Crazy Crazy Army was inspired by listening to many great performers playing their renditions of “Crazy Army,” a quirky and fascinating rudimental street beat for snare drum on YouTube. Being enamored by this drum beat, I decided to devote an entire afternoon to jotting down my own quirky variations, after which I immediately thought of contacting Tom Maloy, whom I had known since his student days at the Eastman School of Music in the late 1980s, and who in 2021 had retired from the United States Marine Band (The President’s Own) in Washington, D.C. When I asked Tom if he would be interested in making a video, he graciously agreed. The result is a beautifully performed YouTube video played by Tom Maloy on his Loyal rope drum.
