Drumline Live brings energy, tradition of historically Black college marching bands to Ames
A high-energy synchronized music show inspired by the marching band traditions of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU), “Drumline Live” will take the stage at 7 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 29, at Stephens Auditorium.
The name “Drumline Live” can be a bit deceiving, according to Brian Snell, assistant music director and tour manager for the show. It’s about more than drums. Much like the 2002 film “Drumline,” starring Nick Cannon, it’s the story of the entire band.
“The drumline is the foundation, the pulse of the band, of course, but the show is about the band,” Snell said. “So you get the drums, but you get everything else too – the trumpets, the trombones, the horns, the choreography, the dancers.
“It’s essentially a celebration of HBCU culture and HBCU marching bands.”
When marching bands began to form at HBCUs, “African Americans at the time just infused our culture into the band,” Snell said. “Whatever music we were listening to, whatever movement and dance steps we were doing at the time, we figured this was a great way to express our culture, transform the performance and make it something specific to our audience, which was familiar with all the elements.”
Over the decades, the HBCU marching band tradition has grown in popularity, has spread geographically and has been widely imitated, he said.
“It’s a true American art form,” Snell said. “I’d put it right up there with jazz as something that was created here by Americans. It doesn’t exist in this form anywhere else in the world.”
Different scenes in “Drumline Live” explore various genres of music that have given inspiration to HBCU bands – genres like big band, swing, jazz, hip-hop, gospel, soul and Motown.
“From Earth, Wind and Fire all the way up to Beyonce and modern hip-hop,” Snell said. “From way-back-when all the way to the present, we do a little bit of everything.”
Snell has been involved in the Drumline production since its inception in about 2004, when he was contacted by Don Roberts, the founder, creator, CEO and director of the show.
Roberts was the executive band consultant for the movie “Drumline.”
“Everything you saw in the movie as far as the marching bands, the choreography, the drills, the music – everything that took place with the bands – Mr. Roberts did all of those things,” Snell said.
Roberts took the momentum of the cultural phenomenon inspired by the movie and adapted it to a live, theatrical production. A collaboration with Columbia Artist Management Incorporated started in 2007, and the “Drumline Live” show started touring in 2009.
Snell had the HBCU marching band experience firsthand when he was a music major at Florida A&M University in Tallahassee, Florida, where he was a tuba player, head drum major and part of the world-famous “Marching 100.” The band formed in 1946 and today is known as "The Most Imitated Marching Band in America.”
“My father was in the band at Florida A&M, as well, in the 1960s. So I was a second-generation band member there,” he said. “He was in the band in high school, too, at the same high school I went to. So I’ve been a part of the culture for as long as I can remember.”
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Saturday’s performance of “Drumline Live” is made possible, in part, by a gift from Cathy and Randy Fitzgerald.
Tickets range from $35 to $65 and are available at the Stephens Auditorium ticket office and online at ticketmaster.com.
This article originally appeared on Ames Tribune: Drumline Live brings show based on HBCU marching bands to Stephens
