The Cats were gangsta before it was cool.

I learned a new phrase off the radio this morning, and in the process, I took a trip down memory lane, back to my high school band days.  Now, before you start laughing too hard (“There was this one time, at band camp…”) let me tell my story.  [Caveat - The following narrative is my personal recollection of the events as they happen, albeit through the haze of nearly four decades.  Your mileage may vary.]

I am an alumni of Valdosta High School, and like my two older brothers before me, I played trombone (maybe even the same trombone at some point) in The Marchin’ Cats.  In the 60s and 70s, the VHS marching band was a nationally recognized, and awarded, program.  Along with several state, and regional competitions, the Cats had also won The Greatest Band in Dixie Parade Competition in New Orleans, LA, twice, The Winter Nationals Marching Competition in Miami, FL, once, and The Festival of States National Field Championship in St. Petersburg, FL, once, by the time I entered high school in the fall of 1974.

At the beginning of my sophomore year, our band director of 15+ years, Frank Butenschon (“Mr. B”), announced that this would be his last year teaching at VHS.  That fall, we swept the awards in at least one, but I really think it was two, regional marching competitions.  The band then competed for a second time in The Winter Nationals Marching Competition in Miami, FL.  We took third place.  Mr. B told us later that he really couldn't argue with the judge’s choice for first place: Louisiana’s Arcadia High School; however, the runner-up, Cicero High School from New York, was now on our list.

Fast-forward to the spring of my junior year.  Mr. B had stayed at VHS for one more year, and we were competing, again, in The Festival of States National Field Championship, which was part of a three-day event, in St. Petersburg, FL.  And, guess who one of the other participating bands from around the nation happened to be?  

 

Long blog short, we won, and quite frankly, I can’t even remember what place Cicero finished.  However (circling back around to the beginning of this story), what I do remember is that Cicero used the song “America” from West Side Story as their marching cadence.  After we heard them play it for the first time, our percussion section got together under the trees across from our hotel, and figured it out in about five to ten minutes.  It became our official unofficial cadence from that moment forward. 

In other words, back in 1977, and at least 25 years before it started happening in the hip-hop culture, a bunch of high school band nerds from South Georgia “jacked their beat!”