Once a Band Geek, Always a Band Geek

My marching band history compels me to pass along this story from today's New York Times about a wildly successful camp run by the Marching 100 from Florida A&M University. They're not your typical college marching band:

The Marching 100 has created a revolution in band style, radically infusing the traditional catalog of songs and formations with the sounds and dances of black popular culture. 'It slides, slithers, swivels, rotates, shakes, rocks and rolls,' the band’s founding director, Prof. William P. Foster, wrote in his memoirs. “'t leaps to the sky, does triple twists, and drops to earth without a flaw, without missing either a beat or a step.'

But that's not all. Campers, in addition to learning field moves, perform with concert, chamber, or jazz ensembles, as well. And they come from all over the world for the privilege.