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Manassas High School
Manassas High School

The Rebirth of Jazz on Beale Street at The Blue Note: A Tribute to Emerson Able

Jazz is the forgotten piece of the Memphis music puzzle. People who are familiar with Isaac Hayes, Al Green or Otis Redding have likely never …

Memphis Manassas High School Band in the Southern Heritage Classic Parade 2012

Manassas High School in North Memphis is the second-oldest Black high school in Memphis (it was originally a county school, as it was outside the city limits of Memphis). It has a long tradition of excellent music which began when Jimmie Lunceford was hired to be the band director of the school. Lunceford would go on to fame and fortune in the world of big band jazz, along with one of his former students, drummer Jimmy Crawford. Great Memphis musicians such as Emerson Able, Isaac Hayes and Howard Grimes attended Manassas High, and although the school has suffered from low enrollment in recent years, its football program was recently featured in a documentary called Undefeated. Here the Manassas High band marches in the Southern Heritage Classic Parade in Orange Mound, Memphis TN, 9/8/12

Mitchell vs. Manassas @ BTW, Memphis, 2011

Last night was a great night for football, with the weather cool and pleasant, and I headed down to historic Booker T. Washington Stadium for the Mitchell vs. Manassas game. Unfortunately, there was no band battle, because only Manassas brought their band, but Manassas looks as if they may be on the way to rebuilding their band program. We also had to contend with annoying, dive-bombing insects of some sort that would drop out of the sky on us or at least near us. But I still had fun.