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| Dupe and R.C. Williams, former Booker T students. |
Prelude: Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars
There is a school in Dallas called the Booker T. Washington
High School for the Performing Arts, but everyone calls it the Arts Magnet. It
is known for its distinguished graduates who go on to have successful careers
in the arts, dance, theatre and music.
One of the school’s graduates is Norah Jones. In 2002, she
released her first album. It was a monster: it sold 26 million copies and won
five Grammies including Album of the Year, Record of the Year and New Artist.
It was one of those albums you could play from beginning to end and enjoy each
song; songs like Don’t Know Why, Come Away with Me, and Turn me on.
Another one of the school’s graduates have become the face
and an ambassador of Dallas – Erykah Badu. After leaving the Dallas school she
became a part of a musical collective who call themselves the Soulquarians.
Among the members of the Soulquarians were Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, James Poysner (both of The Roots), D’Angelo
and the late J Dilla.
The story of Erykah Badu is a Booker T. Washington success
story. Shortly after Erykah Badu broke on the scene, sometime after the Baduism
album, she instructed fellow Arts Magnet alumnus Geno Young to put a band
together for her. Erykah Badu’s current keyboard player and music director,
R.C. Williams, went to the Arts Magnet school and so did her current bass
player Braylon Lacy.
If Erykah Badu is the musical icon of Dallas, Roy Hargrove
is the icon of the Arts Magnet. Hargrove with his trumpet and flugelhorn plays
a music that America has a love affair with – jazz. Hargrove himself has gone
on to win two Grammies.
The famed trumpet player Winton Marsalis visited the Arts
Magnet, the story is told in a May, 1996, Texas Monthly article. He was so
impressed with the young Roy Hargrove that Marsalis invited Hargrove to his
show at Caravan of Dreams in Fort Worth.
It was at that show that Hargrove connected with Larry
Clothier, a man that was to become very influential to the career of Hargrove.
Clothier got Hargrove to sit in with renowned musicians like Herbie Hancock and
had Hargrove tour Europe; all this while still a student at Booker T.
Washington.
Another one of the students there was Edie Brickell. She is
renowned, in particular, for a song with a memorable guitar riff and a
brilliant piece of songwriting – What I am from the album Shooting Rubberbands
at the Stars.
Many can still sing along to her lyrics:
“I'm not aware of too many things
I know what I know if you know what I mean
Philosophy, is a walk on a slippery rock
Religion, is a smile on a dog
I'm not aware of too many things
I know what I know if you know what I mean
Chuck me in the shallow water
Before I get too deep
What I am is what I am are you what you are or what.”
The song is also known for its recognizable guitar riff. The
guitar player Kenny Withrow and other members of the band, known as the New
Bohemians, all went to the Arts Magnet.
It is important to note that earlier in life at the William B.
Miller Elementary School and at the Oliver Wendell Holmes Middle School, Roy
Hargrove received instruction from music teacher Dean Hill. In junior high
Dallas saxophonist-flutist David “Fathead” Newman – who played with Ray Charles
– played at a student assembly in which Hargrove was in attendance. (Holmes
Middle school under Dean Hill was a hotbed of talent. Other noteworthy students
were Danny O’brien, Keith Anderson and Keith Loftis.)
Many of the students – Nora Jones is the daughter of a
famous musician – had a musical foundation before entering Booker T.
Washington. Their skills were enhanced at Booker T. Washington.
It was in 2008 that the Booker T. Washington school was
having a celebration. The community had got together to raise millions of
dollars and the school was moving to a new building. What better way to celebrate
than to have some of its famous students come back and put on a concert!
Nora Jones played a few songs. Roy Hargrove blew his
trumpet. And many others came back including Edie Brickell. (Edie Brickell and
her New Bohemians reunited for a concert again in 2014.)
Clusters: Vibing with Wynton Marsalis
What exactly do the students do at Booker T? For a look
inside we turn to another Arts Magnet alumnus Shaun Martin, another
multi-Grammy winner.
“Of course, you take your major classes English and your
Math and stuff,” Martin said in an interview with Tom Haynes of Piano Clubhouse.
“Half of your day you’re doing your history, algebra, all that kind of stuff
and on the other half of the day you get to focus on your cluster. The clusters
were dance, music, visual arts and theatre. My cluster was actually music
synthesis.
“It started at the Arts Magnet; that kind of opened another
door. They will bring in people like Wynton Marsalis. They will bring different
artists and we will have jam sessions with them. You’ll have a jam session with
Wynton Marsalis – before lunch! Whoa! That was kind of heavy.
“It was also at Arts Magnet that a group called New
Deliverance started, a gospel choir; started by a couple of young ladies and
Myron Butler.
“From that, after that kind of started then Linda Searight
started God’s Property of New Jack. The whole premise was to have like a New
Jack Swing type of gospel choir. And they succeeded, very well. That opened up
the door for other types because then you started going to the Bobby Joneses,
Gospel’s Best.…It all started here. The more you go out, the more you meet
people. That’s kind of how everything started. It was kind of that constant
progression.
“My first day, the day I auditioned for Arts Magnet, this
guy named Robert Searight was in the mini lab. That’s where I first met him
officially. I met him before but I met him officially that day.
“He said, My mom is starting this group. I say, OK, cool. I’ll
go home and ask my Momma. I was like twelve at the time. They had a musical at
it used to be called New Born Baptist Church right here in Oak Cliff.
“That was a whole new eye-opening experience. At 13, 14
years old, it was like whoa: that’s when I was introduced to people like Bobby
Sparks, Kirk (Franklin). Kirk had just done his record.”
Geno Young was also schooled at the Dallas Arts Magnet. “I look at
Arts Magnet as a breeding ground for a lot,” he said in a Grown Folks Music
article. “It was such an open environment; it really fostered the creative
aspect and collaboration. That sounds obvious, like a school like Booker T
should offer that, but you see these teachers that are more like professors,
pushing you to experiment and do your own thing. Always encouraging you to put
a small group together, get a combo together, or suggesting ‘why don’t you
write a song?’
“When you are in an environment like that at 14 you can’t help but
develop a sense of musical freedom, artistically. I think that’s why the bond
is so tight amongst the musicians – look at my relationships with Shaun Martin,
R.C. Williams, and Robert “Sput” Searight. We all ended up working together. I
think it was the professors. Everyone there could do everything. Literally, go
in and see Erykah there and know she was just Apples from the dance department,
but also knowing she did music and it wasn’t in any way weird; it wasn’t a
surprise. You do what you do. Teachers would say ‘oh, yeah, she sings, too.
Come sing for her.’
“I was in the Lab Singers with Myron Butler; he was the pianist for
the Lab Singers. Sput was the drummer in our small group, and Braylon Lacy. I
was playing and arranging and that was how we all got introduced to each other,
really.
“I remember knowing Sput was a drummer, then going from my classical
piano lesson into a practice room and hearing him play piano and I was like ‘what
the hell? He plays like that, too?’ Here’s Sput sitting in a jazz vocalist’s
class with Myron Butler one minute and then writing all these Gospel tunes and
pop tunes outside of that.
“When we got there Erykah and Roy were seniors, so I saw Roy go off
with Dizzy Gillespie when I was a freshman.
“And you know what is not talked about is the influence of Arts Jazz —
Booker T had its own festival with major players like Dizzy Gillespie and
George Benson who came to the Meyerson. It was a serious festival that rivaled
the IAJE (International Association of Jazz Education) – and it was right here
in Dallas!
“Artists like Maynard Ferguson would come and do clinics for the
public. People traveled in and they had concerts every night at the Meyerson.
It was that kind of stuff – when Roy was playing with Dizzy Gillespie and then
Dizzy was here and now they’re taking him away.”
Mike Mitchell, a more recent graduate of Booker T, said, in the Dallas
Observer, “I think it’s the greatest arts school in the world.” Mitchell,
barely 20 years old, plays drums for Stanley Clarke, world-renowned jazz bass
player.
Epilogue:An Eye to the Future
Shaun Martin returned to Booker T years later and he marveled at all
the fantastic new musical equipment the students have. But he quickly he added,
fancy instruments aside, the school would be nothing without its teachers.
One of the teachers was the late James O. Gray. Gray would often sit
in on trumpet or bass with his students. “When he heard Roy (Hargrove) playing
at the arts magnet, he brought his Clifford Brown, all his professional jazz
trumpeters’ records to let him listen to them,” his wife Karolyn Gray told the
Dallas News. “He saw the potential in him as he’d seen in others.”
Another teacher is Bill Marantz, director of jazz studies. Marantz, a
former professional player himself, thought so highly of Roy Hargrove, the
student, that Marantz never played around Roy Hargrove. “He was that good!”
Marantz said in the Dallas News. In the past, Marantz has played with Gladys
Knight, Nancy Wilson and Frankie Valli. He won numerous awards and has authored
respected books on jazz. Marantz own son, Matt Marantz, is another one of
Booker T’s famous graduates, who has played at the White House and with Herbie
Hancock.
Famous musicians aside, it is important to note that Booker T students
have been equally successful in movies, classical music, dance and other arts.
But that is another story for another writer.
It is also important to note that there are famous arts high schools
around the country: New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts which turned out
the Marsalis brothers among others; Houston’s High School for the Performing
and Visual Arts which produced pianist Robert Glasper and drummer Chris “Daddy”
Dave; and there is another one Philadelphia High School for Creative and
Performing Arts, alma mater of Boyz to Men and Questlove of the Roots, among
others.
There are more arts schools throughout the country, some of which used
the Dallas school as its model. Which schools came first and which influenced
the other is another story for another day.
