Jackson Free Press

Jacksonian Gerard Howard is helping to bring Historically Black College and University marching bands into the national spotlight through a video exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution's new National Museum of African American History and Culture, which opened in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 24.

Howard, a musician, radio host, videographer and photographer in his spare time, started a website devoted to black college bands, bandhead.org, formerly blackcollegebands.com, which was the first of its kind on the Internet, Howard said. Today, the website has an active online community to allow marching bands to post videos and discuss the latest news in the band world. Every fall, he travels around the country filming and showcasing performances by HBCU marching bands, which led to his contribution to the museum.

"As someone who's been part of a marching band, I can say that it's like it's own world," Howard said. "I call it 'the marching sport.' It has its own subculture from other bands, and it's as aggressive as football itself. There's physicality to it, high intensity for the performers and the music. It's meant to get fans to feel the power and intensity of the band, and on the field, it becomes a battle of which band is more powerful and more intense."

Growing up in New Orleans, Howard joined a marching band for the first time as a junior-high student and continued playing throughout his youth, eventually joining the band at Jackson State University. He established blackcollegebands.com while attending JSU in 1998, intending for it to be "like ESPN for HBCU bands," he said. He graduated from JSU with a bachelor's degree in computer science in 2002.

"When I started up the site, HBCU bands didn't get the kind of attention I thought they should," Howard said. "When you're at a football game, the people covering it are sport agencies; there weren't any entities like that covering the bands, and that community represents an important subculture for HBCU students. The site, and this new Smithsonian project, will help put that culture in the spotlight."

Howard, 39, is also the host of "Jazz Reflections," a radio show on Jackson State's WJSU-FM radio that is syndicated on SiriusXM channel 142. The show, which airs every Monday through Friday at noon, is the only all-jazz radio station in Mississippi. He is also a founding member of Southern Komfort Brass Band, in which he plays the bass drum. Howard will be participating in the upcoming Mississippi Invitational art show at the Mississippi Museum of Art this December, showcasing his nature and landscape photography.

For information on Howard's Smithsonian exhibit and his other HBCU band videos, visit bandhead.org or hbcubands.com, or follow Howard on Twitter @hbcubands.