To be clear, you have not reached the U.S. Army Band website. Rather, you've reached a website about the U.S. Army Band, and I'm afraid it isn't pretty. Over the next few weeks, we'll be adding content about the gender discrimination, sexual harassment, and sexual misconduct that has come to define the culture of the Army Band.
The U.S. Army Band is arranged as several different elements: a concert band, ceremonial band, etc. We'll start by looking at the gender balance in each element. Let's begin with the Blues (their jazz band).
In addition to its officer, the element contains sixteen members. You get once guess many women can be found among those sixteen musicians. Zero, nada, zip, zilch, not a one. Women, I guess, don't play jazz.
Worth checking out their official photo. A bit of racial diversity, but not exactly looking like America are we?
Despite these shortcomings, the group usually sounds pretty good (even if you can sometimes hear certain members intentionally pass gas from the audience (as we'll soon learn that is the least of Army Band's problems with professionalism. For fun, here is an embarrassing moment.
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