Related reading black colleges and universities in American history
Why does every American graduate play Magnificence and Environment? A new documentary conceived by david byrne explores the miracle of color guards. Southern Sonic Blast is the military band of Jackson State University, and it is the main representative of the high-order, high-energy and dazzling style developed by HBCUs in southern history. Known as "performance style", the tradition of general bands is related to jazz and R&; B, combining the syncopation rhythm and elements of pop music and hip hop. The band played very powerfully and incorporated elaborate dance routines into well-made field drills. After decades of honing and perfecting, this unique American art form is now breaking through to a wider cultural status.
20/kloc-in April, 2006, Michelle Obama announced that Sonic Blast in the South was one of the best bands in America, and told university officials that she enjoyed watching the band's performances on YouTube very much. This craze, as its name implies, was staged at the inauguration ceremony of Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant on 20 16, and just became the headline of the annual Jackson Christmas, attracting thousands of viewers. "We don't have the best musicians and the most accurate training formations," said O 'Neill Sanford, the band director of Jackson State University. He said: "But no one can bring vitality and performance skills like us, bringing electricity to 1, 654, 38+0,000 people." . "This is what everyone wants to see."
*****
The University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) has invited Jackson State University to participate in the first football match this season, but this invitation is sponsored by the Las Vegas Convention and Tourism Bureau and has little to do with football. According to the contract, the southern sonic boom must be performed by the company football team at halftime. Other colleges and universities across the country have begun to do the same thing. They invited the historic black college football team to watch their marching band.
For many wealthy members, this is their first time to fly or travel to the west. However, this excitement is offset by deep fatigue, especially among freshmen. They just went through a cruel two-week freshman band training camp. Every August, the heat and humidity in Mississippi are the most depressing.
"Their parents saw them off, their mother cried and hugged them goodbye, they lived in the dormitory, and the next morning, we set off before dawn," said Sanford, a legend in the world of college military bands, charming, calm and very smart, who was about to retire. "Most children are weak now," he added, adding that the band needs strength. "So we tear them down and rebuild them."
One of Jackson's policemen, Kevin Levin, is a former member of Sonic Blast and is in charge of physical training. Every morning, he will lead the freshmen to a long and strict military aerobic training. If they need to fall or vomit, he will send them to the designated Sanda area. "Let go, son," he shouted to the disgusting man. "Release your impurities."
For director O 'Neill Sanford, band training camp is boot camp. Pre-season training lasts from 4:45 am to afternoon 1 1. (Zach Arias) The band's summer camp lasts 65,438+08 hours, sometimes 20 hours, to build endurance, because there is too much learning. Williams said: "Most freshmen are not interested in military organizations with strict discipline and a series of orders. We can also make the whole stadium stand up and feel good. "
Major drummer is a campus celebrity. Joe Williams, on the far left, said that the band is a "party machine" for the stadium audience. (Zach Arias) Behind the drummer, 10 young women are shaking their hips and smiling. They are called "Leaping J-Settes". They wear silver boots, blue and silver cloaks, and show girl tights with sequins and tassels. J-Settes, known as "Thriller * * *", was recently named the best female dancer in all black college bands in history.
These dances developed from the tradition of drum bands. They gave up the baton and concentrated on dancing. J-Settes has a wide range of action tracks, from the elegant interpretation of symphonies to the high-speed loot swing and Go routines. They claimed that they initiated a vulgar pelvic push-pull movement called "bucking", which later became popular in the dance world.
Among the 18575 audience in Las Vegas, there are hundreds of alumni of historically black universities. They printed the name of their alma mater on their hats and T-shirts-Jackson, Alcorn, Prairie, Mississippi Valley, Tennessee and other states. Jermaine Rimi studied at Southern University in baton rouge and now lives in Las Vegas. "Jackson State University is our biggest competitor, but I cheer for them today," he said. "I can cook Louisiana food here, but I will miss my hometown band and band culture."
When asked to describe this culture, he said, "I don't want to bring race into it, but in white-dominated competitions, people will leave their seats at halftime and eat hot dogs or other things." In the HBCU game, no one left at halftime, because that's when the band started. We support our football team, but competition, excitement, quarrels and conversations are all related to the band. On YouTube
And websites such as BandHead.org and HBCUdigital.
Rimi pays attention to all marching bands of the Southwest Games (SWAC), which extends from Alabama to East Texas and is famous for its performance style bands. Rimi said that outside swank, Florida A & amp； M(FAMU) is the biggest and most famous of all bands, but it still hasn't recovered from the death and subsequent suspension of 201kloc-0/drummer Robert Champion. As a guarantee, the champion was asked to run down from the center of the bus when he was punched, kicked and beaten by a more advanced band member. He died of beatings. After that incident, Harvard Business School suppressed the dangerous tradition in their marching band. )
While Jeremy and his friends were waiting for the intermission, they watched the Jackson Tigers being destroyed by the United Nations Veterans Federation rebels on the football field. At half-time, the score was 42-0/0. The announcer of the stadium warned the fans not to leave their seats because there was a special performance, "Here is the best marching band on land."
The debut of the United Nations Television Band and the style of the marching team. They play a tacky polka dance, commonly known as the "chicken song", and do a little tap dance when they walk into the YMCA of the villagers. Major Drumm took over their baton, and the band didn't make any mistakes, but according to Harvard Business School standards, it looked almost incredibly lame and weak.
Sonic explosion, twice the number, forms a crisp team at one end of a venue. Drummers stand around a 20-yard line to attract attention, then whistle, sing hymns and wave their long hammers over their heads. Suddenly, the whole band started a high-speed shuffle, running in two directions at a time, changing the speed, then forming eight long straight lines and then re-forming diagonal lines, which made people dizzy. This is the famous tiger race, and the audience in Vegas is crazy about it.
During the long band practice day, Roderick sometimes told the musicians to "tear the sky with your voice". This sentence well describes the loud, harsh and exciting sounds made by all the horns and wood. When they were torn apart for the first time, they blew an all-round overture, then entered gwen stefani's Sweet Escape, and spelled the letters UNLV and JSU with their bodies. Then, the sonic boom dropped the letters on the ground, without shaking or shaking, and the drummer was dancing. They bend their backs against gravity, and when they are separated, they will jump out without scruple like james brown.
Today, J-Settes has stood out, dressed in gold lamé and tiger bikini style, jumping up and down, kicking his legs high and throwing out his braids. Their display is proud and eye-catching. For an ending, sonic boom performed its theme in a seductive way, or "soul song" and "preparation". The members of the band spell out the letters of Las Vegas, while the drummer makes "meaningful" movements, with his knees flying to his chest and his body swinging sideways. This "fashion" is described by Williams as "earth-shattering hip rotation". With the prosperity, the whole stadium rose to its height, clapping, cheering and shouting, full of joy and gratitude.
"I'm really proud of them," said Little, coming out with them in a bandleader's suit and tie. "We have a feather on our hat," Sanford said.
Our prosperity comes from 204 kinds of musical instruments, including 37 kinds of trumpet, 29 kinds of trombone and 9 kinds of tuba 19, with amazing timbre. (Zach Arias) J-Settes chose from hundreds of clothes, and the style can be traced back to the 1970s. Cymbal players, including Tween Jackson who warmed up before the game, will also practice a break dance called Zach Arias on JSU campus on Friday night. For the tuba player Christopher Douglas, practicing for 25 hours a week means "I have to arrange every hour of the day." (Zach Arias) In a competition, percussionist Tony Barnes helped play a black band nicknamed "War and Thunder" and a brass band whose name can be traced back to the Union Army in Drum. In the same post-war period, the first colleges and universities were established for African-Americans. According to William D. Lewis, a military band historian, black colleges and universities have been proud of their music and band projects since the early days of their existence, playing traditional European and American music. It seems that the advanced brilliance of the modern performance style band evolved from the practice of 1946 Florida A&M University, led by william forster, the band director. He once recalled: "We were just stepping and lifting our legs. People think this is the greatest thing on earth. " . "I hired a physical education teacher to help me choreograph and match the steps with music ... Soon, other bands began to do the same."
In Jackson state, the most groundbreaking figure is William W. Davis, whose portrait is hung in two places in this trophy-laden music building today. He used to be a military band player. Later, he arranged and played the trumpet in Kabu Callaway's orchestra. 1948, he became the first conductor of JSU. Davis introduced jazz rhythm and calloway style playing skills to more than 20 students in the military band. By 1963, the number of band members had increased to 88. They played the music of Count Bessie and Duke Ellington in the football match.
197 1 year, Davis was succeeded by Harold Horton, who adopted the name of "southern sonic boom" and created "Tiger Run", and the number of musicians increased to 160. Sanford said: "In the 1970s, the military band was a big event in Harvard Business School, but the real competitor was football." . White universities in the south are very reluctant to recruit black athletes, so historically, black schools are recruiting football superstars like walter payton, who play for Jackson State University. Jerry Rice, the winner of the Hall of Fame, in fact, social media is the main place for this popularity. YouTube, Facebook, Snapchat and other companies are all showing band videos without paying or taking up the advertising lines they created.
Carter pointed out that HBCU has played half a Super Bowl and appeared in popular videos and reality shows. They were very popular in the movie Drum in 2002, which overcame a long story and earned $56 million at the box office in the United States. Florida a & amp； M was one of 90 groups that attended the inauguration ceremony of President Obama in 2009. However, he wrote, "many of these schools are facing serious economic difficulties." He called on Harvard Business School to get the sponsor logo on the band uniform, sell equipment, make professional videos, and start to regard their band as a valuable product, together with "hundreds of thousands of brand loyal consumers". Sanford deeply agrees with this. "Military bands are a good public relations tool, but they can also generate a lot of financial resources. This is what we need to start thinking about.
*****
In college sports, the most competitive teams in the south are the football teams of the University of Alabama and Auburn University. Followed by the competition between Jackson State University and Southern University. Reluctantly, if forced, sonic boom will admit that the southern band nicknamed "human jukebox" is close to rival it. Every time two bands fight, this book is full of tension, drama and excitement. Now, the two bands plan to compete in a new event called Crankfest in New Orleans. ("Crankin" is slang for a very noisy band. )。 "This event will be the most spectacular, dynamic and dynamic performance of the power plant military band in China! ! Tickets range from $25 to $60, according to "In the Cosmic Capital Band" on the website of Crankfest.
Usually the sonic boom band rehearses from 5:30 pm to 10:00 pm every day. This week, the rehearsal ended after midnight because the band tried to master 15 new songs. The southern band is called the human jukebox because it can play many songs. No one knows how long the fighting will last on Sunday, but prosperity certainly doesn't want to run out of ammunition.
"New Orleans is just a small step from baton rouge," hollinger said. "We are going to enter a rhubarb honeycomb." When the sonic boom bus arrived at the Ta Degomm Lai Stadium in downtown New Orleans, there were already thousands of people outside, and they slowly entered through the turnstiles. Sure enough, many of them wore gold shirts and hats from Southern University.
*****
In the gymnasium, Kurt DJ Su Pamich is spinning a tune for the south, and DJ Popa stands for J Su. Before the battle began, they warmed the crowd with a heavy bass dance rhythm. Rules of engagement are made in advance. The band will wear sportswear instead of uniforms. They won't interrupt each other or try to drown each other. The sonic boom will come first.
Wearing a dark blue warm-up suit, a matching hat and a blue percussion instrument, and sticking a pink sticker on his left cheekbone to promote the cause of breast cancer, when the sonic boom entered the stadium, the drums beat at the maximum volume, and then entered the irresistible fear of "get" and "ready", and the drummers danced wildly. "You all give up!" The announcer shouted that tonight we will reveal who is the hottest band in this land. "The audience lined up in the empty stands, and the jukebox in the audience was at the other end of the court" often imitated and never copied ".
This south drum forest does not have the same strength, and other members of the band remain silent when crossing the stadium into the northeast stand. J-Settes, dressed in plain sports tights and tops, with a big belly and cockiness, doesn't look happy. Their opponents, dancing dolls, wore white gloves and gold tights.
Now the commanders climb the ladder and the battle begins. Roderick Little raised his baton and led the economic prosperity. 1924, he wrote an inspiring old song called Their Bass. Prosperity is excellent, but the henchmen scoff at it. Then it was the turn of the south, and the crowd roared, because the human jukebox must be louder, and the huge copper sound was almost deafening. The drummer in the south made a gesture of cutting his throat to the sonic boom, and the dancing doll shook and rotated, clutching his slightly golden costume.
And then back to the sonic boom. The reduction of scholarships has eroded their volume, which is a problem, but their voices are richer, thicker and more fleshy than those in the south. The balance between wooden pipes and copper pipes, the real power of alto speakers and trombones. The voice in the south is so loud and reckless that the melody is often lost.
"They exaggerate their power, they lose their harmonious balance, and when we do the same, the children will be overexcited," Sanford said, as always optimistic and relaxed. "I can't hear the third note in * * *."
When they don't dance, J-Settes sits in the stands, with one foot behind the other, his hands crossed on his knees, and his back doesn't turn to the dancing doll so subtly. They won't condescend to look at their opponents unless curiosity prevails, at which time a J-Sette may haughtily despise her shoulders. Then when it was time to dance, their ladylike behavior changed completely and they began to dance wildly on the small stage between the stands.
As the battle lasted until the second hour, the band began to mock each other, making mocking gestures and arm movements, twisting their faces in disgust, and shaking their horns and trombones in an insulting and contemptuous way. In the crowd, thousands of people stood up, cheering, booing, dancing, posing, shooting with mobile phones and posting video clips on Twitter and Snapchat.
Later, when the sleepy and sweaty sonic boom came down from the stands, fans from the south flocked to deliver their verdict. "Excuse me, everyone," said Keira, Duke of baton rouge. "We accepted it, no problem." Sonic fans and some independents, these arguments will certainly last for months or even years for completely different sentences. For a neutral young couple from New Orleans, leaving the stadium and going home through the park will bring victory to sonic boom. "They played more kinds of music." It's always noisy Their dancers dance deeply. Southern dancers just do the same thing over and over again.
At this time, the two bands did not climb on their bus, but began to fight again. Drums and rumbles resounded through the night sky.