Band geeks unite. It's time to pay your dues.

[Thomas Maurice Booth]

http://www.tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dl ... 10315/1010


Originally published August 1, 2006
Strike up the band

By Jennifer Jefferson
DEMOCRAT STAFF WRITER
Band geeks unite. It's time to pay your dues.

Freshmen who are interested in joining Florida A&M University's Marching 100 are trickling in.

Seniors of the prestigious college marching band say that although the reward is great, it's not without its challenges and discipline.

However, Julian White, chairman of the Department of Music and director of bands at FAMU, told members recently that his staff and administration will be heavy-handed if there is any evidence of hazing.

"If this band hazes, it will disband," White said. "It doesn't matter that the band is an institution."

"She will say that she made a tough decision that someone had to make," White said about interim FAMU President Castell Bryant's probable response to a hazing incident among members.

FAMU's administration decided to boot the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity from the campus until 2013 for an alleged hazing incident involving a pledge.

White is a member of Kappa Alpha Psi, and so is Shelby Chipman, assistant to the director of bands.

White asked the group of young people: What will be your legacy?

The Marching 100 has been in trouble before for hazing.

FAMU trustees agreed to pay Ivery Luckey, a former band member from Ocala, $50,000 for injuries he reportedly received during a hazing incident. Luckey said a 1998 paddling, during which he was reportedly hit at least 300 times, sent him to the hospital and left him permanently injured.

Marcus Parker won a $1.8 million verdict in his civil battery case. Parker, a trumpet player, checked into a local hospital with kidney failure after being struck repeatedly with a paddling board, reportedly as part of a band initiation.

Chipman conducted a midday rehearsal one day last week with 30 students.

He shouted out directions that would be important to the members in classes and in life, such as: "Take pride in it" and "Make it important."

These sentiments were echoed by senior members of the band who have in the last couple of years performed at the Super Bowl and the Grammy Awards.

"I came here for the band and then I chose a career," said Jean-Paul Ralph, a senior sousaphone player from Miami, who has performed with the Marching 100.

He predicts the band "should be a tighter-running machine." In previous years, leaders and band members "wanted the fame but didn't want to work. You have to learn from the hard work. Just because you made it, doesn't mean you have arrived," Ralph said.

"It's not as easy as it looks," said Cimona Smalls, a senior nursing student from Charleston, S.C. She plays the clarinet. "It was way more than I expected, but nothing that I can't handle."

"We are going through the same conditioning that there has been for 30 years," Ralph said.

Most members predict that this will be a good year for the band, with a spread of good music, talented musicians and plenty of fun times ahead.

With the allure of one day performing in France, as past band members did, or at the Grammys, as drum major Mike Scott did alongside rapper Kanye West, self-proclaimed "band geek" Scott tells new band members: "Don't try to be like me, be better than me."

Being better includes leaving a legacy untainted by a hazing incident.

"No one is being hazed to be in the band," Ralph said. "We don't want to jeopardize our education or reputation."

[MartyNeilan]

Luckey said a 1998 paddling, during which he was reportedly hit at least 300 times, sent him to the hospital and left him permanently injured.

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