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.
When Olympic officials finally measured his jump, it was almost two feet beyond the previous record. His distance, 8.90 meters , flashed on the scoreboard and has glowed ever since as perhaps the Olympics’ most unbreakable record. It has been surpassed just twice in non-Olympic competition — on the sameAnother Olympics is just weeks away with no indication Beamon’s mark will be broken. For 56 years, he has lived as that record, even writing “29 2½ 1968,” when signing his name.
He remembers feeling nothing extraordinary about his sprint down the runway. The jump itself didn’t seem special to him. He remembers the first thing he did after landing was to see if he had faulted. The jump official held a white flag. The jump was clean. He remembers feeling relieved. Then the rain came, drenching history. He remembers feeling sorry for the other competitors because most long jumpers don’t like bad weather. He remembers taking his second-round jump, which was just a mere 8.09 meters, before skipping the final four rounds. There was no point. For the next 13 Summer Olympics, no one was coming close to 8.90.Beamon knows exactly the moment he fell in love with drumming.
“And I was like: ‘Bob, are you trying to be there with them? Are you trying to do the same thing?’ And I said, ‘Hell, no.’ I knew I had to get out of that coma I was in.” Stix showed Beamon how to use a metronome to measure beats. He scheduled three Zoom sessions per week, each from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., prerecording his own drum work and making Beamon listen on headphones to account for the online lag. Beamon never missed a practice. When they finished, Beamon would spend two more hours on another video call with Robert Thomas Jr., who had been a percussionist in the band Weather Report.In two months, Beamon went from 50 beats per minute to 150.