The auditorium walls of Jackson’s Provine High School couldn’t stop the rat-a-tat-tat of snare drums, the bright blasts from trumpets, the bouncing oomphs from tubas and waves of music pulsing into empty hallways.
The Mississippi Alumni All-Star Band had found its rhythm.
For the next several minutes, nearly 150 band members — middle school, high school and college students from across the state — would groove together during a Tuesday evening practice in June playing arrangements of “Whisper My Name” by Drake and “Who We Be” by DMX. Musicians swayed in wooden auditorium seats — some studying digital sheet music on their phones — awaiting cues from Travis Prewitt, one of the band’s lead directors and conductors.
“Horns, I need you to remember to breathe from your diaphragm when we get to the chorus of these songs,” Prewitt said. “Once you’re there, we’ll be solid. I need to hear those notes roar.”
Jackson State University Assistant Band Director Travis Prewitt directs the Mississippi Alumni All-Star Band during rehearsal at Provine High School, Tuesday, June 9, 2026, in Jackson. The band is comprised of middle and high school students from across Mississippi as well as college musicians. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi TodayThe all-star summer band, also known as MAAB, has grown to fill a void in arts education, creating one of the largest community training grounds for students hoping to earn college music scholarships.
In summer 2011, Prewitt, Travis Parks, David Hubbard and the late Christopher Little — four Jackson State University alumni and former members of the Sonic Boom of the South — began gathering friends and local musicians to teach hundreds of Mississippi students to perform “show style,” the high-stepping, high-energy music and traditions typically associated with marching bands at historically Black colleges and universities.
Fifteen years later, the group’s grassroots network of band directors across the state and throughout the South connects students with mentors and resources to help them pursue HBCU band auditions and paths to college.
“You don’t have to know how to read music perfectly. You don’t even have to have an instrument,” said Hubbard, who is also the co-founder of Mississippi Music Institute, a nonprofit organization that works with the all-star band to raise money and recruit students for arts and music programs. “You just have to have the spirit of wanting to be a better musician.”
Since its inception, nearly half of the students in the band have gone on to earn scholarships at Jackson State, Alcorn State, Mississippi Valley State and other HBCUs, Hubbard said. The band receives small grants from local arts organizations but mostly collects money through self-sustaining neighborhood barbecue plate fundraisers and concession stand sales to pay for students’ uniforms, travel to competitions and rental rehearsal spaces.
Training the next generation of Mississippi musicians
For months starting each May, students in the mass band train as collegiate-level musicians.
Prewitt and the group’s five other rotating band directors drill their musicians with four to five new compositions each week. They teach breathing techniques.
Terry High School Band Director De’Andre Weekes, left, assists sousaphone player Ke’Dariuos Jackson during Mississippi Alumni All-Star Band rehearsal at Provine High School, Tuesday, June 9, 2026, in Jackson. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi TodayThose lessons serve two purposes: sharpening students’ skills and giving them an edge against other young musicians from bigger Southern cities such as Memphis, Atlanta and New Orleans, who are also vying for scholarships and spots in HBCU marching bands.
“This gives us a chance to teach and show it to them in real time while they’re playing next to a trumpet player from Jackson State, Alcorn or Mississippi Valley,” Prewitt said. “Then after the (summer band) season is over, they then go back to their own schools and colleges and share what they learned with other peers.”
Leonard Martin, a band director at Lanier Jr. Sr. High School in Jackson, said he taps his gifted music students at the end of the school year to join the summer ensemble. That’s how he began his journey.
Little, who was one of the MAAB founders and a former band director of Jackson’s Jim Hill High School before he died in 2023, encouraged Martin to join the mass band program as a trombone player in 2013. The summers in the ensemble eventually helped Martin earn a music scholarship and a spot in JSU’s Sonic Boom.
“It kept me out of the streets of Jackson and from being peer-pressured into doing other things,” Martin said. “My involvement has cultivated and molded me to be a band director to lead by example for my students.”
Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi TodayCredit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi TodayCredit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi TodayCredit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi TodayCredit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi TodayCredit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi TodayCredit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi TodayCredit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi TodayThe summertime ensemble is also a platform for band directors to elevate their careers. Many directors are hired at colleges and universities after gaining visibility through the program, Martin said.
Finding their tribe among peers
Corbin Williams didn’t want to join the all-star band at first.
The 18-year-old Lanier High senior watched his older brother, Keston, practice snare drum cadences and new musical arrangements he learned each week as a member of the band. Williams said he wasn’t keen on the rigor and discipline the musical ensemble required.
“It was intimidating, and I was lazy and didn’t take the craft of music seriously,” Williams said.
In 2015, he joined the band to sharpen drumming techniques — musicality, hand-eye coordination, rhythm and most importantly, confidence in sight reading music. Williams also began befriending other drummers. During lulls in rehearsal, they would drill him on musicality and rhythm.
“My attention span for retaining music, coordination and rhythm has improved so much since I began practicing everyday with MAAB,” Williams said. “I get better when I’m around them. I see what’s possible for me.”
Jackson State University Assistant Band Director Travis Prewitt, right, synchronizes sousaphone players’ timing during Mississippi Alumni All-Star Band rehearsal at Provine High School, Tuesday, June 9, 2026, in Jackson. The band is comprised of local high school and college musicians. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today Mississippi Alumni All-Star Band sousaphone player Ke’Dariuos Jackson during rehearsal at Provine High School, Tuesday, June 9, 2026, in Jackson. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today Cymbal players practice their routine during Mississippi Alumni All-Star Band rehearsal at Provine High School, Tuesday, June 9, 2026, in Jackson. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today Trumpeters during Mississippi Alumni All-Star Band rehearsal at Provine High School, Tuesday, June 9, 2026, in Jackson. The band is comprised of local high school and college musicians. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi TodayWilliams plans to audition for the Sonic Boom this fall. The all-star band rehearsals give him a glimpse of what he might experience.
“It’s just preparing myself and making sure I have all the tools that I need to be able to succeed,” he said.
Auiyhna Scott, a senior studying computer engineering at Jackson State and a trumpet player in the Sonic Boom, said her involvement with summer mass band also started as a way to connect with her late father, Christopher Little. Since 2024, Scott has mentored the all-star band’s high school students, who ask her about the music craft, HBCU band audition prep and academics.
“You’re spending your nights playing with all these new students from different backgrounds and they’re coming up to you looking for advice on how to get better at the craft or ace auditions,” Scott said. “Sometimes they even simply ask me what college is like.”
In the high school’s auditorium on June 16, Prewitt led the band through one final rehearsal. In a few days, the Mississippi ensemble would have to defend their home turf against mass marching bands from Baton Rouge, Nashville and Memphis at an annual community competition, the Independence Showdown Battle of the Bands.
The group had been practicing since 5:30 p.m. The first half-hour was dedicated to scales and warm-ups. Then the band did an hour of team sectionals. For 40 minutes, they practiced marching across Provine’s blacktop before the full-band rehearsals.
If they were lucky, they’d finish practice by 10 p.m. Maybe.
“Band! Who skedd?” Prewitt commanded the band’s signature rallying cry. No fear. It was time to play.
One more time. From the top.
“Who? M-A-A-B,” the group shouted before lifting their instruments.
Jackson State University Assistant Band Director Travis Prewitt, left, directs the Mississippi Alumni All-Star Band during rehearsal at Provine High School, Tuesday, June 9, 2026, in Jackson. The band introduces students to high-level performance techniques and puts them on a path to higher education. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi TodayHence then, the article about the mississippi alumni all star band puts on a show and is on a mission was published today ( ) and is available on Mississippi Today ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
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