About

RUDIMENTS is a story about Black excellence, mentorship, and cultural preservation against a backdrop of social abandonment. In a city where failing schools, scarce employment opportunities, violent crime, and mass incarceration disproportionately affect Black communities, marching band emerges as an opportunity for “making it out.” 

Derrick Tabb credits his middle school band director with luring him away from the streets and onto the drum. After joining the Grammy-winning Rebirth Brass Band, Derrick wants to pay it forward and founds The Roots of Music afterschool program.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Derrick’s star student Jaron “Bear” Williams rises from a shy novice to become section leader of Southern University’s “Human Jukebox” band. Just as Bear nears graduation, his younger brother Ja’mere—an aspiring drummer at The Roots of Music—is killed. This loss propels Bear to return to Roots as band director, determined to nurture the next generation.

He mentors nine-year-old Josh, a budding trumpeter from a family deeply engaged in local cultural traditions – jazz funerals, second line parades, and Mardi Gras Indians. As Josh starts hitting the streets, we film him playing in a parade as gunfire erupts and two teens are murdered. His parents and teachers wrestle with fears of exposing him too soon to the city’s harsh realities.

RUDIMENTS seamlessly weaves through intimate home life, band rehearsals, Mardi Gras parades, and HBCU halftime shows, blending in archival footage to reveal how music, mentorship, and community resilience guide youth toward more hopeful futures. Children enter a structured, safe space to develop discipline, teamwork, and leadership—skills that transcend the bandroom. An entire community steps up to care for kids, including mothers, social workers, and staff.