The Grizzline performs pre-game shows for Grizzlies fans and tourists.
photograph by Justin Fox Burks
My car window is down as I head home from our downtown office on a Friday evening in late January. Cold air rushes in, but from Front Street, I can hear a distant rumbling of what sounds like war drums. It’s a game night — Grizzlies vs. Los Angeles Clippers — and the source, I find, of the echoing beats is the Grizzline performing an energetic pre-game show for a group of fans and revelers on Beale Street.
The energy is palpable as witnesses gather — heads bobbing, hips swaying — around the Grizzline, the official drumline for the Memphis Grizzlies. Formed in 2006 by then University of Memphis drumline instructor Adam Clay, the line, which not only performs before and during games but also around town throughout the season, has become synonymous with the excitement and vigor surrounding our beloved basketball team — an on-the-scene point of reference that embodies the thrill of attending a game in FedExForum.
A longtime member and current bass drummer, 29-year-old Stephen Doorley remembers the first-ever Grizzline performance, in 2006, for which he played cymbals. Lined up in “the tunnel” alongside event staff, the Grizz Girls, and others, Doorley heard the announcement roar through the loudspeakers: “Please welcome the Grizzline!”
“I was the second person to run out on the court,” he recalls. “It was the first time anyone’s ever heard of us — our debut.” The lights dimmed, then brightened; the group began to play, swells of snares, cymbals, tenor, and bass drums. “You could see people’s faces, questioning what we’re doing — like, a drumline at a basketball game? That’s not something they usually see, or they haven’t heard since they were in high school. I remember everybody’s faces: They have a smile, then the smile grows, then their mouth drops open. And then they start cheering for us, even before we finish playing.” The group receives similar reactions today.
Doorley’s knack for music, according to his musician mother, began when he was a child, clapping along with the radio, in time with the beat, in the back seat of the car. His parents bought him his first drum set around age 6. A Bartlett native, Doorley joined the Elmore Park Middle School band, first playing French horn (his siblings played flute and trumpet) but later moving to his original love, percussion.
Photo by Justin Fox Burks
Stephen Doorley
He continued performing, front ensemble and marching bass drum, at Bartlett High School before joining the Dubuque, Iowa-based Colts Drum and Bugle Corps and traveling across the country with the professional marching band for three summers. As a college sophomore, Doorley joined the University of Memphis drumline and played with the group for two years.
“It was pretty cool, in that short span for my music career, doing drum corps during the summer, Memphis band in the fall, and Grizzline in the winter,” he says. “I got to play with all my friends from college and other friends I made along the way.”
Today, with a degree in mechanical engineering, Doorley is a plant manager at a polystyrene manufacturing facility in Oakland, Tennessee. While his career is not musically oriented, he still enjoys the highs of performing.
One of my favorite things is the energy that I can get,” he says. “As cheesy as it sounds, it is real for me — when I play toward the crowd and I can feel them get into it, I can see them get into it, and it’s like this loop back and forth where I’m feeding off their energy and they’re feeding off mine. It’s a lot of fun.”
Zeke David, the 29-year-old general manager of the Grizzline, has also been involved with the group since its first season, originally as a performer on snare drum. A U of M graduate with a degree in music business and several years’ experience with the University of Memphis Mighty Sound of the South marching band, Memphis Sound Drum and Bugle Corps, and the Phantom Regiment Drum and Bugle Corps, David now writes all of the line’s original music and helps plan out each performance, along with show designer and manager Patrick McNicholas.
It’s more than just music. Members must carry, play, and maneuver instruments while engaging the crowd, both in the Forum and at outside appearances, via choreographed movements. “We have a certain time limit that we’re allowed on court during time-outs [for example],” David says. “When I’m writing the music, I try to keep in mind what they’re actually going to be doing on court.”
What they’re doing often includes synchronized marching, dancing, and perfectly timed drumstick flips. And getting it down takes practice. In addition to a string of rehearsals at the beginning of the year when members learn the music, they hold three-hour practice sessions on Sundays before each game to nail the music and choreography for the upcoming performance.
Outside of Grizzlies games, the group does pop-up shows throughout the season, called “van blitzes,” where they’ll surprise people at local breweries, schools, and other spots around town. They also perform at festivals, parades, and corporate and private events. “You’d be surprised how many people love having a drumline perform at their event for 20 minutes at a time,” David says. “We’ve done weddings, beer tastings, Redbirds games.”
While there are currently 32 members in the line, typically only 6 to 15 play at a time, depending on the event and venue. Members rotate and sign up for shows based on their availability. Auditions are held in the summer before the season starts, in July or August. Hopefuls must be 18 or older and know how to read music.
For the first part of the audition, David says, “We’ll put you on different instruments and see if you can move around while playing and are able to sight-read. For the callback audition, we’ll send out a prepared piece that everyone has to learn, and we’ll have them wear the drums and do a semi court routine to see if they can actually handle moving and playing and performing.”
Quinton Johnson, 29, didn’t make it the first time he tried out two years ago, but that didn’t stop him from giving it another shot. “I came back last year and tried out again,” he says. “I did something different, tried out on a different instrument, and gave it all I had.” He’s now in his second season with Grizzline, mostly on cymbals, but he plays bass drum on occasion. Johnson’s love for music came early, in part due to his uncle Farsha Jones’ influence. “My uncle is a professional drummer, so I grew up sitting in front of his drum set at church,” he says. He started playing piano at age 5 and joined the band at White Station Middle School and played through high school. While studying music education at the University of Memphis, he became a part of the Mighty Sound of the South drumline, where he met David and Doorley.
Photo courtesy Quinton Johnson
When not performing with the Grizzline — or as a member of the Grizzlies Claw Crew, throwing T-shirts and otherwise entertaining fans — Johnson is a “man of many hats” at White Station High School, where he coaches basketball, facilitates study halls, and works with the band and track team. He keeps himself busy, but “it’s all so rewarding,” he says, and enjoys sharing “the creative gifts I’ve been bestowed.”
As a cymbal player for the line, “We are the movement of the group because we’re not restricted to a drum, so we get to run around and stand on top of stuff and talk to people,” he says. For the sake of engaging the crowd and never performing the same show twice, the guys have a lot of fun with the routines.
“It gives you an outlet to just go be as creative and as goofy as you can possibly be,” Johnson says. “You put out so much energy. I literally leave everything I have out there, and people soak it up. It’s a joyous situation.”
Recalling a conversation he had with friends at a game before becoming a member of the Grizzline, Johnson says, “I told them, ‘One day I’ll be down here sitting courtside.’ That next season I was working for the Grizzlies. Every time I’m [in the Forum performing], it’s like I can’t believe I’m here, I can’t believe I get to do this and get paid to do it. It’s a real thrill. I’m living the dream right now.”
