LSU's music man

• By ROBIN MILLER
• Arts writer
• Published: Oct 25, 2009

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The story is his, but she’s keeper of the memory.

Her grandfather’s memory, which he mapped out on a cassette tape before he died. That was on Dec. 28, 1981, just three months after the LSU Tiger Band spelled out his name mid field during halftime.

CARAZO in capital letters with the drumline in the front, the color guard on the sides, the Golden Girls and baton-twirling Tigerettes lining up along the sideline.

Yes, the band had baton twirlers on Sept. 26, 1981. And it played “Every Man a King,” while creating the formation.

“My grandfather wasn’t able to attend that game,” Nina Carazo Snapp said. “He was ill. So, the band made a video of the show and sent it to him.”

Snapp looks at the halftime photo now. She keeps it in a binder with other memorabilia documenting Castro Carazo’s career. That was her grandfather, Huey P. Long’s handpicked director for the LSU Tiger Marching Band.

That was in 1934, exactly 75 years ago.

Long told Carazo to build up the band, and he did.

“He started with something like 80 members and built it into 250,” Snapp said.

But that’s not the memory that comes to mind now. The story on the cassette takes precedence as Snapp loads it into the stereo, adjusts the speakers and turns up the volume.

Need to back up a moment. Cassette tapes seem like a rarity these days, don’t they? Well, Snapp plans to transfer the tape to a CD some time soon, but there’s something special about the tape.

It’s the exact tape her grandfather used to record his story, the story of the only time Huey Long told him no.

“Huey Long never told him no on anything before that,” Snapp said.