Photo courtesy of Joseph Khalifa. Jazmin Mack, SJSU marching band’s co-drum major and a chemistry senior, conducts the Spartan Marching and during a home football game against UNC on Aug. 30, 2019.
Standing with both arms raised in the air in front of a crowd of over a hundred band members is where San Jose State chemistry senior and marching band drum major Jazmin Mack feels most alive.
But that confidence to lead a group of students did not come easily to Mack at first.
When Mack was a freshman in the Trabuco Hills High School marching band in Mission Viejo, California, she needed to collect signatures from people who would endorse her as a drum major.
With shaking hands, Mack approached a friend and asked for his signature, and to her horror, he declined and said, “I don’t think you can do this.”
“I was like, ‘OK, that’s fine.’ And then I went home and cried,” Mack said.
Now at SJSU, Mack became the Spartan Marching Band’s first female drum major in more than 20 years when
the band made the announcement on Facebook in September 2019.
The drum major is the leader of the marching band during rehearsals and performances who carry out the instructions of the band director and other instructional staff.
Additionally, drum majors at SJSU serve a maximum of two years and are selected every spring. However, Mack and fellow drum major and music education senior, AJ Gonzales, were automatically re-appointed last spring due to the pandemic.
Mack said she originally developed an interest in playing music after watching her grandfather perform jazz songs in various nursing homes and restaurants.
She learned the alto saxophone with the help of her grandfather and has played the instrument throughout her marching band career.
The director of her high school’s marching band eventually encouraged Mack to audition for drum major during her freshman year and even helped Mack with her conducting every day after school until the final round of tryouts.
Although Mack had few signatures filled out on the form, she said the director still decided to make her drum major.
“He never told me why, but to me, I just thought [number of signatures] didn’t matter to him,” Mack said. “He saw the motivation and drive I had to be in that position.”
She said the transition from being a band member to a lead position like drum major was hard for her because the upperclassmen didn’t respect her leadership and she said she felt her work was going unacknowledged.
“I was in a position where I wanted recognition rather than just doing the job I was chosen to do,” Mack said. “I should’ve just known that if I put in all the hard work, the blood, sweat and tears, and known at the end of the day I did what I was supposed to do and more, that was all I needed.”
When she applied to colleges, she looked for schools that had both a marching band and a good music program.
Mack said she felt disheartened about applying for drum major for the Spartan Marching Band at SJSU after hearing that a female had not been chosen for the lead position in over 20 years.
When current marching band director Craig McKenzie joined last year, Mack said he recognized how established and reliable she was and this led him to pick her as one of the band’s two drum majors.
“[Mack] keeps everyone in the marching band working their hardest, producing the best possible music and cheering on our Spartans loudly and proudly at all times,” McKenzie said in an email with the Spartan Daily. “She does it all with a smile on her face a mile wide.”
McKenzie said the marching band members couldn’t ask for better leaders than Mack and Gonzales, leading the band.
“I think it’s really cool that I’m the first woman drum major in over 20 years,” Mack said. “Girls who come after me don’t have to be afraid to try out. If you have potential and you work hard . . . then [the position] is yours.”
Jose Perez, political science junior and former drum line member, described Mack as a “great leader,” and said she always makes sure band members are prepared and organized for shows.
“All [of Mack’s] best qualities come out when she’s in the marching band,” Perez said. “She just kicks [our energy] up three notches.”
Like Perez, Mia Herrera, justice studies junior and trombone player, said Mack is a good role model for the band members.
“I don’t know anyone that doesn’t like her,” Herrera said. “She’s just super nice to everyone and everyone looks up to her.”
Marching band photographer and former trumpet player Joseph Khalifa said Mack would calm the new members who were nervous before a game as she led the band onto the field.
“Seeing her in uniform and leading the band for the first football game [in Fall 2019], it just really clicked with everyone like, ‘Yup, that’s one of our drum majors,’ ” Khalifa said.
Mack said that even though her major in chemistry stems away from music, her love for the marching band will always stay with her.
“Marching band is my outlet, it’s the one place I can go to where I can work hard for something that I love and appreciate,” she said. “I know that all the values and beliefs that I’ve taken from marching band will go into whatever career or aspect of life that I’ll be going into within the next five, 10 and 30-something years.”