Connect
To Top

Meet Elijah Thompson of Georgia Mass Band in Atlanta

Today we’d like to introduce you to Elijah Thompson.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Elijah. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I grew up in on the east side of Atlanta and attended Southwest DeKalb High School, where I further honed my skills as a musician playing trumpet and serving as section leader for two years before graduating and going to Jackson State University (Jackson Mississippi) on a full academic scholarship. Here, I met some of my closest friends and brothers Antonio Alexander, Matthew Buggs, and Marcus Cummings.

Fostering our relationship as members of Red Dawg Order Inc., Thee Sonic Boom of the South and hanging out outside of band practice, we began to take notice of these certain marching bands that only performed during the summer and included members from the community they represented. The culture in Atlanta was not representative of these bands. Granted Georgia has some of the best musicians in the world, we figured we wanted in on the action to play with our peers as well as go against our peers from these other states in the off-season. We wanted to give ourselves as well as our community a way to stay involved and be engaged during the oftentimes boring summer months waiting for school to start again. Most of the time, we would get together with our peers and play our instruments together anyway. We just figured let’s get organized and do this for real.

One spring in 2016, we sat down in our dorm, brainstormed and plotted, and the “Atlanta Mass Band” was born. After being met with some adversary and a lot of people telling us “no”, with the help of another SWD alum Julian Smith, we were able to finally secure a rehearsal location and we began our first practice in June 2016. We started off with a meager 30 dedicated members, comprised of our friends and people who saw/believed in our vision and performed at the Juneteenth Parade in Atlanta, and traveled to Augusta to go head to head against CSRA, the local all-star band there at the time.

We changed the name to “Georgia Mass Band” in 2017 when we realized we were receiving abundant support from individuals traveling hours to come to participate/rehearse/perform, from Macon, Savannah, Augusta, Valdosta, and Albany. To be more inclusive and make all feel welcome, we changed the name to include all that were apart of our ensemble, to promote unity not only in the city of Atlanta but the entire state as well to represent as the premiere ensemble in the country.

Fast forward to now in only year four, we have over 2k organic followers on IG, close to 1,000 on FaceBook. we’ve been to Alabama, Mississippi, and have had head to head battles against Mississippi, North Carolina, CSRA, and River Region all-star bands and have had over 300 people register each year since the inception. We made history having the first ever LIVE virtual band battle against New Orleans All-Star Band in 2017, which had over 10,000 live viewers. We’ve also performed with Band of Champions and have even developed a wonderful relationship with that group. On top of all the fun, we’ve donated close to $1,000 to local high school bands with plans to give even more to more schools and eventually give out scholarships and community service hours to volunteers.

This has been an extremely fun, educational and rewarding experience. From arranging music to ordering buses for our out of town trips all as undergrads and now all recent college grads, putting together this 300 piece monster is not easy, but with the support of our community, we’re able to consistently make it happen each year. I could go on about my life and contributions, but truthfully none of this is possible without each and every single person that is apart.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
One of the biggest struggles we faced was the opposition to “all-star bands” in Atlanta and the fact we were so young, and still in undergrad at the time we created this. The style in which we play is not really representative of the style of bands here, especially in Atlanta. Being the new kids on the block and not much being known about “Allstar Band” culture, what we were trying to build was being frowned upon often times being seen as a hindrance to the local programs’ progress.

We didn’t let that deter us, because deep down we knew we were creating something positive for the community. We were met with many questions and comments out of pure curiosity of putting something together like this, such as, “What makes you so qualified?” “Are you a reputable band director?”, “You need an adult to run this for you.”, “That style of the band is terrible.”, “We don’t want that stuff here.”, “Your band won’t sound good.”, and finally “You can’t do it.” So, we pushed through the negative commentary and all the No’s and put our best foot forward, blocking out the naysayers and did what we know how to do best.

We’d love to hear more about your band.
The Georgia Mass Band is a marching band, but not your typical marching band. Yes, we march and play music, but you might not catch us at your local football game in the fall. Led by our wonderful staff of myself, Antonio Alexander, Matthew Buggs, Marcus Cummings, and Percussion Instructor Jeff Sharpe, we are an Allstar/Mass/Community marching band comprised of members from all different high schools throughout the state and colleges all over the country. We bring these people together for about one month out of the summer to rehearse and learn over 20+ songs in which we take into battle, going head to head against other all-star bands in the country. We also feature our lovely dancers “The Sophisticated Jewels” led by coordinator Shontavia James, a member of Tau Beta Sigma, former Motion Captain and graduate of Texas Southern University.

What were you like growing up?
Growing up, I’ve always been positive about most if not all things and very independent and goal oriented. I was really into sports growing up and participated in team basketball, football, soccer, and Tae Kwon Do. I was always very active and enjoyed being apart of any and everything I found joy in. I began learning the trumpet in the 5th grade, and when I broke my leg just before middle school, trumpet became my main focus as I couldn’t really participate in many of the other physical activities. The band became my peace, and my reason to love school and academics as I was having so much fun. Dealing with family issues, and struggling to acclimate to a new environment, I missed my first semester of middle school because of my leg, the band truly helped me get through it. Huge shout out to probably my favorite director Mrs. Natalie Brown who helped foster this love and pushed me to places I never imagined from her dedication to her students and high-level teaching. She took me under her wing when she noticed I was having a bit of a hard time navigating through middle school. May her spirit live on forever. She also attended Jackson State University, which later inspired me to attend upon graduating high school.

After leaving Chapel Hill Middle School, I transitioned to Southwest DeKalb High School where I continued my time in the band. Under the baton of Mr. James Seda, my love for the band grew and developed into a plethora of opportunities I could never imagine. Since leaving SWD, I’ve done gigs all over the country and even went on tour with DrumLine Live for a brief stint and being featured in the VH1 Motion Picture Drumline: A New Beat.

While at SWD, I was able to maintain a 3.3 GPA and attained a full academic scholarship to Jackson State University. There, I studied computer science and was a member of the Sonic Boom of the South. I also became a member of Red Dawg Order Inc. with Antonio, Matthew, and Marcus and Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity of America Inc. with Marcus.

I was always told, “Your attitude determines your altitude.” Growing up, this is a message that has stuck with me for years and has taken me extremely far. I am currently a Software Developer traveling the country working on various solutions. I’m proud that I’m able to take all of the lessons and experiences from the band over the years and apply them to my current life and they still resonate with me and relate to daily life.

Pricing:

  • Dues – $50
  • Performances – Vary

Contact Info:

Getting in touch: VoyageATL is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

More in