Thunder Soul

A coupla years ago we were sitting around the kitchen table at 100 Metro bullshitting like dudes do, and my buddy Serge mentioned he had once read something about a high school marching band from Houston in the late 60's that was considered "the greatest high school marching band in the world," which seemed astounding to us all. I don't remember what came of it, although I've always remembered him mentioning it I've never researched it any way. Serge and I kissed on the lips for 20 or 30 minutes, then we all went back to bullshitting.

Turns out that marching band was The Kashmere Stage Band, and someone has made a documentary about them HERE.

It was afros and pleated shirts; James Brown and Bootsy Collins. It was the ’70s, and an inner-city Houston high school was about to make history. Charismatic band leader, Conrad “Prof” Johnson would turn the school’s mediocre jazz band into a legendary funk powerhouse.

Now, 35 years later, his students prepare to pay tribute to the man who changed their lives, the 92-year-old Prof. Some haven’t played their horns in decades, still they dust off their instruments determined to retake the stage to show Prof and the world that they’ve still got it.

I don't know what's more incredible: that a high school marching band could be so good it's labeled the best in the world, or that now, along with Do It Again: One Man's Quest to Reunite the Kinks, there are two new movies I'd actually pay to see.