THE TRUTH, THE WHOLE TRUTH, AND NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH

About the Book

After terminating my tenure and positions as Trumpet Teacher, Associate Director of Bands and Chairman of Instrumental Music at Florida A&M University in 1980, I was bombarded with questions and often criticized on the wisdom of abandoning the pathway I had earned as heir apparent to the position of Director of Bands. Rumors were also whispered that I was fired for involvement in questionable and unprofessional faculty-student relationships. I deliberately hesitated to answer such questions, first, because they could possibly be interpreted as my being critical of the people and the program that made it possible for me to develop whatever God given talents I possessed. Second, I chose to quietly accept said criticisms and dismiss the rumors to avoid giving them credibility by commenting on them one way or the other. However, I have always felt an obligation to provide the truth to the friends, colleagues, and fans that assisted in the realization of my professional pursuits at FAMU. These questions and inquiries gradually subsided after my appointment as Chairman of Fine Arts at the University of North Florida four years later. Thirty one years later, the disturbing news from Orlando, Florida, announcing the death of Robert Champion, a FAMU Drum Major, renewed the urgency for me to address long standing and new questions on various aspects about FAMU’s band. The untimely death of Champion resulted, allegedly, from a brutal “ritual of acceptance” hazing, on the occasion of the 2011 Orange Blossom Classic football game between the Florida A&M and Bethune Cookman Universities. Regrettably many supporters, fans and former band members, including myself, had long feared such an occurrence would happen sooner or later. I was similarly harassed as a freshman during the 1958 band season following the Orange Blossom Classic held in Miami. In spite of my negative treatment, I went on to become Band President and, after graduating, Associate Director of this esteemed organization. Therefore, I feel intimately familiar with the band and its history, including the unsanctioned tradition of hazing, and feel competent to voice my opinions on the question of hazing and on the current and future status of the FAMU band program. Following the death of Mr. Champion, I again began receiving renewed calls, visits, and e-mails, inquiring of my thinking and position on the situation at hand. After Dr. Julian White, Director of Bands, was unceremoniously terminated, over 150 former students encouraged me to seek the position of Director. Obviously, those encouraging me to do so, did not factor in my advancing age or health status. Nonetheless, these renewed questions awakened the need and obligation for me to speak out and weigh- in on long standing issues about the band and my reasons for abandoning it. Accordingly, the crisis of Mr. Champion’s death has created a renewed sense of urgency for me to finally speak out and describe how such issues led to my departure from the FAMU Marching Band. It is hoped that this booklet will provide truthful answers to long standing questions and serve to explore a plethora of traditions and misconceptions about the band. This writing is a recollection of my personal journey as a student participant and eventual Associate Director of this Band. The reader is therefore afforded to share the author’s perspective, insight and self-discovery during this time frame. It is hoped that this booklet will positively assist in a similar “societal-discovery” and serve as a deterrent to hazing, violence and other punitive actions that have all but become standard codes of conduct on many college and university campuses. Lenard C. Bowie, DMA Former Associate Director of Bands Florida A&M University

About the Author

Meet DR. LENARD C. BOWIE, Associate Professor of Trumpet Emeritus The University of North Florida Jacksonville, Florida Dr. Lenard C. Bowie served as a professor in the State University System of Florida for 46 years – 22 years at Florida A and M University as Trumpet teacher and Associate Director of Bands and 22 years at the University of North Florida as Trumpet Teacher, Founding Director of Instrumental Music and Director of the African American Music Program. He also served the University of North Florida as Chair of the Departments of Fine Arts and Music for two terms. During the last thirty years, Bowie has maintained a high degree of visibility as a respected and influential figure in Jacksonville’s music community. He has performed with the Jacksonville Symphony, and was a charter member, Assistant Principal Trumpet and Soloist with the St. Johns River City Band. As a member of the St. Johns River City Band, Bowie performed with a number of major artists, including Rich Matteson, Dave Brubeck, Lionel Hampton, Henry Butler, Danny Davis (Nashville Brass), Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, Chet Atkins, Al Hurt and Dizzy Gillespie. The St. Johns River City Band has performed throughout the State of Florida and made a triumphant performance at New York’s Carnegie Hall. It could be said that Bowie’s music specialty is the brass quintet, owing to the fact that he has provided leadership to five such organizations, including the University of North Florida Brass Quintet, the River City Brass Quintet, the St. Johns River City Band Brass Quintet, Gabriel’s Brass, (resident ensemble of the Bethel Baptist Institutional Church), and currently with the Jacksonville Chamber Brass Players. Bowie has performed and/or conducted pit bands for local musical theatrical productions of “Purlie”, “Little Shop of Horrors”, “The Barber of Fleet Street”, “Ain’t Misbehavin’”, and “Jesus Christ, Super Star”. He has given of his time and service as Founding Director of the University of North Florida Community Band, Associate Director of the Jacksonville Community Band and Guest Conductor of the Northeast Florida Music Conservatory Community Band. On a broader scale, Bowie has performed with the West Side Symphony of New York city, the Yale University Music Theatre Orchestra, the New Haven (Connecticut) Opera Theater Orchestra, and the Bi-Centennial Festival Orchestra of New England. He has engaged in freelance performances with the Ringling Brothers - Barnum and Bailey Circus Bands, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Isaac Hayes and the Movement, Johnny Taylor, and matinee performances with Danny Kaye and Bob Hope. Dr. Bowie is also a published author, having written four articles for professional music journals and four textbooks, two of which are Trumpet Method Books, -- PHYSICAL THERAPIES FOR THE NOVICE TRUMPET STUDENT, a handbook of solutions to common performance problems, and THE CYCLIC SYSTEM OF TRUMPET TRANSPOSITION, Bowie’s original system and approach to orchestral transposition for trumpet. Bowie holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Music Education from Florida A&M University, a Master of Music Degree in Trumpet Performance from the Manhattan School of Music, and an advanced Master of Musical Arts and Doctor of Musical Arts Degrees from Yale University. He has studied the trumpet professionally with Edward Treutle, of the Hudson Studios of Englewood, New Jersey; Nathan Prager, of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, and Robert Nagle, Leader of the New York Brass Quintet and Trumpet Professor of Yale University. Although retired from full-time university teaching, Bowie is still active as a private trumpet teacher, performer and clinician. He also avails himself as a lecturer in African American Music and Marching Band Techniques. He has also served as a part-time instructor of Music Theory and Applied Trumpet at Edward Waters College and Albany State University, respectively.