Dr. Jimmie James, Voice of The Sonic Boom Retires, from Jackson State University

There are ghosts in this room.

Five levels of plastic chairs - white, orange, yellow, blue - form a large semi-circle. Dozens of dark blue acoustic boards align the white cement block walls like empty picture frames.

And in the air, as tangible as the wind if one’s imagination is in tune, sounds from the past nestle around you like a warm blanket.

“Is this … ?” a visitor asks.

“This is where The Boom practices,” Jimmie James Jr. nods and smiles, looking out over the empty rehearsal hall.

As in Jackson State University’s The Sonic Boom of the South marching band, which James has announced for since 1966. He has been a member of the band and its assistant director. He helped organize a name-that-band contest among students and faculty in 1971, when The Sonic Boom was born.

James, chair of the Department of Music, is retiring at the end of the school year after 43 years at JSU.

He leaves a legacy.

“Yeah, and he’s also leaving a tremendous pair of shoes to fill,” says Samuel Griffin, band director at Alcorn State University for the past 42 years.

James, 70, is best known to the public for his original, ear-catching, flamboyant announcing during The Boom’s performances.

“Ladies and gentlemen. Jackson State University proudly presents the quintessence of contemporary sounds and maneuvers, the summa cum laude of bands, The Sonic Boom of the South!”

That introduction is as synonymous with JSU football games as tailgating and touchdowns.

But James doesn’t stop with the introduction: All right, strap on your seat belts and hold on tight. From the tuba section of The Sonic Boom of the South, Tremeris Sanders!

It is not just the words, but the smooth, soulful delivery that sets James apart.

After James suffered a brain aneurysm three years ago, fans weren’t sure he would return. But when they heard his voice at halftime of the 2007 season opener, more than 50 JSU supporters were waiting at the elevator as James descended from the press box. They wanted to shake his hand, welcome him back, say thanks.

“Before he started announcing, it was an afterthought to most bands - just get somebody up there to read something,” says Lewis Liddell, a former student of James’ and now director of bands and associate professor of music at JSU. “But Dr. James took it to a whole new level. The first time I heard him, it was mind boggling. And everybody started trying to follow in his footsteps.”

They still are. After James and The Boom performed at the NFL exhibition game in Jackson two years ago between the Indianapolis Colts and New Orleans Saints, James received a message from the director of bands at LSU. “He wanted my script,” James says.

When The Boom performed at the 1991 NBA All-Star game in Charlotte, N.C., the public address announcer told James during rehearsals not to worry about the announcing part, that he would handle it for him at the game.

James informed the man: “I’ve done this before.” And he burst into his intro.

“OK,” the man said in a stunned voice. “I think you’ll do.”

And at the Motown 30: What’s Going’ On! TV show broadcast in by CBS from the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood, there were four people on stage as the show came to a close: Legendary singers Smokey Robinson and Stevie Wonder, actress and dancer Debbie Allen, and James.

But for every day spent in the spotlight, James has worked thousands more behind the scenes helping young adults reach their potential.

Example: Phyllis Lewis-Hale was an accounting major at JSU and a member of the choir in the 1984. James happened to hear her sing one day.

“He told me ‘You need to be majoring in music. You’ve got a gift,’ ” Lewis-Hale recalls.

She switched her major, eventually got into opera, studied in New York and Philadelphia and performed in Italy, Germany and Austria. Lewis-Hale is now an assistant professor of music and director of JSU’s annual opera workshop.

“He changed my life by encouraging me,” Lewis-Hale says. “And now I want to do the same thing for my students.”

He grew up the oldest of six children to Jimmie and Annie Mae James in Hattiesburg. His dad worked for a lumber mill. His mother was a licensed beautician.

“My parents weren’t well educated but they were heavily involved with our schools,” James recalls. “My mother was head of the PTA for five years, and my dad was the treasurer. Both of them monitored our schoolwork very closely.”

James heard the most beautiful sound he could ever imagine one day, and it was coming from a saxophone on a record player. He mentioned to his parents how it struck a deep chord within him.

A few days later, his father - who walked to and from work every day - came home carrying a saxophone.

“He had worked out a deal from a music store in town to pay for it by the month,” James says.

James learned to play that saxophone at Royal Street High School. But he soon switched instruments.

“The brother right under me (Arthur) wanted to learn the saxophone, too,” he says. “We couldn’t afford a second instrument, so I gave the saxophone to him and started playing one of the school’s instruments.”

It was a tuba, from which comes JSU’s signature sound.

“In high school, we would challenge the tuba sections of other bands during games,” James says. “We were the best, and we carried a bit of an attitude about it.

“I’ve always believed in a solid bass sound to lay the foundation.”

James brought his playing ability and confidence to JSU in 1955 on a band scholarship. He also had been recruited by Tennessee State University - a frightening thought for Tiger fans that James could have been announcing for a rival all these years.

After finishing JSU in 1959, he taught at Earl Travallion Attendance Center in Hattiesburg. One of his first students was Griffin, who would later become a friendly rival at Alcorn.

James returned to JSU in 1966 as an assistant professor of music. He continued his studies, becoming the first African American to earn a Ph.D in music education from the University of Southern Mississippi.

While he is known for his association with The Boom, James says he is just as proud of the music department’s 19 ensembles.

“Whether it’s a jazz ensemble, a percussion ensemble, a choir or whatever, we want our young people to be the best,” says James, husband to the former Carrie Green for the past 46 years and father of one son. “We want to train them to compete, to become solid citizens, to go on and share what they have learned here.”

James deflects praise, and swats away any notion that he is a legend. He wants to be known and remembered, first and foremost, as an educator.

“I don’t give up on youngsters,” he says. “I refuse. Every child should be given the opportunity to maximize his or her potential.

“To help them do that, you have to be willing to sit down and organize their strengths and weaknesses, help them maximize what they do best. That’s all teaching is when you get down to it.”

Source | clarion ledger