was just fun to be around! My favorite memory was when I was instructing the line at UNT [University of North Texas] and he was working with us. One night, he came over to my apartment in Denton to eat some of my Cajun cooking. He took one bite, smiled, looked directly at me, and said, as only Tom could say, ‘Yo, Pros….this is some good f$&*ing shit.’ That is a memory I treasure.”
John Wooton, Director of Percussion Studies at the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg, was honored to be both a fan and a friend. “Tom is a true legend in the rudimental drumming community, and he has to be the coolest human I have ever met. We almost need a ‘Float dictionary’ to understand him! He would say things like, ‘Put some cheese on it’… and now everyone knows that means to put a diddle on a flam. He came from the ‘cool school’ and he taught the ‘cool school.’ His unique vocabulary, his awesome drum lines, and his kindness are how I, and many others, remember Tom Float. What an incredible legacy!”
Longtime friend Ralph Hardimon, a member of the DCI and PAS Halls of Fame, concludes, “Tom’s greatest contribution in marching percussion was his ability to win, win, and win almost ALL of the competitions year after year. It was because his teaching techniques and musicianship were at the highest level possible! Tom, and Catherine, were both ‘gems’ in the world of marching percussion.”
