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Students discover opportunity in a drum
By MELANIE AVE
© St. Petersburg Times, TAMPA -- Six students crowd into a tiny enclave off the Ferrell Middle School's band room and gather behind eight painted steel drums, rustic instruments that look like overhauled 55-gallon oil barrels. They grab two or three wooden sticks each, rest their hands on the drums and wait, eyes on director John Lowery. With a "one, two, ready and go," the children begin spinning and beating their hands around the sunken tops of the drums, painted green, red and black. Suddenly the rhythmic sounds of the Caribbean are everywhere, consuming the young musicians and the handful of listeners. The popular dance song Hot, Hot, Hot bounces off the concrete walls. Just a year earlier, most of the students didn't even know what steel drums were. Now this budding group of musicians, an outgrowth of an after-school program for at-risk kids, is wowing audiences across the state. Florida A&M University President Frederick Humphries was so taken by the group recently that he promised them scholarships worth about $10,000 each. "They're very talented," said FAMU spokesman Eddie Jackson. "They've got a good future ahead of them, and we want them to come to FAMU." Most everyone, including the students, seems shocked at the group's success. They're floored by the scholarship offer, which requires the youths to maintain a B average, graduate from high school and pass minimum college entrance requirements. The scholarships have opened an unknown but bright future to the group of mostly average students from families who know the hard struggles of life. "I'm going to study harder now," said Finesse Bellinger, 12. "I'm only going to get A's and B's." Gaither High freshman Marcus Hill-Sumes, the group's oldest player at 14, has changed his original plans of attending Hillsborough Community College. "Now," he said with a huge grin, "I'm going to FAMU." The players' parents, many of whom don't have the money to send their children to college, aren't sure their children understand the value of the scholarships. "If it's free, it's for me," said Melissa Lara, whose seventh-grade daughter, Sierra Bryan, plays in the group. "I wouldn't have a problem with her going to FAMU at all, especially if it's free." The year-old steel drum group began as an after-school activity. A grant from the U.S. Department of Education pays Lowery, a 40-year-old entertainer at Busch Gardens who goes to the school twice a week for hourlong sessions with the students. They now have a repertoire that includes Tito Puente's Oye Como Va and the folk song Sloop John B. "You don't expect seventh-graders to be performing at the level they do," Lowery said. "I think it's unbelievable." "They're actually at a point where they're like professionals," said Mireya Linsky, project manager for Hillsborough County schools. "Everywhere they go, people want to hear more." The group is made up of one sixth-grader and four seventh graders, all from Ferrell, and Hill-Sumes, the Gaither High freshman. Only a couple of the students had studied music before joining the group. Now they can all differentiate between C, F, G and D chords and eloquently discuss the Trinidadian origins of the steel drums and how the bottom of the barrels are inverted to produce different melodic pitches when struck. "I like how the notes go," said 12-year-old Derrell Williams, who usually accompanies the group on a regular drum set. "I like how the different drums make different noises." The band has gathered a performance calendar some professional groups only dream about, with dates booked through the end of October. Ferrell Principal Charles Dixon said that at almost every event the band plays, it gets invitations to play somewhere else. At a recent practice, Lowery and the students discussed possible trips to Jacksonville and Atlanta and how to avoid missing much school. Ferrell's human relations specialist, Theoron Smith, said the group's popularity started booming after a performance at Blake High School in January. By April the calendar was filled with performances at a Barnes and Noble bookstore, a literacy conference and the rededication of Ferrell Middle School. The next month, the students played at a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Urban League of Tampa. During the recent FAMU convention in Orlando, where Humphries made the scholarship offer, they entertained hundreds of guests at Carolyn Hepburn Collins' installation as the university's newest alumni association president. Days later, she was still talking about them. "Those kids were by far some of youngest talent I've seen," said Collins, who works at Tampa General Hospital. "They all equally played at a level that was quite profound. They were impressive." During the same event, FAMU band director Julian White invited the group to play during the university's homecoming festivities this fall. "They play so well," he said. "For them to play at that particular level . . . indicates a good basic knowledge of music, melody and rhythm. The level they're playing on now, some of our own members were not that proficient that young." Their next performance is Thursday at the United Way of Tampa's kickoff campaign at Busch Gardens. Then it's the Tampa Bay Academy of Hope's youth leadership conference Sept. 21-23 at the Quality Inn Westshore and then the FAMU homecoming Oct. 27 in Tallahassee. At the group's practice, Lowery encouraged the students to enroll in band or chorus so they could get formal music training in addition to the steel drums. "Make sure your grades are up," he said firmly. "I can't emphasize that enough. This is not the time to slack. You've got everything going for you." This week, Lowery and Smith will audition more musicians for the steel drum group. With word of the scholarships circulating, they are expecting a rather large turnout. -- Melanie Ave can be reached at (813) 226-3400 or melanie@sptimes.com.
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