Didn't we ramble on, the Black marching band

Duration: 14

Year Published: 1989

Creator: Filmakers Library

Format: 16mm

Color: Color

Sound: sound

Description: This documentary demonstrates how the spirit and soul of the West African people have been passed down, generation by generation, through the Black marching bands. As long as seven hundred years ago, the Yoruba people had musical processions at funerals to celebrate the passage of the spirit into the next world. By the 17th century, African musicians were seen in Turkish marching bands and their skill was admired by the monarchs of Europe. In the U.S., Black fife and drum bands played during the Revolutionary War to keep up troop morale; Black bands also played during the Civil War and the two World Wars. Today, the tradition of the marching bands continues on the football fields of America. Dizzy Gillespie introduces the viewer to the skillfully-executed maneuvers of the Florida A & M Marching Band. He points out that this contemporary band is the direct fulfillment of a timeless ancestral idea. In New Orleans, a jazz procession is an integral part of the funeral observance.