Super Experience: FAMU Band Performs With Entertainer Prince at Halftime
By Kaffie Sledge, Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, Ga.
Feb. 7–”Awesome” was the way Carlos Mahaffey and Earl Simmons Jr. described the experience of performing with Prince during the halftime show of Super Bowl XLI.
The two Carver High School graduates are members of the renowned Florida A & M University Marching “100.”
“It was really an experience having somebody you saw on TV when you were growing up request that your band come and perform with him for the halftime show,” said Mahaffey, son of Linda and David Mahaffey. “It was a real honor.”
“Every time we practiced, it was like a free Prince concert,” said Simmons, son of Frances Brown-Simmons and Earl Simmons Sr. “Seeing Prince on stage and performing with him was like a dream come true. It was a once in a lifetime experience.”
This was the FAMU band’s second encounter with Prince, Simmons said. Band members performed with Kanye West at the 2006 Grammy Awards. Prince, who performed at the same event, asked who the band was.
“Carlos and I didn’t perform because our instrument — the alto saxophone — wasn’t selected,” Simmons said.
But this time was different. The two, who were also drum majors at Carver, actually rehearsed and performed with the artist who can once again be known as Prince.
“Initially, we practiced the music in our bandroom, then they’d go to the field and practice the dance moves,” Mahaffey said. “Wednesday we left Tallahassee to go down to Miami, and Thursday we did an all-day practice session — and that was with Prince.
“He was very easy. I heard he’s shy. Besides singing and performing, he didn’t really say anything. It was the production company telling the band and the extras where we needed to be and what we needed to do. He seemed to be excited that we were all there, and he made a gesture to show his appreciation — but nothing verbal,” Mahaffey said.
Wardrobe malfunction
“We had to send our uniforms to the production company in Miami,” Mahaffey said. “They sewed light strips on the uniforms and hooked them to fanny packs we wore around our waists. And they had battery packs in them and we’d press a button, and that turned the lights on and off. “
But for some there was wardrobe malfunction, Simmons’ mother said.
“We were performing in a Florida storm,” Simmons said. “There was no thunder or lightning, but it was raining and the wind was blowing. We didn’t mind because we practice in that kind of weather so we can perform in that kind of weather.”
“The band practices like soldiers,” Mahaffey’s mother said. “Long hours and all kinds of conditions.”
“It was raining extremely hard and we were wired,” Simmons said. “Some lights didn’t work and some of the uniforms now have little burn holes in them. But we made it through. It was awesome.”
Started at Carver
The discipline at Carver prepared him well for becoming a member of the FAMU’s Marching “100,” Mahaffey said.
Mahaffey and Simmons were members of Carver’s marching and concert bands, said Hugh Moffett, Director of Bands at Carver.
“They are outstanding kids — well-behaved and talented. They were section leaders before they became drum majors,” Moffett said. “And whenever they’re in town, they come back to school and help students.”
Moffett said freshmen typically have a tough time at auditions, so he offered them some suggestions.
“They made it and they sent me some tapes,” he said.
Mahaffey and Simmons graduated from Carver in 2003 — Mahaffey from Carver’s Magnet program; Simmons from the non-magnet program. But they took different routes to FAMU.
Mahaffey said the band director, friends and family persuaded him to go to Tallahassee and check out the campus. His 4.5 GPA earned him a full academic scholarship. He’s currently in the fourth year of FAMU’s six-year pharmacy doctoral program.
Simmons attended the first of many band camps at the university when he was a high school sophomore. “I knew then I was coming here.”
He was offered a band scholarship, but turned it down because a lot is expected if a student accepts such.
Simmons graduates this year with a degree in psychology. He expects to stay at FAMU for graduate school.
Contact Kaffie Sledge at 706-571-8585 or ksledge@ledger-enquirer.com [mailto:ksledge@ledger-enquirer.com]
—–
Copyright (c) 2007, Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, Ga.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.
For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.