By BRANDON LaGARDE
GSU Media Bureau

Lawrence Jackson led the creative and powerful sound of the Southern University Human Jukebox for 38 years as director of bands. Cranking the Human Jukebox volume up during the 2013 Super Bowl and the 2015 introduction of boxer Floyd Mayweather in the MGM Grand Arena of Las Vegas for “The Fight of The Century,” Jackson established a pattern of discipline and commitment that made the SU band what it has become today.

An unusual thing happened Saturday night as the Grambling State University World Famed Tiger Marching Band welcomed Jackson as an honorary band director.

At Saturday night’s (Sept. 24) against Alcorn State University, another institution with a legendary band history, Larry Pannell, Grambling State University’s director of bands, honored and inducted Jackson, his longtime friend and band and music rival, into the World Famed Band as an honorary band director.

“This is classy,” Jackson said moments after leaving the football field induction ceremony. “This is one classy institution.”

Jackson’s brother, Larry (sp????) Jackson, a 1971-75 World Famed member, presented the retired SU band director Jackson his honorary black and gold GSU band jacket.  He also received a Grambling blanket, hat and a ring. An 8×10 photo of Jackson will be placed in the Conrad Hutchison Performing Arts Center museum along with a summary about Jackson’s historic tenure at Southern.

The two band directors may have battled during football games and the annual Battle of the Bands the night before the Bayou Classic in the Superdome each November, but, off the field, they have been friends for more than two decades.

“I felt truly blessed to have had the legendary World Famed Grambling State Tiger Marching Band see fit somebody from the Human Jukebox marching band as an honorary band director,” Jackson said in an interview. “After all, the World Famed had a lot of firsts.  They were first to be chosen to do a halftime show at the first Super Bowl ever, first HBCU band I know to play on live television with the great Dr. Conrad Hutchinson, because the Grambling Tigers were hard at work in the sixties. So I was truly honored to be recognized.”

Larry (sp???) Jackson, who lives in Dallas, Texas, said he would not have missed his brother’s special moment.

“My brother is a remarkable person because he went to Grambling, played with the Tiger band, traveled the world,” said the former Southern band director. “He was so glad I was able to come to his university … For him to put the Tiger jacket on me I think was more special to him than anything else. I was honored but he had joy and excitement in his eyes. He was so enthused that his brother would put on the same jacket he wore for years.”

Jackson and Pannell first met in 1990 at the Bayou Classic in New Orleans when both were assistant band directors at their respective schools. Throughout the years the frenemies discussed much more than music: students, academic success, preventing undercover initiations as they handled hazing and students lacking finances.

Pannell and Jackson worked together to discuss how to put on a great Battle of the Bands show and great halftime performances that were nationally televised. The two would call each other and pray on for a good show. They would pray that they would please their fan bases the most since it can be hard enough to please their own fans, praying that Southern fans would enjoy the Southern Band and that Grambling fans would enjoy Grambling’s band.

Pannell knows he was doing something different, something special for someone from a historic enemy school, but he said friendships, relationships and professionalism much top what’s done on the field and in the streets.

“It was a great honor to honor Jackson,” Pannell said. “A lot of the time when we do your work, at the end of your career you’re forgotten.

“What we try to do is honor those who have done a lot for music education, and for students who leave the band and not just to be musicians but to be successful citizens for our country – and Lawrence Jackson meets those qualities.”

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