The uniforms finally arrived a week before Thanksgiving. It was a big moment for the fledgling English High School marching band, believed to be the first at a Boston public high school in about four decades.
No longer would the students have to make do with the matching sweatshirts they wore at a couple of neighborhood parades this fall. Now the 29 members would march in blue jackets with light blue sashes and an eagle stitched on the back — adding a dose of precision, professionalism, and flare to their half-time performance at the Thanksgiving Day football game against Boston Latin School at Harvard Stadium.
But suited up for the first time on the football field in Jamaica Plain last week, the students didn’t deliver their best performance. At times, they marched out of sync. And as the sun set and temperatures dipped below freezing, some of their instruments began to squeak and moan.
Eytan Wurman, the school’s director of visual and performing arts, sensed they needed a pep talk.
“Get in, get in,” Wurman motioned to the students, as they gathered in front of the bleachers. “The closer we are, the warmer we will be. ... We look good, but we are cold so we don’t sound good. Plus, we are missing the entire clarinet section.”
But he added: “Everyone is talking about us. We never had anything like this before at English. I’m proud of each and everyone of you. You are my family.”
To which, one student responded jokingly, “Where is my allowance?”
Wurman has been working for the past three school years to build the marching band and eventually recruited a band director, David Carkner. It has been an enormous undertaking in a city where high school marching bands began to disappear in the 1960s amid tight finances, and past attempts to revive the bands across the city have flopped.
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Wurman is trying to defy the odds at a high school of about 600 students that is on the brink of state receivership because of low academic performance.
He started off small, teaching a group of students how to play drums, eventually forming a drum line that performed at events. Last year, he added trumpets, trombones and saxophones and this year flutes, clarinets, baritones, and sousaphones — making the group a full-fledge marching band.
Getting the effort off the ground also took some salesmanship to secure the necessary financing. Klarman Family Foundation gave the school $25,000 for new drums and uniforms. Conn-Selmer and Needham Music gave $13,000 more to make sure the school got the best drums in the business.
In most cases, students have not chosen to take part; they have been assigned to a “marching band” course as an arts elective. Most rarely ever played an instrument before, or if they did it was briefly in elementary school.
Vishan Seenanan, 17, of Dorchester, chose the trumpet.
“I thought it would be easy because it only has three keys,” he said. “But it’s actually hard to play.”
Nia Richardson, a 16-year-old junior, was assigned to the marching band class last year and learned how to play the quads -- a set of four drums. But this year, Wurman persuaded Richardson to take up the saxophone so he could have all the necessary instruments.
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Playing in the band, she said, has transformed her experience at English High. “It makes me feel like I belong here,” she said.
Arianna Fernandes, 17, who transferred from West Roxbury Academy this fall, said being part of the band has motivated her to do better in school. She said she went from having Ds and Fs at her previous school to making the honor roll this fall.
“I feel so proud of myself,” said Fernandes, who plays the flute. “Music changed it.”
Wurman and Carkner took a page from Maria von Trapp. Like the governess from “The Sound of Music,” the teachers taught students popular songs, such as “Say Something” by Christina Aguilera and A Great Big World, by converting the notes to the musical scale: do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti.
The method, they say, trains students to listen for notes. Some go on to YouTube and other sites to teach themselves to play different songs outside of band class.
“Band is turning them into active consumers of music,” Wurman said.
Santiago Martinez taught himself how to play the guitar two years ago, fascinated by hard rock after hearing the band ACDC at the end of an “Iron Man” movie. He took up the snare drum this year as part of a summer program at English.
Martinez said the new uniforms will help his bandmates sound better because they will look better. But he said he wished the hats had arrived, too. Instead, band members will wear blue bandanas for now.
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“I’m not so thrilled about that,” Martinez said.
Initial reactions were mixed when they tried on the uniforms last Wednesday. They anxiously pulled on the jackets, helping one another with the zippers on the back. And then they looked themselves over.
“I look ridiculous,” said one boy, extending his arms to show that his sleeves were too short. “Unzip me.”
A girl, wearing a leopard print scarf over her jacket, declared quite simply, “I don’t like this.”
But across the room, a boy with a neatly trimmed dark beard was impressed as he strutted around, saying in a soft confident voice, “Looking swag right now.”
He then pointed his cell phone and took a selfie. And then almost like a slow drum roll gaining speed and sound, other students pulled out their cell phones too, posing by themselves or with a couple of friends.
Wurman said he is convinced the marching band will catch on.
“In three years, we will have 80 people,” Wurman said, “and we won’t be dragging any of them,” Wurman said.
James Vaznis can be reached at jvaznis@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @globevaznis.