An excerpt from the Washington Post -
He’s 77, an Olympic legend and just made a hip-hop jazz album
In Mexico City in 1968, Bob Beamon soared to one of the Games’ most enduring records. Now he has started a new life as a percussionist.
By Les Carpenter
NEW YORK — The B.O.N.E. Squad is the kind of jazz band that makes your knees quiver and feet convulse. Hip-hop jazz they call it, filled with funk and groove and soul. To some in New York, the B.O.N.E. Squad is a local institution, with a standing gig as the opening act for a theater in the Bronx.
But on this January night, the B.O.N.E. Squad is in a packed Manhattan music hall called The Cutting Room to play songs from its latest album with its newest member: a tall, lean 77-year-old Olympic legend who is standing behind a set of bongo and conga drums. Stix Bones, the band’s leader and main drummer, introduces him
“The man himself,” he yells into a microphone. “Bob Beamon!”
And Beamon, who for nearly six decades has held the Olympic long jump record, starts slapping his palms across the congas. Bop-a-bop-a-bop. The beat builds fast, until it feels as though the whole room is filled with the sound of Bob Beamon playing congas. People in the crowd start to shout.
Beamon peers at them through round glasses that appear to change color in the light and look almost like a pair of Olympic rings. A small smile slides across his lips. Watching him, it would be impossible to imagine that less than a year earlier he could barely play, that he had never been trained and had to relearn many of the basics. Getting to this night, with this band, took months of agonizing work.
The B.O.N.E. Squad’s album cover is a black-and-white photograph of a brick apartment building that looks much like the 40 Projects in South Jamaica, Queens, where Beamon grew up. It bears two names: Stix Bones and Bob Beamon.
“I’m big time now,” Beamon said.
The album is called “Olimpik Soul.” The first song — an exaltation of saxophone, bass and drums — is called “Leap.”
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