New Orleans Mardi Gras marching bands are incubators for more than music
February 12, 2010
By Sarah Carr, The Times-Picayune (Source)
With two days left before the band’s first Mardi Gras parade, band leader Wilbert Rawlins wasn’t about to let his troupe of young musicians relax.
Pacing before dozens of rapt and silent teenagers sitting with their instruments in hand, he instructed: “At this point, we should be working on the relentless pursuit of perfection. Just showing up to practice does not make us perfect.”
Rawlins waved his hand dismissively at the array of trophies won by O. Perry Walker’s band through the decades, reminding the students never to rest on past laurels.
“If you’re in here you’ve got to be willing to work,” he said. “One slip of the tongue, that’s one less person. One slip of the hand, that’s one less person. We need everybody.”
In the cramped band room of the West Bank charter school, that “everybody” is more than 100 students strong. It includes novices who only recently picked up an instrument and students with so much musical experience their horns feel like extensions of their hands.
FAMU’s Marching 100 excited about pregame Super Bowl performance
February 7, 2010
(Tallahassee.com)
A blue sky with fluffy white clouds met Florida A&M University’s marching band in West Palm Beach Saturday. But there was no time to enjoy the scenery.
Members of the Marching 100 were given strict orders. Get off the bus quickly. Meet on the football field. Get prepared for a rigorous practice. The 387-member band was there to get down to business — to rehearse its pregame Super Bowl show for Sunday.
Harold and Janice were just two of the nearly 100 area residents who showed up to watch the band practice.
“I come out anytime they’re close to me,” Harold Finley, of West Palm Beach. He was decked out in his own Marching 100 gear. “I played tuba in the band in 1976.”
The band endured a nearly-10-hour trip from Tallahassee to West Palm Beach on Saturday.
FAMU’s band prepares for Super Bowl performance
February 7, 2010
(Talahasse.com) WEST PALM BEACH — Two West Palm Beach hotels across the street from each other will soon be the scene for hundreds of scurrying Florida A&M Marching band members.
The band, known as the Marching 100, is expected to leave Spring Hill Suites and the Courtyard Marriot around 11:30 a.m.
The band has a special show in store for those watching the Super Bowl’s pre-game show.
It’s a tribute to Michael Jackson. However, on this trip, band members have some special guests: Florida A&M’s cheerleaders who are expected to join the band today for a special tribute.
