Original subtitles

If there's no drummer, there's no timing.

Can you hear that drummer?

Can you hear the drummer?

Can you hear me?

Yeah.

You can do the right thing, you can do the right thing,

but if you do the right thing, even with the right person,

for the right reason,

but if it's at the wrong time...

everything gets jacked up and twisted.

Somebody say timing.

Timing.

Prof had such great timing.

While the hood was going through changes,

while America was going through mutations,

Paul Chevalier can tell ya,

you could depend on Prof's solid timing.

Conrad Johnson and the Kashmere Stage Band.

We were called Thunder Soul.

We called him Prof at Kashmere Senior High School

because Prof stands short for Professor.

A Houston-based music teacher

turned his high school band into a national sensation.

I got the idea to start a band

and build a band out of young people

that was equivalent in sound and in appearance

to that of the professionals.

He reached into our soul.

He could see the future inside of us.

The Kashmere Stage Band gave the community part of its identity.

It made everybody proud because we were kicking.

Kashmere was just tight.

- We was the bomb. - It was the lick.

It was the baddest band in the nation.

They made their statement, man.

When the Kashmere Stage band were at their peak,

they were as good or better than any funk band in the nation,

professional or otherwise.

This is great funk music,

and they're high school kids.

Attention, all Kashmere High School students, this is...

Where your uniform?

Uh-huh, I'm not playing.

High school stage band performances

often proved to be nothing more than memories,

but right here at Kashmere High School

in Northeast Houston,

a legend was spawned.

He first attended the Houston College for Negros

and he later graduated from Wiley College

in Marshall, Texas.

37 years of teaching.

He was highlighted as a distinguished band director

right here in these very four walls.

You see all these trophies over there?

He put this place on the map.

Mr. Conrad O. Johnson.

Prof, what was the most favorite tune that you arranged?

Favorite tune? Now you ask me a question.

L-I wrote over 50 tunes and arrangements.

Ended up selling 'em to the other bands that were playing in the contests.

Yes, he did.

They played my tunes against me.

That was something.

I think the most exciting thing about being a band director

is introducing to people what a band can do

and how well they can do it. I really enjoyed it,

and some of 'em did a bang-up job on it, too man.

- Yeah. - Yeah.

Where does the feel to play come in?

Well, I would say that the feeling comes...

uh, many times from my demanding it.

You have to develop first in his mind that he can do it.

Once he realize that he can play

with the same quality of sound that a professional has,

then he'll stick with it

and he'll strive for that.

But this has to be developed in his mind,

and that's the first thing I work for.

I was kind of shy.

I would basically kind of hide behind my instrument.

That's... That's where... where my power was.

I didn't have that thing that would get out and say,

"Okay, I'm here."

I didn't possess that.

So my vehicle for that was the band.

I was zoned to another high school.

It was a predominantly white school

where they didn't really have a good stage band,

but I just... I couldn't take it anymore.

I just took it upon myself that I was just gonna go to Kashmere.

Everything was going fine, according to plan,

until one day the attendance clerk sent for me in the office

and said you're not in the zone.

You're not supposed to be going to school here.

I was afraid of being put out of Kashmere

and not being able to stay and be in the band,

and that's when my dad looked into renting an apartment in the zone.

I kinda got in it for the girls.

But I started liking it

and, uh, I actually, you know, started learning how to play.

Bruce was very popular.

At that time, oh, he had all the young ladies.

They were all after him, you know, his talent.

He was the saxophonist, the flutist.

He played everything in the band.

L-I was a little egocentric, I guess, a little arrogant.

I mean, I was Mr. Baritone Saxophone.

It was just a good time, a good situation.

My senior year, it was... it was fabulous.

I was the joker of the band.

Prof would tell us, "Hey, fellas, don't get the big head.

Whatever you do, don't get the big head."

See, you couldn't help but get the big head.

You was in the Kashmere Stage Band, you got the big head already.

I was this timid, shy girl

thatjust wanted to play and make good grades

and really not be seen.

I had to stand in front of the saxophone section at the tryouts,

and they would say, "Here she is.

"Yeah, turn around, baby.

Oh, she is so pretty. Ooh, Gaila."

You know, I heard all these noises behind me

as I'm playing the solo,

but I nailed it.

I was in. I was in.

People would make remarks like,

"A girl on a trombone? A girl playing trombone?

Trombones are for boys."

You know, girls didn't play trombones.

They'd make me wanna play it even more so.

A girl can play it and do the movements

and, you know, get down like Prof wanted me to.

I grew up with straight-up thug, you name it.

L-I did some bad stuff.

I used to bum rush everybody.

I didn't care what they had to say.

'Cause I'm... I'm the mo-fo here to get under that man's direction.

That man kept me alive.

He molded me into a whole different expression.

I went over and got all this this stuff here.

I even stole this from Prof.

Back in June of last year,

a partner of mine, name of Reginald Rollins,

who was also in the Kashmere Stage Band,

he and I were talking one day

about putting together the original Stage Band members.

We're trying to reunite the Kashmere Stage Band

for the first time in over 30 years.

How you gonna be like that?

This is where it all started for us.

Right here in Kashmere.

- Oh, wow. - Look.

Check it out.

Okay, this is all wrong, we gotta redo this.

Man, I can't believe this.

This room looks smaller for some reason.

- How y'all doing? - Hey.

- How ya doing? - Band director?

Adrian Tyler, new band director at Kashmere.

- Tyler, right. - How you doing?

I spoke with you earlier. I'm Rollo.

Okay, yeah. Nice to meet ya.

I'm Craig Baldwin.

I'm gonna start off with four chairs for the trumpets,

four for the trombones, four for the saxes.

We got on the phones. We started making calls

and we told 'em what the event was for

and that it was for Prof, and immediately,

they started pulling out horns, knocking the dust off of 'em.

Blowing out the cobwebs.

Give me a moment. Let me figure out how to get you here

'cause I definitely need to have you here.

We're gonna do whatever it takes

to get back in the shape to pull this event off.

I mean, we got guys coming from all over the United States,

uh, California, from the East Coast.

We have guys coming in,

actually, from different parts of the world.

Starting to look like something now.

I'm really curious to see:

How are we gonna sound?

The trumpets were standing, so...

I'm putting some chairs back there for 'em

but they will be standing.

You know these guys got a little age on 'em now.

You know, they not as spry as they were.

You came into this room with your focus, ready to play.

Do not come in this room late.

Do not talk, do not interrupt. Do not this, that...

I don't care if it's chewing gum. You cannot.

And when that man said, "Stand up," everybody stood up in sync.

It was like a military sergeant, but it...

Hey. I'm 50 years old, man.

And I think that that's one of the reasons why I made 50 years old.

It has to be done while Prof is here with us

to let him know that what he did wasn't in vain

and... and what he did

meant a lot to a lot of different people.

We doin' it for the man.

We're doing it for Conrad Johnson.

My whole desire

is to train and shape the mind of each individual

that I come in contact with

from the standpoint of teaching him.

When they first come to me,

regardless as to what kind of tone that they have,

I work to develop that tone.

And that's the first step:

Learn to play the instrument...

then the music.

Most schools started stage bands in the late '60s and early '70s.

Some got there sooner than others.

Stage band music was very definitely evolved from the big bands of the '40s.

That's the kind of music you played.

You played the popular music and the standards.

For the longest, there was a feeling among school people

that this music was not worthwhile,

that this music was almost, uh...

vulgar.

Jazz always intimated

that it was a type of situation where there was drinking allowed,

nightclubs and so forth.

And a lot of administrators and curriculum people

didn't want that in the high... in their school programs,

so we had to refine it.

So that's where the stage band moniker came from.

A lot of these high school band directors

came out of the jazz era,

so they would fashion these performance bands,

stage bands, that would record and perform music

that was inspired by jazz

but was done in a much more pop music sort of way.

A lot of it came out being super-square.

Every 150 stage band records that you can find

from the late '60s and early '70s,

maybe one of 'em will be by a black band, you know.

Maybe two or three of 'em would be from a mixed band.

You know what I'm saying?

Like, it was... a white phenomenon.

When Prof put this band together,

it was really not a standard to have an all-black band

led by a black, you know, band director.

Competition back then, man, was predominant white.

And I mean predominant white.

And we was out there. A all-black band.

Conrad believed that there was no limit to a child's ability to play music.

He'd set incredibly high goals for these kids,

and Conrad inspired them to put everything into it.

This is what they used to look like back in the day.

I used to roam this neighborhood

terrorizing with my brother and my cousin...

my brother Darrell and my cousin Delton.

And this house right here on the left is my uncle's house.

Well, he gave me my first keyboard,

which was stolen.

One of my cousins broke into a club one night and stole it,

and he came to me, trying to sell it to me for $300.

I was born and raised in Fifth Ward,

but what I got over there with Prof,

he was the first dominant male figure that I had

to teach me how to be a man.

L-I can recall walking up to him

and, you know, it was all about the thug attitude,

the thug language, you know?

You know, you don't talk to me like that.

I don't care if I understand what you're saying.

You don't talk to me like that.

'Cause you never know who you gonna be talking to out in the field

and you're representing me.

You're representing the Kashmere Stage Band.

You're representing Kashmere High School.

You're representing your community.

Don't come in here with your thug personality.

My father died, you know,

when I was like 7 or 8 years old.

And my Aunt Bert, you know, she decided to take me in.

I love this house.

She got me started.

She raised six children and she's lost three of them,

and this house is kind of like a university.

One of the things that she's really good at,

she's... she's really good at getting you to see the point.

Hey.

About time I got that kiss.

You know I gotta give you kisses and hugs and...

Ohh!

How you doing?

Well, you know, my life is always in roller coasters.

One moment it's fantastic,

and another moment it's crazy, but I got...

So you broke my rules.

I didn't try to.

You done broke my rules.

I wanna show you something.

I'm gonna get those shoes out to illustrate something to you.

Would you wear the right shoe on the left foot?

No.

And the left shoe on the right foot?

No.

You wouldn't do that?

No.

That means that you, as a man, would know right from wrong.

Right.

I raised four boys.

Mm-hmm. Four bad boys.

No, you... you didn't give me no...

Oh, come on, you know it was terrible.

You didn't give me no problem.

I know where you were,

but the other two, I didn't know where they was.

But I always know where you was at.

Over there in that room.

In that room practicing.

That's right. You know, 'cause one of the things you told me

is that I cannot make a mistake, and I'd be out that band.

I have to be in that band.

That band's gonna take me somewhere one day.

- Right. - And you were right.

- He did carry ya. - Mm-hmm.

Well, did I tell you that we are...

I'm going to be directing somewhere close to 25 to 30 guys at one time?

I'm gonna be playing the role of Prof in front of the big band.

Prof did his part as being a leader

and instructing y'all young men

to be a great musician.

Yeah, he did his part.

He did that.

And I can't complain about it.

He really did his part,

and I thought it was great

for young men to come out of Fifth Ward

to prove, let the world see it was something good,

young men raised up in Fifth Ward.

I know where you was at all times.

I love you.

- Yeah. - Very much.

You break my rules.

We kind of depended on Conrad,

probably more than we should have,

and... and our band, you know, over half were...

You know, fathers weren't at home

or there weren't father figures in their life,

so we all kind of gravitated to him.

So he didn'tjust teach us the music,

he taught us how to be men.

My father took me to see everything that was musical.

Well, Duke Ellington is about one of the highest examples of that.

It was just... It meant so much to me.

When I was 17, I could have gone professional.

I played dates at clubs for at least 10 years.

I could've worked anywhere,

but I took a job to make sure I stayed at home.

I was about 25, and I met Birdie.

I knew then I wanted her for my wife.

So I ask her if she could take me out...

poor man, I don't have any money, but I'll work...

and she-she said, "Yeah, I'll take ya."

And so that's what I did, and I started teaching school.

Man, he loved Birdie. Man, he loved Birdie.

Man, we'd be out late at night.

Mama Birdie would be right there with us.

Right there with us.

"All right, fellas.

"Y'all know Conrad gonna get on y'all.

Y'all better act right tonight."

Man, Prof loved that woman. Mama Birdie.

Ah, she was... she was his backbone.

She was his everything. Everything.

Mama Birdie was a mama to all of us.

We could tell when Mama Birdie was coming in the door

'cause he would literally just stop

and just gaze at her.

There was an ongoing love that everybody wanted,

say, "Gosh, look at the two of them."

They fit together.

Like a glove.

I was married 52 years.

About 10 years ago, my wife died.

Hey, Prof, happy birthday.

Hey, baby.

So we waitin' for you to come on, Prof, so we could eat.

All right.

- Waiting on you. - Good to be here, man.

- Truth be known. - Good to see you.

We have chicken,

we have ribs,

we have brisket,

we have sausage, boudin and regular.

We have beans, we have potato salad,

corn on the cob, pasta salad, and dirty rice.

You know, blessed are to have our patriarch here

celebrating his 92nd birthday.

We're getting ready to sing happy birthday to you.

This is your birthday cake.

It's one candle.

Can you blow it out?

I'm holding your hat.

Come say hi to Prof, Cameron.

That's your great-granddaddy.

Happy birthday.

Yeah, she said it. Yeah, thank you.

That's Charles Junior's son.

Here's a guy that...

that knows everybody in the industry

and he could have been a professional musician,

but he opted to raise his family and to stay here

and to be available to us to educate us.

You have so much full of life being a musician.

When l... when I'm teaching young people,

I feel that I'm giving them something that they can lean on

all the rest of their lives.

We have a camaraderie.

Just to receive the invitation was... was just overwhelming.

This... this has been a long time coming.

This should have happened 20 years ago.

It's for Conrad, you know.

It's just, you know, what he instilled in us.

You know, give back.

Don'tjust take, take, take, take.

Give back.

I get an opportunity to see people who I knew 30-plus years ago

and we get a chance to play the music

that we played when we were in high school.

We don't take that lightly.

I think we've all heard a lot in the news about Kashmere

and things that have transpired over the years since we left.

It's a way for us to give something back, to show that at one time,

this band program at Kashmere was a source of pride for this school.

This is a must. We have to come together

to do this for our teacher,

for our father.

Whatever we have to do, we'll do it.

I would've come from... I don't know.

If I had been at the South Pole,

I'd find a way to get back here for this.

Someone, I don't remember who,

wrote an article about us and they said

that students entering the Kashmere band room

enter it like they're coming into a cathedral or a temple.

Oh, hey, everybody.

What's going on? What's going on?

Walking in that band room with my saxophone

was like, you know, going to your grandma's house...

and there's some food cooking.

And the stove and the red beans and rice and cornbread.

Oh, hey, honey bunny.

Good to see you.

Oh we growed up together, didn't we, girl?

Yes. Yes, we did.

We started...

When I entered that room for the first time after all these years,

it's very moving.

Mr. Middleton!

It's very moving.

Whoa, oh!

No!

Oh! Hey, man! What's up, W.L. D?

L-I could feel my heart flutter, you know.

What's up, man?

And here, again, l-I had this opportunity to...

to return, you know, and...

Look on the top right there.

That's me right there.

- On the top? - Look, one, two...

- on the top. - Oh yeah, yeah.

That's me, and look at Reggie.

- Oh, you look the same. - Oh yeah. Yeah, sure.

You walk in the band room

and you start feeling like you're still at school.

You just left your classroom

and you're on your way to the band room.

You're... It's time for band.

What's up, man?

Good to see ya, man.

Walking in that band room just brings back a flood of memories.

Looking around the room

and... and imagining Prof being in a certain spot

where you knew him to be.

Imagining the band being set up.

You're scanning all of the faces

and the people that you were in the band with,

where they would be sitting and just that time.

What's up?

It's just, um, you know, it's...

It was a reunion of a different kind.

Since our drummer decided to show up...

Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Craig Green is in the house.

It almost felt like what I get a sense that army buddies feel, you know?

We went through a lot together.

Everybody come in there.

It's like their spirit, you know, is there.

And it's always gonna be there.

Good to see you.

You're looking wealthy and healthy, man.

- Yeah, you too, bro. - All right.

I was overwhelmed and excited because those faces were back.

There were the guys that used to give me a hard time.

They were men now.

And we're grown women.

People are grandparents now, you know, with gray hair.

You know? 50 pounds larger.

You can't put it into words,

but it was the most warm, the greatest feeling.

It was the ultimate feeling.

You knew you were gonna get back together again

and get back on that stage.

2, 3...

Some of these guys hadn't played in 30 years.

When I say 30 years, I mean 30 years.

And you can'tjust pick up a trumpet and blow

if you hadn't blown it.

It's... Itjust doesn't happen.

Little bit farther.

I was coming out, really, just to see what was going on,

just to...

to watch and to reunite with some of the stage band members.

I came in as a spectator.

I should have known better,

'cause anytime I hook up with Gwen,

I end up doing something that I didn't expect.

Everybody greeted me and they're,

"Okay, you're gonna play your instrument?"

No.

I haven't blown that thing in 34 years.

1974, graduation day.

The rest of the guys in the band, they said, "We need our girls back.

We need our girls in the band."

Baba-daba-dop... Boww! 1, 2, 3, 4.

I let them talk me into it saying,

"You can do it. You can do it, Gwen."

I'm like, "No, I can't."

I have not picked up that horn since 1978.

I thought when I took that first blow, I was gonna pass out.

I was scared stiff.

Everybody, heads up. Okay. Here's the deal.

Um, we have a lot of Kashmere cats in this room that played from '72

up into the final day of the stage band.

You can witness that, right?

But the first thing I wanna do,

I wanna have Tim Thompson lead us in a prayer.

Reverend Timothy Thompson.

Oh, yeah.

Let's just pray.

Kind Heavenly Father,

we thank you for this occasion.

Now we ask that you would endow us with memory

that we can remember how it used to be

and that the ultimate event will be a blessing to everyone.

1, 2, 3. Take it!

Whoa!

Baba-daba-dop, boww!

Na-na-na Na-na.

One and uh...

Yeah! One, uh!

I'm kinda like a perfectionist,

so of course I'm gonna let people know,

when it's not right, it's not right.

And I can understand that you hadn't played in 30 years,

but I can't take it as an excuse now

because you're here.

Hey! More, one!

Ah! Ba, ba-ba, ba!

Pick it up!

Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba.

Ba-da-bomp! It's on you.

When we played, you know, it's like okay,

but we got a long way to go.

We're not hittin' right because, you know, we haven't played in a long time.

I'm laughing because...

I thought we were really doing it,

but, really, we sounded terrible.

Everything start rushing back.

All those feelings, your mind start racing

and you start seeing different scenarios

of your high school days in the band room.

You could see it. You play a certain melody,

I remember I was sitting over there at that time.

Or I remember he had this big afro,

and he couldn't see because it would flop over in his face.

Oh, I remember listening to this at home.

I mean, this was the '70s.

We were just coming out of the civil rights movement

and so there was a lot of pride.

Um, there were a lot of good things going on.

Our parents had fought long and hard,

and it was time for us to shine.

We had more freedom than they did.

We had more opportunities.

They just had to be pushed back to the side with their talents.

But in the '70s, we were able to bring it out.

It was just an incredible time.

There was just so much hope.

For me, everything was open,

this open feeling that I had

that so much was gonna be possible.

The focus was on moving forward.

Get your education.

There's nothing that you can't do.

You've seen what has happened in the past.

Now, you take what has happened

and take it, and you move forward.

But there was also the war in Vietnam,

so there was a lot of fear and a lot of trepidation

about political issues.

There was a lot of unknowns

and we were just the young people growing up

just trying to find our way.

- I am... - I am...

...somebody! ...somebody!

You had people mostly into the Black Power movement during that time.

You know, everybody stuck together.

You know, you at a black school,

so when you came to Kashmere, you already knew.

The way you moved, the way you danced,

it had to be black.

It was sexy. It was afros.

It was girls, girls, girls.

And they were everywhere.

Every time you looked around,

there was a guy walking in with a trench coat...

with his hat to the side...

sun shades...

big afro with blow-out kit.

Super Fly.

The Super Fly movie took over Kashmere.

It was platform shoes...

where you were way up in the air.

It was pleated shirts...

and the big butterfly bowties. Oh.

Afros, after a while went back.

They started combing the afro back and doing what you call the "duck tail."

Make sure you had your little...

I called it herbs and berries... where your hair would shine.

Girls, we come up there with the miniskirts on.

Yeah, some took it to another level.

It was bell bottoms.

Leisure suits.

Then it was "tight was right."

Man, there was not a cat

that drove a car to Kashmere High School

that did not have his windows down

pumping an eight-track of God-only-knows

that pleased him at that moment.

It started with James Brown.

- James Brown. - James Brown...

was totally doin' it for me.

Earth Wind and Fire.

Earth Wind and Fire. They were hot.

- The Bar-kays. - The Bar-kays.

Parliament Funkadelic.

George Clinton.

Oh, man, don't forget about George Clinton.

Bootsy Collins.

The Commodores.

Kool and the Gang.

Sly and the Family Stone.

The Funk. You know you got to have the funk, man.

With all that funk, man, it was so nasty.

All the music was good to me back then.

'Cause those were real musicians that was playing the music.

But the benefit, the benefit, we got all that.

These kids were hearing sounds that I know I didn't hear as a kid.

At the time that Prof introduced the band to contests...

the other bands were all playing similar songs...

...Tommy Dorsey or Duke Ellington or Count Basie,

and they're playing, you know, like, One O'Clock Jump.

When we first got into the music, we was playing tunes like Summertime.

It was a good tune. It's a good tune,

but it's... it's... it's a ballad.

Well, we was kinda bored with the music,

but we wanted to play.

Hey, man, Prof knew it was a time for change,

and he had these kids in the band that had all this high energy.

You know, they wanted to play funk.

Because after rehearsal was over, you know, everybody go...

you know, the drummer start putting the beat down,

guitar players start playing and then Prof sit there...

He... No, man. These guys...

Then he started changing his music.

So he started adding this funk into it.

He actually took the jazz,

'cause that was our base, that was our foundation,

and he added funk to the jazz, okay?

And he wrote that way.

Man, hey, don't die and go to heaven

until you hear this song called Head Wiggle.

Oh, man, you talk about a good song.

I try to give them a chance to express themselves

in the way that they are.

I had to teach them how to play funk.

You could just hear the difference. You...

It wasn'tjust playing.

It was what you put into it.

His music was, uh, soulful...

funky, if you want to say that.

And he was the first to get there with it

and he did it better than anyone else

because his students grew up listening to that,

and... and they loved it.

He was like the Pied Piper.

When we did, uh, a song by Sly Stone,

he actually took the song

and kept some of the foundation so you knew it was the song,

but when he put the horns against it...

it's kind of like having a Ritz cracker and a saltine cracker.

You put a saltine cracker in your mouth, and you say,

"Yeah, man, that's cool, that's cool."

But somebody turns you on to a Ritz cracker,

it's like, "Oh, man!"

All the other bands, they were just, uh,

"Wow! What's them guys playin', man?"

Sometimes it seemed like it would hitjust so hard.

It would just get really, really intense,

and that's when, like, it would even scare me.

I was like, oh!

And it would just go like a... like a...

a train.

He knew that if he just let them go wild

and he let them go off and do their thing,

it was going to...

kill everybody in the competition

because it was so out of left field.

They were extremely expressive.

When the Kashmere came on and all hell broke loose,

why, I mean, it, you know, it was, "Yeah, all right!"

Oh... yeah!

You know that's... that's a feeling you get

from the audience.

Oh...

Yeah!

I felt like the music wasn't enough.

Because there was people who would listen to the band

who were not musicians.

It wasn't enough.

So I put the show into it,

and no one had thought to do that.

When we came on the scene and we started dancing,

that what drove the judges wild.

Itjust drove the judges wild

because they had never seen it before.

Trumpet players started movin'.

You know, they had the trumpets,

they would turn this way,

one would duck

and the other one bring it across his head.

And they did that all the way down the line.

Then the trombone players would put their trombones up like this

and, see, it was... it was more of a show then.

It was a show band.

You know, the sax would be doing...

You know they had these movements with the horns

and whether they're playing the saxophone or... or what, you know,

and it's like, goodness gracious!

How can they do that and play at the same time?

You know?

We danced while we played and we grooved.

The other bands, they were... they were really good.

They was technically good,

but they didn't have the feel.

See, they didn't have that soul.

It's easy to understand why they swept the competitions

when you listen to the recorded output of their peers.

Conrad's band played music because it was their lives.

Those kids lived it.

And Conrad inspired them to put everything into it.

Did you find the momentum picking up

after the band got out where the general public could hear them?

It rolled like a snowball, man.

Winning just gave us a sense

that we were invincible when it came to competition.

We were feared. We were a challenge.

They were just good.

Not good as in mmm-mmm good.

Good as in God created the world to be good.

They were that kind of good.

Okay, in 1972,

I had no idea of the magnitude of what was about to happen.

Uh, we was in Mobile, Alabama.

We went up there for the stage band competition.

You know how kids are. We're going to Alabama.

You gotta watch out for, you know, the KKK,

and it was... it was all freaked out back then.

George Wallace was the... the governor at the time.

And I say segregation now,

segregation tomorrow,

and segregation forever.

We had heard that statement that George Wallace had made, man,

and everybody was a little, "Hey, man, I don't know about here."

Jazz is alive and well and living in high school.

Dozens of high school jazz bands from across the country auditioned

to be part of the American High School Jazz Festival,

but only five were chosen.

And those five were as varied and unique as jazz itself.

The Mobile Jazz Festival had that national reputation.

It was like a national playoff.

And it's probably, to this day, still the most prestigious.

The bands who we would invite would come to Mobile

to be selected the best high school stage band in the country.

We're the only black band.

We're going on last,

and, you know, this is the big one.

You talk about about 30 guys... black guys...

walking in with white shirts and black suits,

it's gonna turn some heads.

From Houston, Texas,

the Kashmere High School Stage Band

under the direction of Mr. Conrad Johnson.

1, 2, 3...

They were like on fire.

I think it surprised a lot of people hearing a bunch of teenagers play like that.

To be as young as they were, they were one.

They were a band.

They didn't have something to prove,

but they wanted to prove something.

When we're getting down to the finish

and, uh, there seemed to be

having some problems with the judges...

The Judges went back in the green room and they said, we're just at an impasse.

The two bands that performed in the final concert tonight

were equally as good

and we would like...

to give 'em each a first place trophy.

Prof didn't like this at all. Just be fair about it.

He said, "I don't care who you give it to. Just give it to somebody."

And then, you know, then we'll go.

It took so long for them to decide,

it actually shook my faith at that time.

It sure did.

And I remember the man's voice, and he said, "The winner is..."

and he said...

Kashmere.

Like that.

It wasn't like, Kashmere!

It was like, Kashmere.

And we just...

We went ballistic.

I think Prof cried. Prof cried.

After 20 minutes of that, Prof was, "Hey, man, let's everybody start packing this stuff.

Let-let's put it on the bus. We gotta get back home now."

But we hurried up and got out of there.

That basically was the end of competition...

in our festival.

When the 1972 band,

when they won that national championship,

that kind of put Kashmere on the map.

How many high schools have their own theme song

that they can play in a jazz competition?

And Prof wrote these songs.

That's-that's what did it for us.

People just wanted to be in that winning atmosphere.

Everybody tried to be the best they could be.

The football team started doing very well.

The debate team, they were winning.

The drama department started doing well.

The track team, they were winning.

And ROTC was top.

Ourjunior and senior year in high school,

our basketball team won the state championship.

It's a big thing in the state of Texas.

One year that ROTC, the band,

the football team, the basketball team,

all going to state and winning.

Even our grades. In 1975,

we had more scholarships offered to students of Kashmere

than any other high school in the city of Houston.

And in the midst of all of those winners,

you had the Kashmere Stage Band.

We was the bomb. We was the bomb.

The Kashmere Stage Band gave the community part of its identity.

It... it was just a source of pride for the school and the community.

Your ultimate highlight had to be going to Europe

to play in the festival over there.

True.

We traveled around the state.

We traveled a few places throughout the country,

but to go all the way to Europe just to play,

especially for a black school.

Just unheard of.

Only thing we knew about Europe was across the water.

To raise as much as $35,000 or $40,000 was a pretty big task,

and I was quite hesitant.

We had to literally get out on the street

and ask for donations. We panhandled.

Everybody in the community came together.

The southwest side, the north side,

the east side and the west side.

All the blacks came together.

And in a time when blacks did not come together for anything,

they united for the Kashmere Stage Band.

It got to the point where we were about $10,000 short.

Financial crisis faced the All American Kashmere Stage Band.

They were short of money. Then the governor took the stand.

We believe in each of you.

We're proud of each of you.

I'm very proud, too, that each of you will be

an ambassador of goodwill from Texas.

And I know...

It's my privilege to present to you

this check for $10,000 to help pay...

At a time where there was still the saying

that black kids couldn't learn,

black kids were inferior, they were violent,

but the Kashmere Stage Band was our representative.

To perform in a European city

is a little different from performing here in America.

You are considered an artist rather than just a musician

when you perform exceptionally well,

and this is the way we were treated.

I mean they made us feel like movie stars.

We was on top of the world and didn't know it.

We was talking to girls,

we couldn't even understand what they were saying.

They just wanted to hang out with us.

And then in 1974, when Prof comes in

and says, "Look, guys, we've been invited to travel to Japan."

Japan.

These guys got a chance to tour Japan.

And the winning never stopped.

It went on all the way up to 1977.

We were invited to the Reno Jazz Festival

where we were competing against all the top bands across the nation.

And won the most outstanding band in the nation again.

We were all on radio. We were on television.

The Kashmere High School Stage Band.

We were like, uh, Hollywood.

I'm Eothen Alapatt, General Manager of Stones Throw Records

here in Los Angeles.

I'm also the founder of Now Again Records,

the reissue company that I started

to archive music that was recorded between, you know, '67 and '76,

kind of, like, the prime of the funk era.

You can see all the pictures of the Kashmere Stage Band in there.

It's one of my favorites right there.

Conrad believed there was no reason

why a kid couldn't record and release music as good as professionals.

It was just an abstract goal of committing to record incredible music by 16-year-olds

even if it was only for, you know,

the people in the immediate community to listen to.

Itjust so happens that it's now spread all over the world.

My name is Josh Davis. Uh, my DJ name is Shadow.

The first time I heard Kashmere's music

was actually on a tape compilation

from a guy who sold funk records in London.

Itjust said Cash Register.

You know, to me it was, like, yeah, this is the type of groove I like.

It was rugged, you know.

I just thought it was a funk band.

Never in a million years would I have assumed

that they were just music students.

I had wanted to flip the drum break on the song Kashmere.

I just always liked the syncopation of it.

People who sample records only sample something

they think is like a little moment of brilliance.

Something that they feel like is going to speak

to a new generation of people.

I've been buying high school band albums

whenever I found them,

from all over the United States,

and 99 out of 100 were just awful.

So the fact that I'd heard funk music this good

by a high school band, you know, just blew me away.

Well, I had to know everything about the band

and eventually someone told me, like,

"Well, why don't you contact, you know, Conrad?"

So we flew down to Texas and we pulled all of it out

and we started going through and everything,

and Conrad had told us over and over again,

"The records were just a facsimile.

The magnificence of my band was in the live performance."

They were recorded pretty good, weren't they?

Yeah, the recordings are very nice.

From Houston, Texas, the Kashmere High School Stage Band

under the direction of Conrad Johnson.

The live performances of the band were what killed us.

They were just unbelievable.

Talked Conrad into doing a double disc set.

One, the studio recordings; two, the live recordings...

all funk, no filler.

We called it Texas Thunder Soul.

Whose idea was it to actually do the funk song?

- Me. - It was.

I mean, look, it's just what goes around comes around.

We all thought that they were gonna get a couple thousand pieces out there

and maybe we'd break even,

and it was incredible to see the response.

It was, like, the middle-aged white people all over the country

all of a sudden went out and started buying this CD.

Oh, that's a bad one right there.

- You like that? - Oh, man.

And I called up Conrad and I was like, "You're not gonna believe this,

but we went from being, like, number 3,000-something

on Amazon's top sellers list to being number 3."

And we stayed up there for an entire weekend,

with this band, you know, that hadn't recorded anything,

you know, in over 25 years.

So you were listening to James Brown and all that stuff?

Yeah, we did.

We got one of those of James Brown on there.

What amazes me is that when you were doing all this stuff

you were already 55 years old, you know?

Yeah, I was.

I would see Prof come in the band room that year,

in '77, '78, and his head would be down

and he was not as happy as he used to be.

As a matter of fact, that year we got a new principal

and he didn't understand the traditions of the Kashmere Stage Band.

As a matter of fact, he didn't care about the traditions

of the Kashmere Stage Band.

Envy set in from the school board that, "What is this guy doing?"

You know, uh, "Why is he doing this?"

"Why is he traveling over to Europe?"

"Where is all the money going?"

Everything is political, even the school district.

It's a political move.

Too many accolades going to a little black man

on that side of town.

He had people that loved him,

but at the same time they were planning his demise.

We were not getting the funding or the support

from the administration that we used to get.

It was more things coming out of our pocket.

The principal and the administration at that time was,

they were really laying on him.

They would come down every day to harass him, literally,

and say things to him in front of us,

which was really disrespectful.

We saw a, uh, just a downward spiral.

As a matter of fact, he didn't even tell us he was retiring.

That next year he just didn't come back.

I think any school administrator

that votes for taking music out of the system,

he ought to be fired.

School administrator, he ought to be fired.

Don't take it out. Don't take it out.

Leave it there.

It can help those kids.

Even if it's... even if it's not the most top-rate.

Leave it there. It's an experience that he will not get otherwise in life.

Let's go!

Listen up, listen up. Hey, listen up.

I need the rhythm section to be...

I need everybody else to be quiet in here

so I can work on that. One.

Hang on a second. That's a train wreck.

We need to fix that.

I need everybody to hit that accent.

Craig Baldwin, that's a miracle.

'Cause Craig was close to being a felon.

I would see him walking down the street late at night

in the Bottom, in the bad neighborhood,

and I would say, "What are you doing over here?"

He said "I'm gonna be a great musician one day.

Don't worry about it."

Here we go. Everybody quiet up.

This young man was the coldest.

He could be brutal.

He would say what he had to say and he didn't care if you didn't like it.

He would just look at you.

Everybody. H, rhythm section.

You see Craig Baldwin up there doing that,

when I knew that he didn't read music

but he could say "Go to letter H."

I was like, "Awesome!"

He knows letter H, he studied this music.

1, 2, 3, 4...

He stood there and said, "All right, guys, this is what we're gonna do."

That's the way Prof would say it.

He had everybody's attention

'cause you had people with perfect pitch sitting there.

You had people that were band directors sitting there.

You had people that were doctors and lawyers sitting there

but Craig was saying "All right, guys, let's do this."

And it was like, chh!

I hear somebody playin'.

That's an intimidating job, getting the band to hit,

and to hit like that, you know.

That's, uh, that's a big job.

God. I'm exhausted.

You see how good I had you looking?

- Whatever. Whatever. - I had you looking good.

See how good I made you look back then?

Baby, you know I compliment you.

Everything must change...

There you go.

Everything will change...

- Nothing stays the same... - Nothing stays the same...

Good night.

Give me a call. I love you.

I love you too, baby.

I need you to try this jacket.

I found my old jacket from 1974,

but I can't wear it, so they said, "Get Gerald to put it on."

I didn't think I was gonna ever see that again.

You kept that in mint condition, huh?

Yeah, man.

Oh, man.

Actually I wore... It used to be a large but...

It used to be...

I mean, that's 30 years ago, so...

It used to fit me like that.

I had mine until about the '80s.

You know, when I left Kashmere I didn't even weigh 100 pounds, man.

I got all of the...

Something on the back?

Man, on the back there's the name, man.

Oh, man!

And you were class of '73, right?

Here we go. Cool. Cool.

Right, right. Let me kiss that forehead.

How ya doing?

I'm doing fine. Craig?

Craig Baldwin, in your room.

Standing right in front of you.

Let me touch ya. How you doing now?

Well, I'll be doggone. Craig?

Yes, sir.

Yeah, he's-he-he's... he's come to see you, Prof.

Well, that is wonderful.

Yeah. But you need to tell him about what your...

Well, one of the reasons for being here

is first I had told, um, my brother here

'cause, you know, I'm taking brothership here

with the son of yours.

You're taking brothership.

Brothership. Yeah.

That tells me something.

You know, we have this program we're putting together for you

on the first of February.

We're going to play Kashmere, Zero Point,

Lost Love, and All Praises.

We have been rehearsing 'em.

That's unbelievable.

Yeah.

But, I mean, but it's believable.

- Yeah, yeah. - Absolutely.

Prof, I got guys that haven't played their horns in 30 years

that came back to do this, uh, this deal.

- What? - Yeah. 30 years.

Those cats, can they do it?

Prof, you will be amazed.

You mean they were...

Now, listen, I want you to hear what I'm saying.

Okay.

They were taught so well

that they can remember what they did then, and do it?

It's almost like you in the room, Prof.

I can't believe this.

It's just like you're standing there.

Wow.

Mm-hmm.

Wow.

- Yeah. - Gosh.

I just like to see this. When it is gonna be?

It's gonna be this coming Friday.

We got some surprises

but we're gonna put a little bit of a spin on it

and then see what you think.

I know about your spin.

But I'm not too sure that I can even be there.

Prof, one way or the other, you're gonna... we gonna make it.

You gonna... we gonna make you make it, okay?

I wanna be there.

That's the plan.

Oh, man, this is wonderful.

Yeah.

All right?

All right.

Okay, man.

I love you.

- Love you too. - Talk to you soon, man.

Ahhh, man.

If y'all could give me your attention.

This is... This is, uh, very difficult for me.

Prof had a mild heart attack.

Okay?

He's at the Methodist Hospital and, um,

I made a promise to him

that we're gonna do this for him.

I told him about all you guys and the...

and the commitment, and he's... he was just blown away

that all you guys actually, you know,

came back together, you know, for this,

so we got work to do.

And, um, I'm gonna ask, um, Tim

to, uh, stand and say something special for us

because we need this right now.

Gracious God, our Father, again we come before your presence.

So we ask now that you would speak your Word

concerning the illness of Prof Conrad Johnson.

I was wondering, Was I ever gonna see him again

and did I say everything I needed to say?

Just touch his body...

Was my life, the things that I had done,

did it please him?

I was wondering if I was gonna ever get a chance

to actually just touch his hand

orjust say I love you.

Thank you.

We pray that you would bless us now

and continue to bless us

throughout all the days of our lives...

We were just saying, "Hang on, Prof.

"Hang on. We're doing this.

We're doing this for you. Just hang on."

And we thank you. Amen.

Very top of the song, here we go.

Showtime.

1, 2... 1, 2, 3...

When you heard that... boww!

I mean, it almost knocked me down

and I was trying to keep my emotions to myself

'cause I didn't want them to see

that it was like, man, you gonna make me cry, man.

You gonna make me cry 'cause, you know, this is power.

This is Conrad Johnson power and we're playing his power.

Talkin' 'bout the zero, unh!

Talkin' 'bout the zero...

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah...

Zero, unh!

Talkin' 'bout the zero, unh!

I want Prof to feel like we never lost it,

that we still have it going on.

We want to show him that we were listening

and we were paying attention

and we want him to know that we respect his music.

We don't want the students to look and say,

"Oh, that was just a bunch of old people."

We want them, when they hear us, to say,

"Wow, those old people still have it."

I just hope that they will see that there are some guys

that came out of this same neighborhood

that walked these same halls

that sat in these same classrooms

that did something tremendous.

My deepest hopes for this reunion concert

is that we take another tour to Europe, Japan,

and I get a major record deal.

I can't put it in no other words.

We're gonna do this, this thing,

and, uh, and like, yes, l-I wanna be a part of it.

I wanna be there.

I wanna, I wanna feel it again, you know.

So, um, yeah it's... it's a big thing for me.

I want him, I want him to know...

that we didn't forget, man.

We didn't forget how to do it.

You know. Maybe 30, 40 years from the moment,

but we didn't forget how to do it, you know?

- Comp. What's going on? - Hey, man.

Looking good, boy. Looking good, boy.

Good to see you, man. Well, you're looking good, man.

Oh, it's time, fellas, it's time.

Look at you. What's up?

Man. I'm... I'm happy, man.

I'm happy we doing it. We doing it.

You're choking, brother.

No, no, no, don't choke me.

Let me, let me stretch it a little bit more now.

Now, my neck ain't that big, Clifford.

Come on, what you trying to say, man?

I'm trying to say it's all good, man.

Earl Spiller told me, he said,

"Man, when we get old, man, we're gonna do this.

We're gonna do a reunion, man, and we're gonna be all old, man."

But we ain't all that old.

- We ain't all that old. - We're still looking good.

Bruce here. We use to call him the hoochie coochie man.

When he played, he would kind of move his hips and wiggle.

- Look at this. - Get that.

Who did that? Who did that?

Get front page. Look at it, look at you, boy.

Boy, you're stealin' headlines.

Well, we sure remember, right?

Quiet up. He's trying to talk.

We got Class of '59.

- All right. - Oh, oh!

Old school in the house.

I just wanna say I know I'm with some bad musicians.

But we... but we brought the first trophy to this school.

- Uh-oh. - Hey! Hey!

And it was not a jazz trophy,

so Conrad is more than justjazz.

Conrad made me fall in love with symphony music.

And when we first went to Prairie View,

we all... we were so poor we didn't have uniforms as a school.

All we had was white pants and a white shirt,

and people would say, "Who are those milkmen?

What they... What they... What they coming here for?"

But when we left, they knew who those milkmen were.

But I came here and... I came here just to say

Conrad has done wonders for everybody, and so I just wanted you to get it straight.

He's more than just a jazz musician.

He's a true musician,

from the mole on his head to the top of his toes.

Any time we doing something,

Mr. Gerald Calhoun come from Portugal.

Speech! Speech!

To be here after all of these years

and all of us come together for this moment in... at this time...

Hear, hear! Yes, sir. Yeah, man.

...can you believe that?

Amen.

It's... It's happened. It's happened.

- It's going down. - It's here, it's today,

- We're all here. - Let's get it on.

What a blessing.

Now, Adrian Tyler.

Band Director.

Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes.

I really thank you from the bottom of my heart

for being able to come here and show my current students

that it is possible to come from this very band room

and make a positive influence.

I thank you and I urge you, don't let this be the last time

you come back to Kashmere for another 30 years.

All right?

I hope to see a lot of you all come.

If you wanna help out, give me a call.

Ahh, boy.

Need any help with that?

That way he won't have to walk as far.

All right, let's just swing it on around.

You're gonna swing your legs on around for me?

- I do. - Come on.

Now don't turn me loose, now.

Oh, I'm not gonna turn you loose.

I'm just getting you ready. You ready to roll?

Now let me see.

It was pretty crazy to see him

wheeled in, in a wheelchair to the high school, you know,

looking more frail than I'd imagined

and I thought to myself, "My God,

like, he's really been hanging on to see this."

Why this program, why today?

Today is February 1st,

and we begin Black History Month

and our observance of Black History Month

around these United States.

And what a fitting opportunity for us to honor and to recognize

an icon in the music industry, Mr. Conrad O. Johnson.

You are an example

of what educators all over the world hope to be,

and that is an influence on their students.

We thank you, we honor you, we love you.

I wanted to cry

because I was so glad to see him.

Even though he looked feeble,

I knew that his heart was there and he was watching his children.

And he was, like, saying, "Nothing's changed.

I'm just older now. So are you. Play."

Without any further ado,

the legendary Kashmere Stage Band. Give it up.

1, 2, 3, 4.

1, 2, 1, 2, 3, 4!

These are my brothers and sisters.

The Kashmere Alumni Stage Band,

under the direction of Mr. Conrad O. Johnson.

Prof, what you think about this today, man?

It was all right, huh?

Yeah. It was all right. It was all right.

Oh, yeah, man.

- It sound good? - It sound good.

Yeah? We enjoyed it, Prof.

I enjoyed it too, man.

It was a wonderful thing, wasn't it?

- It was great, man. - Fantastic.

I never saw anything like it.

Yeah, me too. Me too.

You gave us the spirit and we gonna pass it on.

- Pass it on. - We'll pass it on.

That's what we gotta do.

It'll never go away.

We were just some little old snotty-nose kids,

you took us under your wing and made real musicians out of us.

We sure appreciate that, Prof.

You gave us our purpose, man.

And we all came back here for it, to honor you, man.

We'll never forget it.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, man.

Well, you did it.

And you can take it from me, baby.

You did it.

Now listen good, baby, and you would.

Yeah.

- You was right. - Mm-hmm.

He brought 'em back 30 years later...

Yeah.

...and you could still do the same thing.

Yeah.

So I talked to his son. His son said,

"You know, Prof's been sleeping, "uh, since he got home last night,

"but come on out and, you know, we'll wake him up and we'll talk.

You know, he loves to talk with you about music."

So I said, "Great. I'll be right out there."

So we go in there and he wakes up Prof

and Prof sits up and we start talking.

And I said "Hey, Prof, you know, I just... I hope you...

I hope you feel that I've, you know, I've done you right."

You know, and he said, "Yeah, man, you know,

you've done me right."

And I said, uh,

I said, "You know, it... your legacy's safe."

And he said, "Yeah, I know it's safe.

You know, what's next?"

And I said, "Man, maybe we could do,

you know, a compilation of all these ballads."

He's like, "Man, we had some great ballads, man."

And I said, "Yeah, man, you know,

"you had so much and I'm...

so proud to be a part of this."

And I just said, "Yeah, I love you, man."

He said, "I love you too."

And then he fell asleep.

This is Conrad Johnson's granddaughter.

I'm calling to let you know

Prof passed away, 5:00 p.m. Today.

It is, uh, Sunday. We wanted you to know.

This is Mingo in Houston just to say

I didn't know if you gotten the information about Prof.

So I was calling you to pass it on.

I don't know if anyone has told you we lost Prof.

He's gone on home. He be blessed.

Conrad Johnson has just passed.

We all are getting word right now.

When we wear the gloves,

when we wear the gloves,

a brother has gone from our midst

and sailed to golden shores.

When we wear the gloves,

a friend has passed the final test

and walked through purple doors.

The circle has an empty place. A voice will raise no more.

The song of fellowship and love uplift forevermore.

Good morning. Yeah, it's a good day.

For this is a day of celebration.

And you celebrated Prof all the way up to Heaven's door.

God bless you.

You gave him his flowers while he was still here

and could appreciate it and Prof had a blast.

We give you the glory...

Today, tomorrow...

And forever...

And ever...

And...

Ever...

I gave them pride. I gave them honor.

I gave them exceptional performance.

And they knew it.

And they appreciated it.

But we had to work to do it, now.

It didn'tjust come natural.

This is powerful. It's a wonderful moment.

A man and his horn. A man and his horn.

Oh, how wonderful.

Oh, man, that looks just like him, man.

For Conrad.