Clark Atlanta University’s Mighty Marching Panthers doesn’t often travel with the football team on long road trips.

That is why they were surprised last week when CAU President George French Jr., the savvy and charismatic leader of the largest HBCU in Atlanta, decided to send the band to Wilberforce, Ohio, with the football team to play at the Central State University halftime show.

“This is an intentional strategy,” French said. “We are building a culture here at Clark Atlanta University centered around the marching band.”

The Central State trip is not just a game. French said it is part of a larger mission to increase the band’s exposure as it builds the school’s brand, helps raise money, and recruits high-performing students.

All of that will be on full display this weekend as CAU celebrates homecoming, while building the school’s brand and recruiting new members.

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

“We’re probably the biggest ambassador for the university. Anytime the university needs something, the band is right there, front and center,” said first-year band director Torre Goodson.

With 102 members, CAU will field its biggest band in years, helmed by a new band director who grew up in Atlanta playing drums in church before landing a band scholarship at the one-time powerhouse, Morris Brown College.

The homecoming performance will attract the most eyes the band will see all season. A superior performance can attract money, recruits, and perhaps most importantly, status, among Black college ranks.

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

“If your band isn’t top tier, people notice. I want to see the shock and awe and the look on Miles’ face when we march in 100-strong,” said first-year interim Band Director Torre Goodson. ”I love a good underdog story.”

Practice

Last Thursday, the band had its final rehearsal before the long ride to Ohio.

Band members arrive at the band room, tucked inside Panther Stadium, around 6 p.m. to warm up.

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

Section practice starts a few minutes after warm-ups. The brass in one room. The woodwinds across the hall.

Outside, Panther Stadium, with its new red football turf, is a hive of activity.

The 4-1 football team is practicing and the cheerleaders are working out behind the end zone. The softball team is shagging flies on a far field, and a lone baseball player was doing rehab work.

The band’s flag team, known as the “Silver Breeze,” and the dance team, “Essence,” stretch along separate ends of the track.

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

All the while, the drum line provides a constant beat from the stands.

Because they use the same space as the football team, the band can’t hit the field until after the team finishes practicing about 8 p.m. During football season the band typically rehearses between 20 and 25 hours a week, with practices going until 10 p.m. During homecoming, rehearsals can go past midnight.

“I used the long hours as an opportunity to stay structured,” said Zoey Siegel, the 21-year-old captain of the 13-member dance team. “I can schedule out my day where I’m getting my schoolwork done in addition to being at band practice all night.”

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

A trio of serious-looking drum majors, who seemingly lack the ability to smile, stand stoically in gray shirts and black pants. Nyzaiha Daniels is in his second year as a drum major and serves as the leader. Beside him is his twin brother Izaiha Daniels. Beside him is Ah’nyah Samuel, CAU’s first female drum major in seven years.

They tweet their whistles and on-field practice begins.

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

Show Style

The concept of Black college bands emerged in the late 19th century as an artistic offshoot of choral ensembles like the touring Fisk Jubilee Singers and the Hampton University Singers from the 1870s, Fredara Hadley, a New York City-based ethnomusicologist, said.

“From the beginning, they strike a different musical tone from what the choruses and choirs are doing,” said Hadley, who teaches at The Juilliard School.

Black college marching bands began to take their familiar shape in 1946 when William P. Foster established the Florida A & M University Marching 100.

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

Foster brought what he called “pageantry” to his bands by emphasizing repertoire, musicianship, imaginative choreography and high-stepping entertainment, Emory University ethnomusicologist Marvin McNeill, who spent 16 years at the University of Connecticut as an associate band director, said.

Foster abandoned the “corps style” marching of John Philip Sousa in favor of his own “show style,” where halftime performances became must-see events.

“It’s all the body and it goes back to our Africanisms,” McNeill said. “When you look at African dance, it’s the whole embodiment of it. If you’re standing straight and not bent over and dancing, something’s wrong with you.”

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

Other HBCUs adopted the show style and by the 1970s had expanded their repertoires to respond to the culture. They incorporated gospel, jazz, soul, rhythm and blues, pop, hip-hop and funk into their repertoire.

HBCU bands are now solidly part of the American culture. It is common to see an HBCU band play in the Rose Bowl Parade or the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

They have played at Super Bowls and presidential inaugurations.

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

In 1989, FAMU’s Marching 100 was invited to Paris to play at the Bicentennial Celebration of the French Revolution and in 2020 Hampton’s band, The Force, marched in the New Year’s Parade in Rome, Italy.

In 2018 at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, pop superstar Beyoncé centered herself as a drum major and reinterpreted her catalog around the HBCU band sound to create the groundbreaking documentary, “Homecoming: A Film by Beyoncé.”

Credit: Larry Busacca

“Music has been an important way that HBCUs market themselves to the world,” said Hadley, who got her master’s degree at CAU and whose upcoming book, “I’ll Make Me a World,” explores the musical legacies of Black colleges.

Revival

When French arrived at CAU in 2019 as the school’s fifth president, there were 26 students in the marching band.

That was unacceptable. He had spent his previous 14 years at Miles College, a school where up to 20% of the school’s enrollment of about 1,000 students are in the band. CAU’s enrollment is 4,200.

French said aside from building school spirit, organizations like marching bands, which are often the largest and most visible organizations on campus, enhance classroom experiences and impact overall retention rates.

Credit: Steve Schaefer

“I can’t wait until we build this band to 300,” French said.

French hired Goodson as the interim director this year with a specific goal — rebuild the band.

Aside from Saturday games, the CAU bands play in several high school events across the region to show off and recruit. With several seniors graduating, Goodson is looking to bring in at least 60 new students to crack 140 next year.

“We want to be as visible as possible. We are creating a product and pushing it out to the stakeholders,” Goodson said. “Right now, we’re just doing everything we can to recruit. That’s the short term. But the long term is to develop a system that sustains itself.”

Creating a pipeline

Goodson welcomes the pressure. Leading the CAU band is his night job. His day job is directing the band program at Douglas County High School. Having his feet in both camps can create a gold mine for recruiting, he said.

“I’m able to create a pipeline from high school programs, not only in Douglas County, but in Fulton County, Atlanta Public Schools and DeKalb County because I have those connections,” said Goodson, adding that about 60% of the current band is from Georgia high schools. “I know everybody.”

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

Goodson himself attended Tri-Cities High School, before graduating from North Atlanta High School. He got a $10,000 scholarship to play at Morris Brown, which was once the baddest band in the city.

“I’m from East Point and I’d never seen $10,000 in my life,” Goodson said. “But this man came through and said he’s going to give me $10,000 because I can play a drum set.”

He even appeared in the climactic drum battle scene in the movie “Drumline.”

When Morris Brown lost its accreditation in 2002, Goodson transferred to Albany State. After graduating, he taught in Albany for about 10 years before moving to Atlanta.

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

At the same time he got the Douglas County job, he was offered a position at CAU as the band’s percussion coach.

“There was a time when you could not talk about HBCU bands without talking about Georgia and you couldn’t talk about Georgia bands without talking about Clark Atlanta University,” Goodson said. “I want to bring Atlanta back to the center of the HBCU band culture, because we are the center of Black culture.”

Enter Ah’nyah

Nowhere is that clearer than with 22-year-old Ah’nyah Samuel, one of the three drum majors. Goodson met Samuel in 2016 when she was a quiet Douglas County High School freshman and declined his invitation to join the band as a trombone player.

She waited until her sophomore year and quickly rose to section leader.

“I saw leadership in her from Day One,” Goodson said. “She’s always been the type of person who figures out ways to navigate challenges.”

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

But when Samuel said she wanted to audition for drum major, Goodson told her that she was so good at leading the trombone section that the band couldn’t afford to remove her.

“He saw something in me that I didn’t,” Samuel said. “Maybe it was the determination he saw. He saw that I wanted to be better.”

When it was time to pick a college, Samuel reached out to Goodson, who at the time was also the associate band director at CAU. He invited her to come play with the CAU trombone section.

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

Before her senior year, she announced that she was auditioning for drum major.

“As a woman, we need that type of representation. It is a male-dominated field, so there are not many of us,” Samuel said. “When you think about ladies in marching bands, you think of the dancers. Not the ones playing the music or holding a mace.”

Goodson told her no for the same reasons he said in high school — she was too good a musician. This time she didn’t accept it. She was auditioning.

“When it came time for her to audition for drum major, it was undeniable. Her performance acumen on the field is undeniable,” Goodson said. “The leadership was there. Even though she has this tiny stature, when she speaks, when she addresses the band, it’s like she is 6′2″ and carrying three pistols in her pocket. People listen and respond to her. We couldn’t deny her.”

Understood

The Central State performance in Ohio would be a truncated version of the Oct. 5 home performance against Savannah State University that was dedicated to musicians and artists who have recently died, including James Earl Jones, Prince and Tito Jackson.

Having walked through the routine and going over some vocal ad-libs, the full band — including the Essence and Silver Breeze — are ready to perform the whole show: “King’s Motorcade,” “Torture,” “I Wanna Be Your Lover,” “TGIF,” “Big Mama,” and “Funky Good Time.”

“King’s Motorcade,” goes flawless, but the intro to “Torture” is muddled.

“That’s a no for me,” yells Assistant Band Director Brandon Owens.

The twins spin around and order the whole band to drop. Every member quickly drops to the red turf for a round of pushups.

“You are not starting at the same time,” Owens tells the band after they finish their pushups. “Your attack is weak. Understand?”

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

“Understood,” responds the band in unison.

They start again from the top. With a stopwatch in his hand, Goodson watches quietly as they complete it.

“Seven minutes and 55 seconds,” he says, proud to have shaved about two minutes off the performance. “I can live with that.”

Goodson dismisses the band for the night but lingers to go over notes with Owens, assistant band director Warren Shaw, and Anya James, the band’s operation manager.

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

“We gotta be tight for homecoming,” he says.

Walking off the field, Goodson points to the corner of the stands where the Miles College band will sit at homecoming.

They are bringing one of the best and biggest bands in the conference into Panther Stadium, not to mention it is where CAU President French spent 14 years.

“This means a lot to President French because he was one of the driving forces behind the growth of the band at Miles College and now, he’s one of the driving forces behind the growth of the band here at Clark Atlanta University,” Goodson said. “It’s his older child versus the baby that he’s been developing, and he wants to see how that’s gonna turn out. I intend to give President French a show that he’s been looking for. I am looking forward to every minute of that game.”

The next generation

Outside of the band room after practice, Kimberly Brown greeted members of the band as they went back to their dorms. Brown played piccolo in the band from 2008 to 2013 and will march as an alumni member during homecoming.

But she also brought her 13-year-old daughter, Taylor, with her. Taylor plays the trumpet and hopes to one day march and play on a collegiate level.

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

“I want her to feel the culture of HBCUs,” Brown said. “Homecoming is such an expression of creative arts and there is nothing better than this.”

At that moment, Goodson notices Taylor and makes a beeline toward her. He tells her being in a marching band can instill discipline and prepare her for life.

And by the time she graduates from high school, the CAU Mighty Marching Panthers will be the biggest, baddest marching band in Georgia.

“Atlanta is where you want to be,” he told her. “CAU is where you want to be.”

Social Media Producer Ron Williams contributed to this article.

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