“It’s like a warm feeling across my body.” Music fills streets and souls with return of Mardi Gras
A year ago, 13-year-old Courtney Jones regularly got into fights on the school bus. His grades usually hovered around a D average. Sometimes, children he knew in his neighborhood might talk with him about how fun it was to break into cars. He never did it. But that’s the kind of influences he was around.
The Roots of Music Marching Crusaders line up before heading out to their first Mardi Gras parade of the season.Though the majority of the band members are boys, girls also participate. They include 10-year-old clarinetist Skylar Carter, who attends St. Leo the Great Catholic School. She reports two benefits beyond the joy of performing with Roots: “My grades have improved,” she says. “Plus, I get to skip Catechism.
Outside, in the school’s brick courtyard, Courtney and two of his friends, 14-year-old Tyler Guidry and 13-year-old Chad Brown, both baritone players, were doing 100 push-ups while Tabb stood nearby and watched. The push-ups were penalty for the boys’ typical misbehavior: laughing and joking. Still, Courtney is proud of the enormous growth he’s experienced since he first picked up his horn 11 months ago. “It’s like a warm feeling across my body,” he says.
Courtney acknowledges that he feels bad if a parent shows up and causes a stir. But he says being in the Roots of Music program helps him focus on something positive. “Now, when I’m in school, I think to myself, I just need to get through this whole day, because I know after school, when I have practice, I can play my horn and do what I want to do. My life now is school, practice, sleep, repeat.”
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