Gem of the Hills: Dr. Finley, what was it that caused you to feel a need to try to develop organizations such as The Southerners and Ballerinas?

Dr. Finley: The story begins with the bands of the late nineteenth and first half of the twentieth centuries as typified by such bands as Sousa, Prior, Moses and Conway. These bands provided excellent entertainment for many people. My private teacher, Walter Lane, during my high school years, was a former trombone and euphonium player with Sousa’s band. So I have great respect for these fine bands. However, in the middle of the twentieth century, I became aware of the fact that this style of playing was inadequate in expressing what I wanted to hear. The sound seemed to be “squelched and homogenized.”

The problem for me was that the band needed a more colorful, richer and bigger sound and a change in the marching style. Most marching bands of this period were in block formation. Not only is the block formation lacking in visual display but much of the sound is absorbed in the compactness of the people and the uniforms. Block formation is designed for the street parade. However, most bands had continued to use this block formation for field shows. So, my answer was to open up the field formation into a company front and to begin using precision drill routines. Changing the sound of the band was a more difficult process and would take more time to accomplish.

To develop the sound I wanted, it was necessary to have an “emancipation of the brass and percussion.” That is, to get the appropriate large bore brass instruments, learn to play them properly and to develop a new concept of brass sound: the sound of symphony orchestra players. Fortunately, before I became director of the band, I had organized the Brass Choir. Other than to play the fine literature available for brass instruments, the main purpose of the Brass Choir was to help players develop the attributes of fine symphony orchestra players. It might be noted that there was some change in the type of instruments used. This is especially true with cornets, which were widely used in the school bands up to the mid-twentieth century. Trumpets generally replaced cornets in bands. I encouraged the acquisition of large bore brass instruments with appropriate mouthpieces. Examples of the large bore instruments were the Conn 88H and Bach 42B tenor trombones. We were trying to develop the full range of sounds: from whispers to the most powerful sounds. We did not play everything loudly. Our goal was to play as musically as possible. As an example of the newness of the Southerners’ sound during this period of time, one university director referred to The Southerners as “that loud-blowing band up state.” It might also be noted that that director’s band, as well as the other bands in the state, gradually incorporated similar styles of playing.

I did not use a squad of majorettes. In its place I originated a new group, The Marching Ballerinas, whose performance is influenced by the Rockettes of Radio City Music Hall in New York City. The Ballerinas were designated as a separate unit from the band. However, their main duty was to perform with the band — any time the band performed , the Ballerinas performed. I considered a dance group to be more effective than a group of baton twirlers. In my opinion, dancers have more show potential than twirlers. The Ballerinas had a featured “spot” on every field show. To be a Ballerina, one was required to successfully pass a spring class and try out for a place in the group each year. A professional dance teacher conducted the dance training and designed the choreography for the fall shows. At the time of the organization of the group, I was not aware of any other group like the Ballerinas, whose main skill was dancing and performing with a marching band. There were a few other groups who were mainly drill teams. Because baton twirling does have a place in the marching band, we did have two excellent twirlers. Both twirlers were capable of outstanding solo performance as well as duet performance. Since they were specialty, feature twirlers, their function was not the same as a majorette group. The Southerners and Ballerinas are always, from the beginning to the last moment, exciting, spectacular groups.

Gem of the Hills: Please give an overview of your work as director of the Southerners. What challenges did you face as you built upon the Southerners’ tradition while leaving your own mark as director? How was your philosophy/vision for the Southerners similar or different from Dr. Finley’s philosophy?

Dr. Walters: I came to Jacksonville in 1961 as the only Northerner in the Southerners. Dr. John Finley had just come back from finishing his doctorate, and he was very helpful in getting me started as director of bands. My concept of tone from a brass instrument was very much the same as that of John, so I really continued in the direction begun by his vision. The basic sonority of the Southerners came from the low brass (tubas, trombones and euphoniums). John was an excellent applied teacher and turned out some really good players. Marching band music was not very plentiful in those early days, and we had little selection. I had come up playing in the 1930s and, of course, remembered the big bands of that era. Each band had its own book or library, and it made that particular band recognized by the tunes or arrangements they played.

I thought that we needed something like that for the Southerners, so I wrote most of the music for the field with emphasis on the low brass and percussion. As time went on the band grew, and I believe that the most we had on the field was 320 during the late 1980s.

The Ballerina dance line was a creation of Dr. Finley, and they added another dimension to the field unit. We were lucky to secure Kay Smith to work with the group and design the dance routines. She was not only an excellent dance instructor but a wonderful person. She was able to establish a good attitude of work and cooperation. In the early 1960s the field shows were mostly company front shows; but, as the years went by new trends began to interest us, and we always seemed to be in the forefront of new ideas and experimentation. Many of our band members played in bugle corps during the summer months and brought back new ideas that we would use in our shows. Most of the changes that we made came from the students and I would like to say that we have had a wealth of dedicated students who have really, through the years, made the Southerners what they are.

Gem of the Hills: What were some of the milestones you achieved during your tenure as director?

Dr. Walters: We considered the band one of the important recruiting tools for the university. I did not make a list of all of the performances that we participated in; however, I’ll list some of the events that I remember.

We performed at the half-time for all of the home football games and some of the away games. The band performed as the “exhibition band” for several marching band contests each year. We marched in numerous parades such as Christmas parades, Veterans’ parades in Birmingham, Governors’ inauguration parades, a parade for astronauts in Birmingham, the inauguration for President Lyndon Johnson, and we represented Alabama in the bicentennial parade in Philadelphia. We performed at quite a few Atlanta Falcon games in Atlanta. We were chosen as the band to represent the American Bowl in Tampa, Florida. We also performed at the Orange Blossom Classic in Miami, Florida, when our football team played Florida A & M. I always felt that our best recruiting took place when we performed within a radius of one hundred miles from home.

Gem of the Hills: Tell us about your development of the associated groups such as the Ballerinas.

Dr. Walters: The Ballerina group was originated by Dr. John Finley, and we tried to keep it as much the same as it was when I became band director. As time went on, we added flags to the group in order to make an exciting finale; however, we kept the same uniform with the white boots. The Ballerina group was not only effective as a dance unit, but it was also one of our best marching units during the show. I think that the ballerinas really enjoyed the added dimension as a flag unit.

Gem of the Hills: What are some of your fondest memories in connection with the Southerners and JSU?

Dr. Walters: I was always impressed with the way the group accepted me, a Northerner, as leader of the Southerners. Through the years, the group was always dedicated to working hard and keeping the standard high. If I was successful as a band director, it’s mostly due to the help and dedication I received from the students.

Gem of the Hills: What are some of your fondest memories as director, and what were some of your proudest accomplishments with the group?

Dr. McBride: My fondest memories of the band was the terrific musicianship and enthusiasm for excellence!

Gem of the Hills: Please give us a little background -- were you a Southerner alumnus yourself? What instrument did you play?

Dr. McBride: I’m a trombonist. I was not an alumnus of JSU. Prior to coming to JSU, I was associate director of bands and director of the Bulldog Marching Band at Fresno State (California State University, Fresno). In fact, the question/comment that I most often received when people find out that I was a band director at JSU was: "You are an alum of JSU, aren’t you?" I guess that’s because I was hired after Rigley Hurt decided to not become Dave Walter’s heir to the position, and most people outside of the music department were unaware of this development. The fun part was that the students and alumni (at least most of them) made me feel part of the group from day one.

Gem of the Hills: What other memories do you have in connection with the Southerners?

Dr. McBride: One the unique things about my tenure as the director was that during those three years JSU did not play football with Troy (they moved up to Division I and JSU remained at Division II.). Since the rivalry between the two schools, the bands, and Dave Walters and Johnny Long was so intense for so many years, the members of the band seemed to miss the annual focus on "Whup Troy" during those years.

Interestingly enough, an alumni of my current institution, Morehead State, is the new director of the Long School of Music at Troy University.

Returning to JSU, my alma mater, in 1994 as director of bands was one of the most exhilarating and utterly nerve-racking times in my life. The opportunity to lead the Marching Southerners was one of the greatest honors that a Southerners alumnus could ask for. However, along with the prestige came tremendous pressure for this 28-year-old high school band director.

As anyone would expect, Dr. David Walters’ retirement after a 30-year reign as director of bands was followed by a difficult transition. The expectations following “the Walters era” were tricky and enormous. Often, when a band program goes through a director change, it will experience a significant drop in membership numbers, which usually causes a drop in morale. Well, the band had already made one transition to a new director in the early 1990s, and now the program would have to endure yet another frustrating transition as I took the helm. Needless to say, when I became the director in 1994, the Southerners had seen a substantial decrease in membership since the powerhouse years of the Walter’s era. I returned to a different type of Southerners than I remembered as a drum major of the late 1980s. My main goal in the beginning was to recruit, get the numbers back up, and to improve morale. In 1994, The Southerners had about 160 members. In 1995, the staff was ecstatic the first day of band camp when the numbers were right at 250! We had all been nervous, wondering how many people would show up. I will never forget one of the drum majors coming into my office just before camp was about to begin, saying, “Mr. Bodiford, there is an ocean of people in the Performance Center!” I breathed a huge sigh of relief as I realized that one of the short-term goals had been accomplished. Now it was time for us to create a show that would let the current members and the fans know that the mighty Marching Southerners were, without a doubt, a force to be reckoned with in the marching band world. (We knew that the show HAD to be great. The Marching Southerners would once again return to face a longtime rival, The Sound of the South from Troy State University, in the fall of 1995). First and foremost, the same approach to sound production led by Dr. Finley and Dr. Walters would be used as the band was being prepared for the upcoming season.

One of my most memorable experiences as the director of the Marching Southerners took place in that same year of 1995. Until then, it had been common practice for the Southerners to end a show with a ballad. The “closer” we had chosen for the show was the exciting Malaguena. Toward the end of the piece, following a very energetic drum solo, the intensity and volume of the music built as the band slowly drew into a wedge-shaped formation on one side of the field. Suddenly the tempo doubled, winds and percussion kicked in at full volume, and “The Wedge” (to which it is now fondly referred) literally sprinted across the field at a 6-to-5 step size. When this power formation arrived at the 50-yard line it began to expand as massive white and gold flags and wings exploded toward the skies from the arms of the color guard and the Ballerinas. Our JSU home crowd (and every crowd thereafter) leapt to their feet and erupted in thunderous applause. I honestly believe that was the turning point -- when the enthusiasm and the morale of the 1995 Marching Southerners changed forever for the better. And we continue to build on the success of that moment. Since that fateful season, we design our shows to end in a fast-paced, high-energy rush of big, driving sound paired with lots of color!

There’s no business like (halftime) show business!