HBCU band culture goes note for note in showcase

MATT LACZKO | THE CHARLOTTE POST

Johnson C. Smith University’s International Institution of Sound marching band is one of six Carolinas schools to participate in the Big HBCU Southern Classic Battle of the Bands March 15 at Bojangles Coliseum.

The Big HBCU Southern Classic Battle of the Bands is going indoors.

The March 15 showcase of 10 historically Black college bands at Bojangles Coliseum Charlotte will be hosted by DJ Envy and Loren LoRosa of “The Breakfast Club” with a live performance by platinum recording artist and North Carolina Central University alumna Sunshine Anderson (“Heard It All Before.”)

Tickets range from $39 to 233.50 for VIP packages and are available through ticketmaster.com. Onsite parking and entry to the fanfare are free with ticket purchase. Admission for children under 3 is free.

“My favorite part is seeing those bands get off the buses and enter the stadium and arenas and seeing all the people just go crazy and those first notes,” said Alex Davis, president of Big HBCU and a Johnson C. Smith University alumnus who played snare with the International Institution of Sound marching band. “It’s just nothing like it.” 

Davis and his team picked the bands based on who stood out throughout the season from their hard work and perseverance to include smaller bands that are too often overlooked, like JCSU’s.

“I think what has put us on the stage this year for the battle is that we have shown that we are resilient,” , said Tomisha Price-Brock, JCSU’s director of bands. “We have shown that we’re in a new era of excellence. We’ve shown that we’re in a transformational stage and we’re doing some great things and people are starting to notice. I’m excited that this event is in our hometown and we get to participate.”

North Carolina A&T State University’s Blue and Gold Marching Machine and rival NCCU’s Sound Machine will perform against each other in a Charlotte battle since 2016 at JCSU as will Winston-Salem State University’s Red Sea of Sound. The showcase isn’t limited to in-state schools, though. 

Hampton (Virginia) University’s Marching Force, Alcorn State (Mississippi) University’s Sounds of Dyn-O-Mite and rival Mississippi Valley State University’s Mean Green Marching Machine will participate. So will Talladega (Alabama) College’s Great Tornado Band as well as Benedict College’s Band of Distinction and South Carolina State University’s Marching 101. 

“The band is really your family,” said JCSU sophomore Jermain Jeans, who plays with the IIOS. “You’re with your family almost for 10 hours out of the day and then even when you guys aren’t in band camp you want to spend time with each other. We’re having movie nights. We’re having band bonding activities with each other that aren’t even mandatory, we’re making posters for when our rookies come in to help guide them around campus, affirmations to give them.”

Bands are an integral part of HBCU culture. Their musicianship, choreography and showmanship light up football Saturdays and is often the highlight. Band battles are an extension of that pageantry when the showcases highlight their dedication to building endurance, musicianship, dance routines, and field shows before stepping on the field or parade route.

“The early mornings, the late nights, they pay off,” said Jeans, who marches with cymbals on performance days, but also plays tuba, trombone, piano and bass guitar. “It showed us to get where we want to be we must put the work in and everybody … did what they had to do to put the work in. We’re going to continue to just evolve and grow.”

Said Davis: “It’s the best times of your life. I feel like even though you might be a broke college kid and you’re like, ‘man this is hard,’ but when you sit back and look at it you really appreciate those times.” 
Showcases like Big HBCU Southern Classic champions marching band culture on its own stage with an opportunity to give back.

“I’ve been an advocate for bands, and in band, pretty much since I’ve been able to walk,” Davis said. “The reason why we do these different events is because most colleges and HBCU marching programs don’t get any funding. So, these events are built so we can help them with scholarships and things like that because if it wasn’t for band programs a lot of students would not go to college, probably myself included.”

That culture is what makes Black colleges unique, Price-Brock said.

“HBCUs develop the total person, especially if you are of African descent or Black and brown descent and you’ve come up through a school where your history was kind of repressed or it was halfway taught or you were in a school where you were the minority in a school and you didn’t see many people that looked like you let alone teach in a class where you’re taught,” she said. “Being able to be in a community of like-minded people that look like you are learning more about your heritage while also learning how to shape your own identity, values and beliefs. I think that is the essence of HBCU culture.”

There’s also the creativity of marching bands and showcases like the Charlotte classic.

“Music and arts programs and student activities on campus help to just enhance the experience and allow you to express yourself in a creative manner, in a judgement free manner, in a place where you are a part of a team,” Brock said. “You belong and you can have fun serving not only to showcase your talents and your identity but also to serves as an ambassador for your institution to bring others into to this knowledge and enlightenment that we have at our HBCUs.”

Said Price-Brock: “Having an opportunity to come back into an event like this is going to speak volumes for our university, volumes for our community and it’s going to definitely be a motivator for our students and our potential recruits in the future as well.”

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