Where were you Thanksgiving morning? If you weren’t in New York City cheering on the Mighty Sound of the Southeast as they marched down 34th Street, there’s a good chance you watched them on TV. Or followed on social media. Or texted friends and family about just how awesome they sounded and looked in Herald Square.
“It was high energy,” says Tiger Thompson, a senior sport and entertainment management major from Cleveland and one of the trumpet section leaders. “I think we must have said it a million times, me and everyone around me, ‘We got to crank today. We got to crank today.’”
The day before the parade, Carolina Band Director Jay Jacobs (right) promoted USC’s upcoming performance on NBC’s TODAY with Columbia native and co-anchor Craig Melvin.
And you know they did. The 2024 Carolina Band practiced all year, caravanned north in nine buses and practiced again once they got there. By the time they hit Herald Square, they were loud, proud and tight as a drum.
“Oh, it was crazy,” Thompson continues. “We marched in, we turned, and all of a sudden there’s this wall of cameras and the crowd behind us, and we’re all just playing our hearts out. It was a surreal, surreal moment.”
It wasn’t the TV finale that hit saxophonist Jeniya Brown the hardest, though. The junior music education major from Summerville, South Carolina, points to the march itself, the cheering crowd, the pride that swelled in her chest.
“A lot of people would say their favorite part was Herald Square,” Brown says. “But marching into Herald Square, and all of the cadence before that, was the most fun I’ve ever had in marching band. We’re passing by all these people, and you can hear them all screaming for the band. It was so exhilarating. It was just so cool.”
Talk like that is music to the ears of Jay Jacobs, director of the Carolina Band. Now in his sixth year at USC, Jacobs was instrumental in getting the Mighty Sound of the Southeast to Macy’s, but he was most excited for the 375 students in this year’s band — and for the alumni who helped build the Carolina Band over the past 104 years.
“Every performance is my dream performance, but to showcase the band at Macy’s, to show the world the students we have and the amazing things they do —” Jacobs pauses, looking for the words. “My joy comes from watching the students have the opportunities and experiences they receive at the University of South Carolina.”