The Little Band That Could
February 20, 2007
Purple is the color of royalty, and in New Orleans the St. Augustine High School marching band, the Purple Knights, are the kings of Mardi Gras.
A year and a half after Katrina flooded New Orleans and scattered its residents, the members of the Purple Knights have reunited to march together and trumpet their return. It’s a point of pride for the band members and for the residents of New Orleans.
With donated equipment and shiny new uniforms, the band will march up to 70 miles in as many as 10 parades this Mardi Gras season.
“When you hear the sounds of the trumpet and see the precision of the marchers, this is a group of young men who are disciplined and talented and they represent the best of New Orleans,” said Sandy Shilstone of the New Orleans Tourism and Marketing Corp.
They also represent the best hope of New Orleans’ return as a thriving, cultural city.
Instrumental Players
February 13, 2007
Source: Gambit Weekly
BY ALISON FENSTERSTOCK
L.E. Rabouin Senior High School at 4 p.m. on a February afternoon is an exciting place. The buzz of tired excitement on the students waiting for rides or just milling around, hanging out on Carondelet Street, is contagious. It’s easy to flash back to the feeling of getting released from another day of high school, with the warming weather smelling like spring and Mardi Gras. At the back of the school, though, in the de facto band room, there’s a different kind of excitement building.
Rabouin (pronounced rob-WAYNE), a Recovery District school, has historically never had a marching band. All that changed, though, at the beginning of the 2006-07 school year, when 25-year-old instructor Dinerral Shavers, who also played snare drum in the Hot 8 Brass Band, petitioned the school to start one. Once he got the go-ahead to post a call for students interested in playing in the band, Rabouin band director Darryl Person — who took over the band after Shavers was murdered on Dec. 28, 2006 — says the response within a day was more than 80 students. He estimates that all but about 10 had never played before.
