By Solomon Crenshaw Jr. | For The Birmingham Times
Cameron Clark began playing drums at age 4, but he remembers tuning up even before that young age.
“I’d be using pencils and pens on cans or anything around the house,” the Alabama State University (ASU) sophomore and Ramsay High School graduate recalled. “That’s what my mother and grandmother would always tell me. I’d always be tapping and beating on something.”
The 2022 Birmingham City Schools alumnus easily remembers his mother and grandmother calling out to him: “‘Boy, you’re always beating on something,’” he recounted. “Stop that or go hit on a pillow or something. You’re too loud.’”
And, Clark said, they weren’t exaggerating. “When I tell you I was always beating on something, I was always beating on something,” he said. “I’d grab anything. It didn’t matter what it was. If I had pencils, pens in my hands, straws, forks, spoons, all that.”
Nowadays, Clark uses drumsticks — and the beating he does is more than welcome. Despite only being a sophomore on the Montgomery, Alabama, campus, he is the assistant percussion section leader of The Mighty Marching Hornets.
Clark will be pounding away on his snare drum on Oct. 26, as the Hornets of ASU square off against the Bulldogs of Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical University (AAMU) in Birmingham’s historic Legion Field at the 83rd annual McDonald’s Magic City Classic presented by Coca-Cola. The 2:30 p.m. kickoff is the main event of nearly a week of events surrounding the gridiron clash of the state’s largest historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs).
“It’s always the biggest game of the year for us, the biggest game besides Homecoming,” Clark said of the Classic. “The preparation is a lot, and yet to be at home in Birmingham and performing before family and friends is also a good experience.”
“[AAMU] is always a great competition,” he continued. “Every year, we’re at practice for numerous hours. It’s the game to look for, the biggest classic of all the HBCU classics. It’s exciting. … The Classic is one of those games where you’ve got to lock in. You’ve got to lock in at practice. You’ve got to lock in at the game. No mess ups.”
“Drumline”
Clark is uncertain about what set him on a path toward percussion. He credits his grandmother, Sherrie McCoy Jones, who passed away on September 15 of this year, for being a huge inspiration. And then there was the 2002 movie “Drumline,” starring rapper, actor, and comedian Nick Cannon.
“My parents, both my mom and my dad, [Nichole and Carlos Clark], let me watch it. Then, I had a passion for playing drums [at age 4],” the assistant percussion section leader remembered. “I literally learned the whole movie, beat for beat, at one point. I would watch the movie and play along.”
One thing that made Clark similar to Devon Miles, the character Cannon portrayed in the film, was that Clark could play by ear but couldn’t read music. But he doesn’t let his life imitate that fiction.
“When I transferred middle schools, [from W.J. Christian School], and went to the Alabama School of Fine Arts [ASFA], I was blessed with learning how to read music,” he said. “Kim Scott, a well-known jazz performing artist now, was the head of the music department when I was there. My drum instructor was David Smith. [While being there], I was able to progress and learn to read music.”
Clark also drew inspiration from Anthony Williams, the drummer at his church, Mount Hebron Missionary Baptist Church Thomas. Williams took him under his wing, with Clark sitting nearby as Williams played during services and eventually being a substitute drummer when Williams was out of town.
At ASFA, Clark was fully immersed in percussion, studying all forms of music, not just marching band. “I had recitals,” he said. “I learned to play the xylophone, basically every percussion instrument” which was among the keys to him becoming an ASU section leader.
Dr. James Oliver, the longtime band director at ASU, said section leaders are selected by showing leadership skills and communication skills. The leader of the section had to display proficiency in playing “all” percussion instruments.
“Musicality”
The ASU percussionist said his parents picked up his “musicality” early. “They started to really push it,” Clark said. “That’s when I started receiving drum lessons and being a part of little community drumlines.”
Among those was Freestyle Percussion in Birmingham’s Roebuck neighborhood, founded by Christopher Seltzer.
“When [Clark] first started taking lessons, he was still learning but very excited about everything that I taught him,” Seltzer said. “It didn’t take him long to mature into a drummer and percussionist. He took private lessons from me. As a matter of fact, I helped him prepare to get into [ASFA].”
Clark had been a student at and in the pep band of W.J. Christian School when he was in the sixth grade. His admission to ASFA was a “serious turn” in his development.
“It’s the School of Fine Arts,” he said. “That’s straight-up what they do at that school. My 10th grade year is when I transferred to Ramsay [High School].”
Clark’s work with Freestyle Percussion earned him a slot in the organization’s competitive drumline, the Freestyle Allstars, where he played quads, a marching drum set of four tenor drums mounted on a single carrier.
“Each instrument has its own level of challenge to it,” Seltzer explained. “When you’re playing quads, you’ve got four different drums and you have to remember the parts for each drum, for each cadence, for each song. There is a level of difficulty to it. I wouldn’t say it’s more difficult than any other drum but it does take some discipline to play it.”
(Cadences are musical arrangements for percussionists that are usually played to maintain the correct rhythm in a marching band.)
The Freestyle Percussion website lists discipline, confidence, commitment, and excellence as traits Seltzer and others at the organization hope to teach—and Clark exudes those traits.
“He practiced all the time. He always wanted to get better,” the group founder said. “He was disciplined in that he practiced to get better on a weekly basis. As he got better, his confidence grew [and] he became one of the leaders with the Freestyle Allstars.”
Committed
Seltzer said the ASU band member was committed. “I didn’t have a problem with [Clark] being there,” he said. “I knew he was coming. And his spirit of excellence shows now that he’s an assistant section leader at [ASU] in his sophomore year, which is hard to do.”
Coincidentally, Seltzer is a product of rival AAMU, and he admits that he tried to convince Clark to go north to Huntsville, Alabama, rather than south, to Montgomery, Alabama.
“But at the end of the day, we just want the student to get a scholarship, whether it’s [AAMU, ASU], Miles [College], Tuskegee [University, or] the University of Alabama,” he said. “It doesn’t matter. First, we want them to go where they want to go so they can be confident about where they are. Secondly, we want to prepare them to get a scholarship at any school.”
As always, Seltzer will be in the stands for the Magic City Classic on October 26, but he has room in his heart to extend his cheers.
“Ironically, I think I have half and half at each school,” he said. “I’ve got two or three that I’ve taught at [ASU], and I’ve got about the same at [AAMU]. Of course, my school is [AAMU]; that’s where I paid my money and where my degree comes from. I’ll be cheering on my students, as well, from [ASU].”
As for Clark, beyond being into music, he’s always been into numbers and math. Toward that end, he’s studying accounting and hopes to earn a graduate degree in business marketing and finance.
The 83rd annual McDonald’s Magic City Classic presented by Coca-Cola will be played between the Bulldogs of Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical University and the Hornets of Alabama State University at 2:30 p.m. on Oct. 26, at Birmingham’s legendary Legion Field. Details about road closings, accessible parking, shuttle services, and much more are available at magiccityclassic.com.
