UAB Marching Blazers celebrate 30 years with retrospective show for 2024

If University of Alabama at Birmingham fans bleed green and gold, then The Marching Blazers band surely keeps the beat of the team's heart.

The Marching Blazers, dubbed "The Sound of The Magic City," are the university's athletic music ambassadors. Part of the UAB College of Arts and Sciences'Department of Music, the band is the university's largest performing ensemble and thrills thousands of fans with amazing performances. Each year, students from across UAB's schools and colleges come together to present a traditional marching band show, appear at sports and special events throughout the year, march in parades, and perform as the exhibition band at high school and college band competitions.

Being in a marching band is not for the faint of heart. It takes discipline, dedication, consistency and teamwork, with a huge commitment and sacrifice of time, often with long, tiring days, at the mercy of the weather. Band camp, Aug. 19-23, is more than a week of early morning and late evening practices on the Intramural Field, with afternoon rehearsals indoors in the Hulsey Center. On a typical UAB Football game day, the band may start with a rehearsal at 7 or 8 a.m., then travel and play for pregame festivities, the pregame show, the first half, halftime show and second half, and after the game. Then they may get on buses afterward and head to a marching band competition to perform. The Marching Blazers have even traveled internationally to perform. Read more about the band's history.

But to the dedicated few who love band life, it is more than worth it. Some of the hardest and most grueling days out on the field or in the stands become the most treasured of memories, says Brian Wilson, a 1994 charter member and drum major for the Marching Blazers who graduated with a music degree in 1997. Wilson is the band director at Berry Middle School and associate band director at Spain Park High School in Hoover, Alabama.

About 20 percent or so of the students in the band are music majors. Others come from just about every field of study on offer at UAB. The accomplishments of its many alumni, who have stellar careers in fields from dentistry, nursing, the military and more to music performance and music education, "show the discipline it takes," said Assistant Director of Bands Gene Fambrough, DMA.

Students can study anything they want at UAB and still be part of the Marching Blazers and the legacy, Wilson says. Whether it is high school or college, band teaches students to be great musicians and great leaders, he says.

Drum major Brian Wilson, an original member of the Marching Blazers band in 1994. Courtesy the Marching Blazers."It is very similar to athletics, teaching them to push through adversity," he said. "When they think they have hit the wall, we have got to motivate them and prove that they can do more than they thought they could at that moment."

The contributions UAB bands make are a service to the community, Wilson says. UAB's leadership, Director of Bands Sean Murray, Ph.D., and assistant band directors Cara Morantz, Ed.D., and Fambrough, along with their students, give freely of their time to support junior and high school band programs.

"There are a lot of things UAB bands do, and it's not just a campus thing, not just something that happens at a football game," Wilson said. "It's a great group of people using their talents to give back and build relationships in our community."

The UAB Marching Blazers are the headliner for Sparks in the Park in September, a showcase and exhibition for area high school bands hosted by Spain Park High School. UAB band faculty give the students critiques, offering a little extra feedback to help prepare high school bands for competition and are a great resource for band directors, Wilson says.

Drum majors this season are Cameron Rodgers-Johnson and Ashley Rehage, who are both majoring in music education, and Mia Hernandez, a biology major.

The UAB band is presently at an ideal size, Fambrough says: big enough to be heard, not so big that you can't move around on the field, and with plenty of people to draw from when you need a pep band. With Morantz transitioning from 10 years working with Athletic Bands into her new role as director of Music Education in the Department of Music, Caleb Owenby, DMA, joins the team as assistant professor of trombone and assistant director of Athletic Bands.

Working together with others to accomplish great things has even led to love, and lifetime partnerships, for its members - the UAB Marching Blazers band family boasts more than 30 married couples in its ranks, some of whom are raising the next generation of Blazers.

Reunion at Marching Blazers Alumni Band Day, UAB Homecoming on Nov. 2

Murray says they are hoping alumni will return for UAB's Homecoming on Nov. 2, when all past players are invited to perform with the marching band for Marching Blazers Alumni Band Day. The Marching Blazers will host a banquet and other festivities for students and alumni that weekend.

"We have thousands of band alumni from the past 30 years, and we want a really big turnout," Murray said. "We have so many Marching Blazer babies, I thought that might be kind of fun to bring the kids too."

For the 30th anniversary season, the band will have one show. Fambrough dug into the archives with Murray to craft a selection of songs from different decades.

"It's all music that people would know, and it's all fresh, even with some throwbacks," Murray said.

"Liberty Fanfare" will be the opener, an important piece to include because it was the first hit out of pregame from 1994 until 2002, Fambrough says.

"Birdland" from the 2001 show, "Bohemian Rhapsody" from 2012 and "Thriller" from 2004 will round out the show, with a switch to "Back to the Future" after Halloween, he says. That song was included in the 2016 show, which was a tribute to movie music - but it is also a UAB bands OG: Murray has a handwritten arrangement of it on his desk, from the UAB music library and dated 1990.

High school students will get a chance to march with UAB at All-Star Marching Band Day, an annual event when outstanding band students are invited to join the Marching Blazers for a day of music and marching that culminates in a massed band performance for family and friends. This year it will be the second game of the year, Sept. 28, against Navy.

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