JAMP performing show honoring James Brown at Augusta Museum of History

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – James Brown Academy of Musik Pupils (JAMP) is performing a show at the Augusta Museum of History on Friday to honor James Brown and other artists in past years.

Currently, it’s still rehearsal time for the show, and Noah Turman is one of the members of the show.

“I learned how to play different songs on different instruments,” said Turman.

Turman’s favorite is the drums.

And for Turman, it’s about more than just the music, saying it helps him read music better.

James Brown’s daughter says the performance will help keep her father’s legacy alive.

“My dad always talked about how important it was for young kids to be able to learn music because not everybody is going to be so great to be able to take the ball, run up and down the field, or get a break in sports. Some students are intellectually able to move forward in music,” said Deanna Brown Thomas.

The group recently won second place during an amateur tournament in New York, in the same place where Brown performed in the 1960s, the Apollo.

“One day they’ll look back and will understand and appreciate it deeply. I really and fully believe that. We also had one of my dad’s funerals there at the Apollo,” said Thomas.

Music Director Daniell Sapp said they teach kids beginning at age five through 18, helping mold musicians.

“They come in here, start learning music from the very beginning. They don’t have any knowledge, any type of skills,” said Sapp.

“I believe he’s helping through he heavens. I really believe that this is his breath. This is where he gets to breathe from heaven down on these beautiful kids,” said Thomas.

The performance is at 6 p.m. Friday at the Augusta Museum of History.

$1,000 will go to five local students as scholarships for higher education, something Thomas said her father always wanted to do.

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