Arts Magnet: How a school in Texas changed Music

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.