Horns, and horn players who had/saw a chance to be more than band nerds
Possibly.
And quiet as it's been kept...the were a few people who were stealthily writing marching band arrangements of a few of the "new" big band covers of the hits of the day. But this wasn't anything new, really. Our marching band had Maynard's "Eli's Coming" but we also had a legacy chart if Quincy's Basie chart of "I Can't Stop Loving You".
We're playing this shit at football games and everybody's grooving along with it, rednecks, Baptists, Methodists, Black Folks, everybody.
Small town Texas Friday night football in the first days of full integration. Nothing like it, at least not then. And especially in the band hall. EVERYBODY brought their records in.
Horns!