Detroit All City Marching Band Aims to Get Back in Step

Benjamin L. Pruitt Sr. plans to recruit at least 100 teenagers for a revived Detroit Public Schools All City High School Marching Band. The district's supervisor for fine arts is working with the first-year Detroit Public Schools Foundation and other donors. He aims to arrange 2010-11 auditions and practices starting Tuesday, June 29, for pupils who will enter ninth through 12th grades after Labor Day.

The All City High School Marching Band was the pride of Detroit from 2001 through 2003, highlighted with a trip to 2001-02 Rose Bowl activities. These events included the Tournament of Roses Bandfest, the CBS television special "Coming Up Roses" and the 113th Annual Tournament of Roses Parade on New Year's Day.

Funds dried up at the start of 2004, but now a revival campaign is underway.

Pruitt graduated from Horace Mann School in Little Rock, Ark., in June 1957. This was two months before integration plans for Little Rock High caused brutal violence that eventually forced then-President Dwight Eisenhower to send federal troops, but those times also carry another tenor for Pruitt. He headed for Arkansas AM & N College with firm plans in mind.

"In the ninth grade I had made a career decision that I wanted to be a high school band director, and it was all because we had a school band," recalls Pruitt, who followed in the footsteps of an older cousin who played saxophone.

"I was so enamored of the sound, and I started in the eighth grade with a school instrument, because of course my family couldn't afford one. To play at football games and festivals and parades, it made school so exciting. I was a good student, a 'B' or 'B+' student, and so much revolved around music."

His wife of 50 years, Caroline, shares his passion. They taught for five years in Magnolia, Ark., and then headed for the Motor City in 1966 with two young children in tow. Benjamin Pruitt's career in Detroit Public Schools as a school music instructor, band director and eventual administrator has entered its 44th year.

Fund Campaign Gets Started

The cash-strapped school district has provided a $25,000 startup allowance for the All City Band. The Pickard Family Fund has offered up to $25,000 in dollar-for-dollar matching funds for money raised by the Detroit Public Schools Foundation, which already has received a $4,000 gift and several smaller donations, says Chacona Johnson, president and chief executive officer.

"A lot of people played in bands and are fond of bands," Johnson says. "Even if they don't reside in the Detroit Public Schools area or have children in the Detroit schools, we believe many people want to be engaged to do something constructive."

Support also can come from in-kind efforts, she notes. For example, Yessian Music is conducting a private fundraiser April 15 among local musicians and artists. Co-owner Michael Yessian explains that his father, Dan Yessian, was an English teacher at Redford High School before entering the music business.

"What better way to give back than to involve the creative community?" Michael Yessian says.

Owners Gary and Song Cha Heflin of Perfect Cleaners, at 19500 McNichols Road W., will clean 300-plus uniforms that entered warehouse storage starting in 2004.

"My wife and I figure that this is one way that we can help out with the kids," Gary Heflin says. "We will be staying late for a few nights, but this is something we can work in there."

Drum Major Becomes Role Model

Domonique Wilkins Briggs is an example of the All City Band's benefits. She's a 2002 Cass Tech graduate who was a drum major for the first All City Band. Her achievement helped her win an audition for the band at Hampton University in Virginia. In turn, an impressed band director helped her land a president's academic scholarship along with a music scholarship, combining for a full ride until she graduated in May 2007. She was the university's first female head drum major.

"Each school had its own individual style," Briggs says, "and the All City Band unified us, bringing us all together for one common goal. It taught us how to adapt to one another's styles and exposed us to things we may have never experienced without it."

Briggs started on the clarinet and eventually learned to play about a half-dozen other woodwinds, including the saxophone (both alto and soprano), oboe and flute. She also has behind-the-scenes interests, and so she majored at Hampton in music engineering technology, with instruction in areas ranging from sound production to giving lessons.

She recalls that at Cass Tech she conducted a research project on the value of music education for improving academic performance. She found that among her peer pupils, those involved in music achieved higher results in math.

"Being a musician forces you to think quickly on your feet. Reading music at different tempos teaches focus and helps with creative thinking," Briggs explains.

She has remained in Hampton with her husband, Clifford, and their daughter born in 2008, Catherine. She works in real estate management and remains involved in music for lifelong learning that she says she always will embrace. The All City Band made everything possible, she says.

"An All City Band gives youth the opportunity to participate in a solid and structured music program, seeing that most schools no longer offer that privilege," Briggs says.

Community Connections

Pruitt says fate and coincidence in 2000 led to creation of the original Detroit All City High School Marching Band.

Kenneth Burnley was Detroit schools' chief executive officer at the time and Ronald Okum was the 2001-02 Tournament of Roses president in Pasadena, Calif. They were lifelong friends from Detroit's Mumford High School and the University of Michigan. Okum suggested that Burnley and the Detroit schools put together a band for the parade, but no single Detroit high school had a band large enough to meet the minimum requirement of 200 members. Thus the concept of the All City Band was born, a combination group of sorts similar to the U.S. Marine Band, the Pasadena City College Band and The Salvation Army Band.

Pruitt found himself as a leader in the effort. Auditions in June 2001 drew more than 300 qualifiers who practiced during the summer for four days per week, four hours per day. Eventually the Rose Bowl contingent dropped to 225, mostly because some parents were fearful of their teens flying on planes so soon after the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Pruitt says the seven-day southern California excursion was a success, as the All City Band had crowds dancing with musical sources ranging from Duke Ellington to Michael Jackson. The band later performed at events such as a Wayne State University football game and Detroit's downtown American Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Success continued, but then funds dried up as economic recession took full hold. The original Detroit All City High School Marching Band's final performance was during the Motor City Bowl football game at Ford Field on the day after Christmas 2003.

Challenges for Revival

The All City Band may face tougher challenges in its second go-round, Pruitt says. Economic conditions are even tougher than after the turn of the millennium. Only six Detroit public high schools have marching bands, compared to 19 a decade ago. Furthermore, the carrot of a trip to the Rose Bowl probably no longer exists, and even a lesser excursion would require added funds of up to $250,000.

Still, the longtime educator who heads "Ben's Friends Jazz Orchestra" during his off hours is thinking positively.

"I know from personal experience of the positive effects that music has on our children growing up," Pruitt says. "We have the discipline, the interpersonal relationships, the process of working together for a common goal."

Donors may send checks in care of the All City Band to the Detroit Public Schools Foundation, 18th Floor, Fisher Building, 3011 W. Grand Blvd., Detroit, MI 48202. The Web site is DetroitPSFoundation.org.