The Jacksonian caught up with three former Sonic Boom of the South drum majors from the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. Here’s what they are doing now.
DR. JAMES BERRY,
1980s
D
r. James Berry held several leadership positions after being a drum major for the Sonic Boom of the South in the 1980s. Now a principal at Atherton Elementary School in Decatur, Ga., he once served as band director at Southwest DeKalb High School in the same city. The band performed in the 1996 Summer Olympics and the 1997 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. They also appeared in the motion picture Drumline. Berry’s days as one of the Boom’s “Three Horsemen” helped prepare him to lead. “We would never stop; we had the endurance of a horse. We made the band want to march,” says Berry, who helped lead the Boom during his sophomore, junior and senior years. “We started the ramp performance and doing the kick with the turns coming back up to the stands after a show.” Berry can still hear announcer Dr. Jimmie James Jr. saying, “Do you hear what I hear? Do you see what I see?” Then the band would begin marching in, “Dun-Dun Dun Dunt-Dunt,” he hums gleefully. “Every time I performed in front of 40,000 to 50,000 people, entering the field to ‘Get Ready,’ ... it gives me chill bumps still to this day,” says the 1987 Jackson State music graduate. “The experience changed my life. The experience was just phenomenal.” –Whitney Everett and Darnell Jackson