Filming Wednesday at Takoma Station
Takoma Station, 6914 4th St NW, Washington, DC 20012


Mike, Doc, Halima, Pooh, Donnell, Godfather
Picture taken by and Copyright Jordan Rich
(It is a screen shot from the DVD made from the video footage).

I arrived an hour early to set-up for filming. I had already received permission from Familiar Faces and management at Takoma Station (thanks go out to Mel Floreza, night manager). I found the spot I figured was the best to focus on the band (I had filmed some three minute movies with my Dad's Canon G3 in the same spot earlier). I located an electrical outlet, which barely reached the camera on the tripod. Then, having received permission to hook up the audio input to the mixing board, I talked with Googie. He asked me for cords, I had left them in my car and went and got them. He worked out setting them up, as I was concerned about people tripping over them. I really appreciate Googie's help and patience working with me. As I set it up, a guy behind me asked me about how I became interested in GoGo. He gave me suggestions on how to make money with this, but I told him that's not the purpose behind this. I am filming this to use as reference for my thesis. I am of course providing the band with copies, and I have no say over what they do with their copies. This night was a performance celebrating Cookie of the PBMC's birthday (her actual birthday was Saturday).

I started filming a few seconds after they started performing. In the first set, Demitrius "Demi-Doc" McGhee, a producer for Murder Inc. (formerly a member of the Junkyard Band and Maiesha & the Hiphuggers) sat in for a bit on keyboards. Also, Halima, a female vocalist from Florida, sang a couple of songs: The Roots' You Got Me and Alicia Keys' Diary. This was her first appearance with Familiar Faces, which she later joined (in April 2005). The audio is pretty good except for a persistent little static noise. Also, there is buzzing when none of the instruments are playing. Donnell razed Dallas Cowboy fans about the release of the incumbent starting quarterback, Quincy Carter (whom Donnell referred to as Clarence Carter), for testing positive for cocaine use. I changed the first tape at 59 minutes during Stevie Wonder's Golden Lady in the first set.

Familiar Faces
First Set
Line up: Mike, Adia, Donnell, DP, Doc, Dwayne, Godfather, BJ, Pooh, and Bojack.
Donnell said, "On behalf of my man Jauhar, We're going to have us a good time tonight."
1) Grover Washington Jr.'s Lock It in the Pocket
Donnell said, "We're going to have a good time tonight y'all, we feel good up here."
Donnell said, "Look here y'all, we've got us a special treat in the house tonight, huh. We got my man Demi Doc, yo. Going all around the world writing songs for Ashanti, all around the world writing songs for Ashanti. You better hurry up before I take another solo. Give it up for my man Demi Doc, yo." Demi Doc sat in on Godfather's keyboard
After the end of the song:
Donnell (laughing) said, "This, oh, this is going to be one of those nights. Clarence Carter's on the pipe and Demi-Doc is in the house. We got some Cowboy fans in here? Oh, my goodness. Leon Lett..."
Nephew said, "Michael Irvin."
Donnell said, "Michael Irvin, Clarence Carter. There's not enough people in here yet, I'm going to save you for a few more seconds..."
Donnell said to Halima, "Huh, if you feel it let me know."
Donnell said, "We got my baby Linda Wills in here y'all. Yeah."
Donnell said, "You too... if you feel something. If you feel something other that... you come up here too baby."
Donnell said to Halima, "You feel something on this, you know I've forgotten your name, hold on one second."
Halima sat in
2) Halima & Mike (separately)-led The Roots' You Got Me
Donnell said, "Goddamn y'all," laughing, "Is that it Halima? Did y'all check this out, hold on, y'all check this out. Did you see what she did?"
Mike said, "That's some Anita Baker slash Joe Cocker. I thought a plane was going to land (making fun of her nonverbal arm & hand gestures)."
Donnell said, "One more time with my baby, Halima, y'all."
After Halima's second time sitting in:
Mike, said "Yeah."
Donnell said, "What the hell? All we need is Luther man; all we need is Luther now. That's my baby, Sweet Halima, y'all. Came down here from Miami, that's my part of town right there."
3) Mother's Day - instrumental, Donnell leads with his Soprano Sax
Donnell said, "Now, I'm going to tell you this. This is serious man. Hey Jordan, you make sure you print this right here. Cowboy fans are so petty. My bass player, my bass player just left me hanging in the middle of a song. And when I turned around to see what happened; he said, 'Yeah, don't talk about my Cowboys.' Is that; is that how you all go? Man, it's whatever, it's whatever, Wow! I'm going to go into the next song man because it's too early but, it's too early but... Oh my goodness, the quarterback is on the pipe, was the quarterback on the pipe? In the words of Chris Rock (in New Jack City), that sh*t was calling me man, it was calling me, that sh*t was calling me man, it was calling me, that sh*t was calling me. Somebody wake Billy up."
(Cowboy fans were yelling really loudly the whole time Donnell was talking.)
Donnell said, "I'm not going to take time out to be petty about this, y'all."
4) Adia-led Kindred the Family Soul's Rhythm of Life Donnell said, "Oh, lord have mercy. We're going to do this song for my baby Cookie, y'all. Huh? Fat Kat you in here? You not a Cowboy fan are you, homie?"
Mike said, "That's my man right there."
Donnell said, "My man Demi Doc back up once more. He's been gone from the city; he's been gone all over the country doing songs for Ashanti, my man Demi Doc."
5) Adia-led Alicia Keys' Diary - Donnell said, "Bring it down, bring it down for Halima" - Halima sat in toward the end of the song
Donnell said, "That's my baby Adia, y'all, and my baby sweet Halima. Yes sir, we got some singing women in the city, y'all."
Mike said (in an affected, gay voice), "They don't need them clothes DeeDee, they don't need the jewelries, them womens can sing, you hear what I'm saying honey your ear has to be in your foot, do you know what I mean Miss Cookie?" Then in his regular voice, he said, "Ha ha, yeah!"
Donnell laughed.
6) Mike-led Stevie Wonder's Golden Lady - Mike said, "That's an appropriate song, 'cause we're going to dedicate this to Miss Cookie it's her birthday. I know you're bashful and everything, you know but that's my baby and she is the golden lady."
Donnell said, "She is the golden lady. Linda Wills you know this one right here, uh uh, yeah!"
Donnell said, "Oh, I forgot about that Bojack. We're going to take a break, listen y'all, just in case a lot of you didn't know, the dude Mike from L!ssen is in the hospital fighting for his life. So if you could give that man y'all prayers, he was in a bad car accident a couple of nights ago and he's in critical condition. A couple of nights ago they didn't think he was going to make it to the morning, but he made it. So if you're on your way home or before you go to sleep if you could give that man your prayers. One of the good dudes in that band. One of the best dudes in that band and that's serious, that's my man Mike from L!ssen, man. (He has since made a full recovery).

Hey Googie, these monitors, I don't know what's going on, these monitors keep going out."
Googie said, "The power in the amps."
Donnell said, "The power in the amps. Also, we got a problem with drugs in professional sports y'all. It seems, it seems we have a problem with drugs in professional sports."
A Cowboy fan named Don got up on the mic and said, "Yeah, yeah, let me tell you all something..."
Donnell said, "They tell me Quincy Carter..."
The Cowboy fan said, "Do y'all remember the last time the Redskins beat the Cowboys? Let me tell you a little story, I got a son, he's seven years old, the Redskins beat the Cowboys one time since he's been born and his name is Donnell too. I'd like to mention that."
Donnell laughed.
Don continued, "One time in seven years has the Indians beat the Cowboys, crack or whatever, it don't matter. We can use and we don't lose, that's our motto. Use and don't lose. I'll take a quarterback on crack and ten and six and the playoffs. What about the Skins? They could have given Patrick Ramsey some crack last year and he maybe he would have gotten them a little further. But I'm not going to let Donnell heckle myself here tonight. I'm going to tell you all, my son Donnell, he's seven years old, he only seen the Redskins beat the Indians, the Cowboys one time since he came on this earth."
Donnell said, "Hey, cut him off Googie."
Don replied, "Don't cut me off. Don't shut me up. 'Cause we right back at you. All I'm going to tell you is get ready for Vinnie, he'll be in town September 27th Monday night, Vinnie will be here and get ready. Every quarterback that line up against you, you know we burn you..."
Donnell said, "Hey Googie..."
Don, no longer on the mic, said, "Why you cut me off?"
Donnell said, "Ten for ten, nine for nine, eight for break, y'all."

I did not film the break when the DJ played music. I went over and talked to band members. Juanita, who had sung at Xcalibur last Thursday, said hello. I initially didn't recognize her because her hairdo had changed.

Second Set
Donnell sang, Tyrese's Sweet Lady "Sweet Lady would you be mine, up for a lifetime, when you need me, just call and receive me, sweet lady would you be mine..." during the sound check
Don said, "Happy birthday, Cookie!"
Donnell said, "Hold on, let him get this over with man. Hold on, hold on y'all, let him get this over..."
Don continued, "Cookie, happy birthday baby. We love you baby, for all the tickets you sell us, all the work you put in, all the flyers you make me pass out. We love you baby..."
Donnell said, "You hear that Stan, he said he the street team..."
Laughter.
Don continued, "I'm with you Cookie, you know that. Huh, we love you Cookie, come on..."
Adia said, "We love you."
Don said, "We pass some flyers for you, do whatever, just give us the good rates..."
Adia said, "You knew there was a catch."
Donnell said, "Is that it?"
Don said, "Let's get back to this Dallas Redskins thing. Let's get warmed up, gimme the Blueprint. Gimme the Blueprint, baby. Gimme the Blueprint..."
Donnell said, "Come on Don, I let you do that at the beginning, come on. Listen, I was going to say a whole lot about the drug problem that we're having in professional sports, but I ain't really got enough time man. It seems like everyone in Dallas just want to get high. I'm not sure if my man Rayful ain't in the protective witness program in Texas or something 'cause everybody in the Dallas organization all they want to do is get high. I'm not sure what's going on over there, but the Cowboys are now looking toward forty-three year old Vinnie Testaverde. I'm taking all bets, all the time. Yeah! I don't care if you all play Silver Hill boys club I'm betting, you hear me?"
Mike said, "Dexter Manley should have been with the Cowboys."
Adia said, "Not the boy club..."
Mike said, "He should have been."
Donnell said, "You know what Chris Rock said?"
Adia said, "Tell them one more time."
Donnell said, "The sh*t be calling me man, the sh*t be calling me."
Mike said, "Hollywood Henderson."
Donnell said, "Look here, each and every... Hold on, hold on, hold on. Do we got one more boat ride we're going to do Stan? Is that official yet or do we got to wait? Just in case you all missed the boat ride man, that joint was off the hook. So they added one more, is that right? September, wait a minute, wait a minute."
Someone in the audience yelled, "No, August!"
Adia said, "August 28th."
Donnell said, "August 28th y'all. They done swing one more boat ride in the middle. August 28th, y'all."
Mike said, "Someone said they're having it on a different boat though."
Donnell said, "Same boat, see how people are?"
Mike said, "They said they're having on that boat by the navy yard that never move, that one. That ship by the navy yard that never move..."
Donnell said, "You see how people are?"
Mike said, "Why would they say"
Donnell said, "My man Bud did go on the boat ride y'all, his girl didn't make him baby sit like he had anticipated..."
Mike said, "Got his ass!"
Donnell said, "He was on the boat ride y'all. He was dressed up, had a fresh new pair of Nikes, a fresh new pair of Nikes on... Let's go baby.?
1) Mike-led Javier's How Beautiful You Are - Donnell said, "I'm not sure y'all ready, we're trying to get this thing warmed up" / Donnell-led Brown & White (tease)
2) 6 Minutes percussion solo
3) Mike-led Anthony Hamilton's Since I Seen't You (tease)
4) Donnell chanted "My man Bud come to get down..." (then my man Ray, Linda Wills, Sweet Halima, my man Stan, RE Angie, my man Mike...)
5) Mike-led Anthony Hamilton's Since I Seen't You - nice percussion solo, Donnell said, "Hey Jack, hold it down..."
6) Mike-led Marvin Gaye's I Want You / Donnell chanted "RE Angie..."
7) Adia-led Erykah Badu?s Danger - Donnell chanted, "Hey Linda, if you want to Go, Go", nice percussion
8) Donnell-led "Hey ay, Ho oh, Eya eya" - nice percussion / Donnell-led 911 (tease) / Donnell chanted "Each and every Wednesday night..."
9) Donnell-led Terror Squad's Lean Back - Donnell added, "Washington DC, sh*t happens..."
10) Alternating Donnell-led 911 - not with the complete lyrics, "Lord a mercy... haterade" / "Wait a minute" chants / Donnell-led Family / "Wait a minute" chants
Donnell said, "Something to bring you all back down as you walk out the door."
11) Mike-led Michael Jackson's I Can't Help It
12) Donnell-led Rare Essence's Marinda
Don was singing, "I'm going to make you love me, baby" to Cookie.
13) Donnell-led acapella Family - he couldn't remember all the words.
Donnell said, "Cookie brings 'em out y'all. Crystal (spelling?) was going to beat me up if we didn't play that song. That's not Crystal? I thought it was Crystal; I am sorry Tanyelle (spelling?). That's what it was. Tanyelle, right? Tanyelle was going to beat me up if we didn't play that song."
Donnell said, "Like to thank my man Demi Doc for coming out and getting down y'all. Also, I do want a slice of cake. I'm not sure who y'all think you are playing with..."

In the second set, I changed the second tape at 54 minutes during Terror Squad's Lean Back. For the third tape, I had to move away from the tripod because so many people stood up to dance, blocking the view of the camera. Donnell came over to see that everything was all right. Unfortunately, the worst part about moving the camera was that it lifted the audio cord in the air, twice people tripped over it and the audio cord yanked out - the sound was distorted at those times, and the video went black as I had to find the cord.

I talked with Mike and his girlfriend Monica. She and I talked about my thesis and how I like GoGo. I then conferred with Mark and Adia about interviewing them. Mark talked about what he was drinking. I told a story of how I went to the Brickskeller in DC and the cook offered $100 to anyone who would drink a concoction without telling us what it was first. We all declined. Mark said he used to go to the Brickskeller all the time when he was in college. He went to a conservatory that taught acting, ballet and lighting, but not music.

As I walked to my car afterwards, I saw the 7-11 and thought, if I am thirsty after leaving a performance here, I could get a drink. Donnell must have read my mind, because I heard my name called and Donnell was standing in front of the 7-11 with a drink. We talked briefly and he offered me a ride to my car. I declined because my car was only a couple of blocks away.

Tuesday at Rehearsal
Private location in Hyattsville, MD

Familiar Faces
I attended this week's rehearsal. I wanted to interview those FF members I had not yet interviewed if possible. I also wanted to go over what is permissible from my planned filming of Wednesday's performance at Takoma Station. When I arrived, Donnell had just arrived. There was also a technician who said he was known as Dominique or Mr. Black. Donnell discussed with him what to do to fix up the rehearsal space, possibly for a live recording (they definitely need to get rid of the beeping noise produced by the exit sign first). They also discussed fixing the air conditioning. Mr. Black said it wasn't working at all. I brought a printed list of all of the official releases I have from 911/Familiar Faces, Donnell confirmed that I have everything. In fact, he said, "You may even have more than I do."

Over time Duane Face, Pooh, Dwayne, DP, and Bojack arrived. He said that I started a trend, after I had started to work with them, Marceia Cork had called him (I introduced her to him on Friday), and a graduate student from Howard University. The Howard student, like me, is working on a thesis on GoGo and was coming tonight to interview the band. Mr. Black gave her directions when she called Donnell. Donnell said that Marceia goes to their shows occasionally, including the show at Aqua. I said, "That was May 30th". They (especially Pooh) laughed at my ability to recall the date. I said I wasn't at that show because I was at the Yard Party: Junkyard Band and Backyard Band. Donnell asked, "Yard Party?" Pooh said that they (JYB & BYB) always call it that when they play together. I told them that Junkyard had released their PA from that night. We also discussed Rare Essence's new album, Live in 2004 (recorded at Classics), which had been released that day. I had only gotten a chance to listen to half of it. DP called Dave "32" Ellis, Donnell Jr., since he was imitating Donnell on the album. (Having listened to the whole album and watched the DVD since, I can say he clearly yells "Yeah!" like Donnell on the album).

Since I hadn't interviewed Bojack, I asked him if we could do so. He said, "Yes", and I set up to interview him in the same spot as before. He had a little trouble getting comfortable on the chairs in there, but finally went with one. Bojack's daughter briefly interrupted the interview with a phone call to his cell phone. It was a really good interview - Bojack definitely had a number of insights that were not raised in the previous interviews I have conducted. Towards the end of the interview Pooh walked in and smiled for the camera. Pooh left (the rehearsal space, not just that room) shortly after talking to Bojack, then Bojack left too.

I told Donnell that I had another question I wanted to ask him on tape. DP made a face and joked in an affected voice, "He won't answer any more of your questions." Donnell said, "Sure, in a minute" - after he was done. I missed the Howard student; she came and left during my interview of Bojack. DP left.

Duane, Dwayne and Donnell had a long conversation about musicianship and the local music industry. Donnell talked about how Duane likes to try new sounds. Duane said that next model keyboard up from his (which is a Yamaha Motif6) has a thousand more sounds than this one. Donnell said that rather than spending money to buy a new keyboard, he should get lessons. It is more important to have the chops than the fancy sounding instrument. Donnell told how Duane came to start practicing with the band. I include it here in Duane's words: "Footz (RIP) sister, Tanya, told Donnell something at Ms. Mack's funeral reception. For 2 months Tanya kept telling me to call Donnell. I never would call 'cause I just assumed he wouldn't take me seriously because of my age. After I finally called him, he told me to come to the rehearsal. After the rehearsal, he told me that BJ and Godfather were permanent, but I was still welcome to rehearse with them all I want, and if I wanted to, I could come to the shows. That was in November 2003. Been with them since." They continued to talk about chops (in general). Dwayne talked about how both BJ and Godfather have excellent feel. Dwayne said the Fender Rhodes has the best sound of any keyboard, but that you have to really have the skill to play it well. I told him about Thelonious Moog, a group that recorded Thelonious Monk songs with a Moog. Dwayne said that now, "you can go to Chuck Levin's and buy an instructional DVD to learn to play any instrument." Dwayne talked about his first show with the band (the Market Lounge on Saturday June 26th); he was only given the practice CD that day. After the first set, Doc, Godfather and BJ had asked if he had rehearsed with the band previously because of how well he flowed with the band. Dwayne had told them no, that he just followed this rule of playing, "when in doubt, stay out." Donnell said that if you don't give Godfather a solo every third song, he will take one anyway. Donnell said that while Boolah was a great guitar player, he was really aggressive, which didn't mesh with the rest of the band as well as Dwayne did, partly because Doc is also very aggressive.

L!ssen came up, Donnell talked about the car accident that Michael Thompson had been in. Then they talked about the intra-band dispute with L!ssen. This flowed into a discussion of the successful strategy that L!ssen used to get to where they are. They developed a dedicated fan base of 100 or so fans, and then moved to the 94th Aerosquadron in College Park, MD. They hired the most aggressive promoter in the area Jerry (a 'Bama from New York), and really expanded their fan base, especially with the local University of Maryland students, who would, in Donnell's words, "get a little music." Duane said that was where he first heard of them having big crowds, and that in the crowds the opening few weeks, stars of other GoGo bands would appear in the audience, that probably helped. Donnell felt just the opposite, that the star audience members probably held them back due to the different kind of audience. Donnell talked about how Jerry would hand out flyers to absolutely everyone, even though Club Amazon (their Saturday venue in Laurel) is filled to capacity. Even filled to capacity, Jerry added Y2K Band and a seafood buffet to the fare. Dwayne mentioned that Jerry can be hard to work with. He talked about tactics that his band, MVP, used or considered. One of these was to perform for free in front of a crowd to get notice. He said they did so well opening for other GoGo bands that they would outplay them. The end result was that the headline band would tell the promoter they didn't want MVP to perform with them anymore. Donnell discussed the difficulty of getting band members (in general) to do free shows. Donnell and Dwayne compared how they were paid by Rare Essence and how much that was compared to how much management made, some of this had been discussed by Donnell in an earlier conversation at the studio earlier.

Dwayne and Donnell talked about Dwayne's stint with Redds & the Boys. It was shortly after the release of the movie Good to Go (aka Short Fuse) that Redds descended into drugs. Donnell said Redds was also depressed because someone close to him had died. I told Dwayne that a guy in Italy planned to do reissues of Redds; I should put Dwayne in touch with him. Dwayne said that Redds was really big in Italy.

They then talked about going to see Prince at the MCI Center on August 14th. I said that I saw him at the RBC Center in Raleigh, NC on April 23rd and he was a disappointment, he didn't crank. They handed out copies of the Musicology album, but I hadn't listened to it yet. They said the album was really good (I have listened to it since and it's entertaining, but not all that great in my opinion). I said that when I saw him with Larry Graham and Doug E. Fresh in April 1998 at the Capital Ballroom, that he had cranked, but not now. Donnell suggested maybe it was because Prince had found religion. Donnell said that Prince's best tour was in 1988, the Lovesexy tour. He said that was the tour where Prince admitted using ecstasy. They discussed which of Prince's bands was best. Then they discussed of Sheila E. and her father, Pete Escovedo. Donnell questioned why she didn't use her last name - when she plays with her Dad now, she doesn't put her name on the billing. He had played in Santana.

Donnell said that every time he goes over to Bojack's house, he's playing Escovedo or Tito Puente. Donnell said that when they (FF) made scale, the pay would no longer be equal. After this conversation, I filmed Donnell's response to my question - which was how he went from deciding to leave Rare Essence to creating 911.

Saturday on The Odyssey
The Odyssey, 600 Water St SW, Washington, DC 20024


A crowd shot - DP and Donnell have their backs to the camera. In the crowd - (I am in back), DeeDee, Dave, Nephew among others


Michel Wright
All pictures taken by and Copyright - Byron "BJ" Jackson

The Positive Black Men Coalition sponsored this event. Donnell had told the band members they needed to be there by 11 PM (the boat was scheduled to leave at 12:30 AM). I decided to leave at 11 and arrived at Water St at 11:30 PM. The Odyssey parking lot was full and it ended up taking 40 minutes for me to find a parking space. I seriously worried about the possibility of missing the cruise. I did make it with time to spare. I walked on the gangplank right behind Nephew, DeeDee told the ticket takers he was with the band. I asked Nephew, "What instrument do you play?" He said, "Management." I said, "I've never heard of that instrument." He said, "It's a new instrument, I just made it up."

Familiar Faces
When I got to the stage area, Familiar Faces was already performing. Their line up was: Mike, Adia, Donnell, DP, Dwayne, Doc, Godfather, BJ, Pooh, Bojack and Charlie. I walked past the stage area to the buffet, so I didn't hear the first set very well for a while. After eating, I went to the bathroom to wash up and then spent the rest of the cruise in the stage area. I noticed a number of regulars, among them: Michelle, Nita, Tracy, Demetrius Owens (the percussionist), and Ray. During the first set, I stood behind a support directly behind the end of the dance floor. Donnell had talked on Thursday about how most of the instruments would be those of the regular band for The Odyssey, but obviously Bojack's percussion instruments were his own. At one point, Donnell said, "Head bobbing, head bobbing." The first set was unusual for them - Bojack played throughout, and the second to last song was Rare Essence's Take Me Out to The Go-Go, which is rare for a first set. They closed with Alicia Keys' Diary.

After they went on break, I went over Doc and said, "Your uncle played at Maryland first right?" He said, "You've been doing research?" I said, "No, I am interested in Maryland basketball history. Wilson Washington was supposed to be the key to put Maryland over the top in 1974." He said, "Yeah, he had a falling out with Lefty and transferred, but he still made the NBA." Bojack asked me how the thesis was going, I told him I am almost done with fieldwork, but may have follow-up next Spring. Then I walked over the bar, the wait was rather long, Doc and BJ stood behind me, wondering if they would get served before their break was over. When they finally served me after 15-20 minutes, I made sure all three of us got our orders. Still, right about a minute after they served us, Donnell called the band members back to the stage.

The stage was an enclosed area with barriers above and below. Mike had a conversation with who I assume was his sister, because his response to her was, "I'm going to tell Mom!" Donnell replied by saying, "That's a Parkland thing." Shortly after, a friend of Mike's came up to him, whom Mike said he's known since 1982 at Dunbar (High School). Donnell said, "He was from Parkland and went to Dunbar? Sounds like a lunch money thing. Someone had their hands in his pockets." I went on the dance floor for the second set. Two couples smiled at my dancing (whether or not they liked it or found it humorous, I can't tell). In the middle of the set, Michel Wright of WPGC danced between Mike and Donnell, and then made some announcements. At the end of the set, Donnell called out "Happy Feet" (a dance). Then it ended and Donnell said, "That's some of most 'Bama sh*t I've ever seen." Then he had Bojack play some more - "we may never see Happy Feet again." When they finished, Donnell said, "Whatever happens on The Odyssey stays on The Odyssey. Next you'll be doing the cabbage patch." Donnell said that "Nephew still has one of those 8-Ball Jackets and still wears it occasionally." I had noticed that during the performance a number of people had filmed parts of the performance. One guy had even filmed with his cell phone. On the other side, BJ had been taking pictures with a digital camera during the performance. I asked him after he finished playing if he was taking random pictures, or pictures of beautiful women. He said, "A little of both."

After the performance, I talked a little with Michelle and Anita. Michelle told me about the desserts I missed. Then I saw Cookie for the first time of the night - it was her birthday, hopefully a good one. When I left the boat, the DJ dance party was still going strong. I got lost a little on the drive home. Rabbits must be nocturnal because virtually every night I drive home from a performance, I see rabbits on one of the yards on my street.

Friday at Night Flight
Night Flight Studio, Fort Washington, MD


Donnell recording new vocals
Picture taken by and Copyright - Jordan Rich (Note: Picture artificially brightened by flash, it was darker than it appears.)

Familiar Faces
When I first arrived at 2:45 PM, Scotty was the only one there. Scotty said that Rich is currently working with J-Lo, but she has her own engineer, which is why he is still in town. I asked him about how to spell Cue Recording Studios. He went on to tell me about them - they used to be the premier studio in the area, with Night Flight second. Cue has superior architecture; it has a number of separated studios in a single building (Night Flight is an add-on to a house). Night Flight used to be all analog, Cue went digital before them. Scotty's cousin, Rich Harrison, had used them for years. Cue is more designed for live rock acts. Rich liked the separate studios so he didn't need to worry about being bothered. Night Flight has Pro Tools HD, which Cue does not have. When Scotty became Rich's primary engineer, he decided which studio they used. Scotty talked to Jeff, the owner of Cue, who said he'd buy anything Rich wanted. Scotty insisted on Pro Tools HD, which allows for digital recording with the analog warm feel. Scotty said (to me), "Without HD, you might as well record to analog tape." Jeff declined, so Scotty moved Rich's business to Night Flight. In order to give Rich the privacy he wants (making sure people don't try to ask him to listen to their songs, etc.), Scotty makes sure that when Rich is in the studio; no one who knows him is also scheduled. Scotty said he had recently worked with Mariah Carey and Gwen Stefani - "She's a sweetie." Scotty said that Night Flight is now the premier recording studio in the area, with Cue second. Central was the earliest adopter of audio engineering software, but they've fallen behind. Omega Recording Studios in Rockville is now right behind Cue.

He had gotten a call shortly after I first arrived. He told me about it - a producer wanted to edit tracks in Pro Tools that had been laid down in Logic. Scotty said that it was actually pretty easy, but that Cue had had trouble figuring it out. I told him that the University of Miami has a digital guru, Ken Pohlmann, who has consulted with virtually every major corporation in America. I told him that Miami has a music engineering undergraduate program, but to get into the Masters program, you have to have a bachelors in electrical engineering. Scotty said that he has a bachelors in electrical engineering. He thought he would work as an engineer and do music on the side, but especially after talking with others in the same boat, he found "There was no on the side" (time). So he moved on to music engineering.

Scotty worked on the track Holla At Your Boy. Donnell felt that Mike hadn't quite hit the vocals the way he wanted, so he wanted to decide whether to either electronically "fix" Mike's vocals or go with the earlier recorded Tony Sharpe vocals. There was some weird buzz noise that Scotty worked on getting rid of.

Donnell arrived not too much later. Scotty told him "He (Scotty) had been fifteen minutes late". Donnell said, "What!" Scotty told him, "Stop performing for your man..." and then told me, "Donnell's not usually like this." Donnell immediately ordered lunch from Yum's Carryout. He insisted they have the best spring rolls. He said that even Mr. K's, a Chinese restaurant on K St in DC, "Where you had to wear a jacket or they would provide you with a blazer", didn't have food as good. I told him about my friend Tung's aunt, who used to send him spring rolls when we were roommates - she has three industrial kitchens in her house with enough stored food for six months.

Scotty slowed down the live tracks. Donnell said, "We should call this album '88' because the whole album is 88 beats per minute, the national beat."

It came up in conversation that I had worked at Rhino. Donnell asked me what I did there; I told him "Master use licensing." He said, "So that's why you asked that question." I had asked Donnell about who does the mechanical licensing for their album since there are cover songs on it.

We talked about sports; Scotty said that John Paxson should be fired for releasing Carlos Boozer from his option. I corrected him, that it is Jim, John is with the Chicago Bulls. I told them both about CarlosLoozer.Com.

Donnell re-recorded his own vocals, to replace the old band name 911 with the new one Familiar Faces. When he first went to do it, the speakers suddenly cut off - the system had to re-boot. Scotty called Donnell back in and said, "That's never happened before." The one song in particular that needed the 911/FF change had "Day Day" as the background vocalist. Scotty asked Donnell, "What's up with Day Day?" Donnell said he's nuts and told a story about him that I can't print here.

Donnell talked about Christina Milian doing a movie ("Be Cool", the sequel to "Get Shorty") with John Travolta. He said he had never seen her - I said she's from this area and that I had heard she has pictures on Cutie Central. Scotty said she's from Waldorf. Scotty said that his buddy Lance works in promotions at WPGC, so he gets all kind of invites to movie premieres - Scotty no longer has to pay for movies. Scotty later said that Lance, having gone to a recent Familiar Faces show, said that "It was cool hearing Donnell shout 'Yeah!' in person."

I also told Donnell that Kip Lornell, co-author, with Charles Stephenson of The Beat (so far the only book on GoGo), had forwarded me an email. He said he's met Kip. A woman named Marceia Cork sent the email. She is the leader of a GoGo group called "Marceia Cork Presents Metropolism" and wants to go national. I had emailed her back and she wanted to meet me today (Friday), but I had forgotten to email her back. I said to Donnell that one of the difficulties is that there are "Thousands of groups in every genre trying to go national." He said that (in GoGo), "That's really not true - by their actions, a number of groups in GoGo are not trying to go national. Ghingus is the most marketable person in GoGo, but he is happy where he is." He said Chuck Brown is too old to make it national. "James Funk has the gift of gab, but that's not enough." Little Benny has personality. Sugar Bear, he and Ghingus are the best bets to go National. I pointed out that Big G is on HBO's "The Wire", "That should get him national attention." He said that Big G is doing that and his radio show because Jauhar arranged them after having a discussion with Donnell about this. He said Chuck Brown's I Need Some Money, Trouble Funk's Don't Touch That Stereo, and EU's Da Butt have had success outside the area. I also pointed out Chuck Brown's Busting Loose and he agreed. Also, Donnell said that no live GoGo album has made it outside the area, and no studio GoGo album has made it inside the area. He said Rich Harrison, Chuck Thompson, and Chink Santana have made it outside the area. I realized this was good material and started filming. I pointed out that Me'Shell NdegeOcello and Ginuwine have made it outside the area and specifically came from GoGo groups (Scotty later said that Rich was in a GoGo group as well, a Washington Post article, "Quietly Making Some Noise" by Chris Richards on October 9th 2005 confirmed he played keyboards for Perfection Band). Donnell later talked about Mr. Cheeks and his one hit, Jeeps, Lex Coups, Bimaz and Benz (since I don't think Mr. Cheeks is from DC, I don't know how this is related). Donnell suggested may he should give me a copy of the album (Evolution) to listen to. He said he thinks GoGo can still go national, "Look how long it took Reggae and Rap", although he concedes that Reggae had the benefit of a whole country's support. He said that right now, the radio stations will only play GoGo by request and only the young request. He also said only young people like Usher, he would never buy Usher. He also talked about how fake the lyrics of Confessions are (about Usher's relationship with Rozonda "Chilli" Thomas of TLC), "If it was true, where's the baby?" He told me that Trouble Funk's style is what GoGo is right now: "The whole band playing the same melody."

I asked Donnell to confirm all of the releases 911/Familiar Faces has had. What I know of are: Blueprint, the Chuck Brown Concert, and six PAs as 911: November 4th 2001 Tradewinds, May 5th 2002 Metro, August 3rd 2002 Metro, April 27th 2003 Tradewinds, May 7th 2003 Cada Vez (actually Donnell said this is the compilation listed below), and October 30th 2003 Club U. As Familiar Faces, there is the March 31st 2004 Takoma Station and a compilation I heard earlier at the Xcalibur. Donnell said he didn't think there were six PAs, but there is also a 911 Compilation. I told him I know there are six, but I bought them all when they came out. He said, "So you're the one."

A video of Alicia Keys' Diary came on and Scotty said that Rich was in love with her, she is constantly touching you. Scotty had temporarily saved on of the files on Whop's hard drive due to lack of space. Whop is the leader of Whop-N-Em, a band which also features Tony Sharpe and Ricky Wellman. I told Donnell that Demetrius Owens, the percussionist at the live recording, told me he was Ricky Wellman's nephew. Donnell said that he didn't know that.

Donnell and I had a discussion about Kobe Bryant which I filmed. Donnell likes Kobe but hates the Lakers, I feel the opposite on both counts, personally I think anyone who is a Bullets/Wizards fan must be masochistic.

We discussed the Pro Tools software - he said it first came out in 1990, but it was not widely accepted because it took longer to do things than doing it without software.

Donnell and Scotty agreed that Eminem was the most talented rapper out there, Donnell was impressed with his hooks as well as his raps - he said, "Remember how terrible Rakim's hooks were?" Scotty talked about how Eminem was devoted to his group D12, when none of them are worth it. He said of their talent, "You know in movies that after the trailers they have that message, please take your baby out if it starts crying? That's what those guys are."

We watched BET on the studio TV (we watched MTV and HBO during the other studio sessions) - Terror Squad was being interviewed. When they showed the video, Donnell said that Remy Martin probably doesn't look that good without makeup. He did say she looked better when they interviewed them. Donnell talked about how Fat Joe doesn't have the charisma or looks to get much and they only have the one hit. However, Scotty said, "He does have the hit of the Summer."

Kanye West came on and Donnell said he was a fluke. Scotty said that he does have the first rap song about God. Donnell pointed out that Doug E. Fresh had All the Way to Heaven. Scotty rephrased what he said, "The first rap song about Jesus" (Jesus Walks is the song). Donnell said, "That's about one religion, Christianity." Scotty told a story about how Rich and Kanye were both interviewed for a magazine by a British writer named Omar (who had an accent like a New Yorker, Scotty said, "New Yorkers are very British in style"). Rich's article was good, but Kanye was trashed as "Kanye was a total jerk". Scotty gave details. He also said that Rolling Stone "The biggest artist kiss-up," had cancelled an interview with Kanye. He said Jigga also didn't like working with him. Apparently in the studio, he is hard to work with because he will request a thousand different alterations with Roc-A-Fella's blessing. Donnell said that's good because you can give different radio mixes and people will notice it.

At one point, Donnell saw an ad for Shyne's new album, "Godfather Buried Alive". He was disappointed because the word Godfather popped up first and he was hoping it would be about the movie. He said maybe there will be a Godfather IV. I said III was terrible. He said it wasn't all bad, just the acting of Andy Garcia and the daughter.

Donnell said that the two biggest sports events in the DC area are Redskin's season opener and Maryland ACC basketball. I told him and Scotty that you have to give around $2,500 to get a chance to buy season tickets. He said that Chris McCray, who played with his son in AAU basketball, gives him tickets when he wants to go. He says that Gary isn't a good recruiter, whoever is supposed to be the star never ends up being a star. He also said that Stevie (Francis) told DJ (Strawberry) not to go to Maryland, that Gary is a liar.

As an overall review - the studio recording and editing process is very tedious. After discussing options with Scotty and running out of time, Donnell decided to go with the Tony Sharpe version of Holla at Your Boy.

Donnell said there were three things he wanted to do/see tonight and couldn't decide (or remember the third thing); two of the things were to see Denzel Washington's new movie, the remake of Manchurian Candidate, and Mike Tyson's fight. We finished a little after 7 PM.

I decided to hang out in College Park before going to Safari Steakhouse. I killed time going to the record store CDepot, where I used to buy all my commercial GoGo, but more recently, I have discovered that Best Buy has a much better selection, even though they put it under Rap. I went to Cluck-U and saw in person for the first time the local rapper and Tupac look-alike, Lee Majors. I left College Park around 9:30; it ended up taking half an hour to get to the exit for Annapolis Road because of the construction on I-495.

Friday at Safari Steakhouse
Safari Steakhouse 9430 Annapolis Road Lanham MD 20706

When I got to Safari Steakhouse, Thomas and Packy were there. I gave Packy a consent form and asked him "You are Packy right?" I had only heard the nickname Packy for the first time on Tuesday, during my interview of Donnell. Packy had previously told me his name was "Dave Johnson". He said yes, he was Packy and he prefers to be called by that. I told him about the interview of Donnell, where I asked him how many people Familiar Faces have in their support staff and he mentioned Thomas and Packy and how I thought "Who's Packy?" Thomas laughed at the story. Packy told me that he plays in his own GoGo band Unity Band that consists of all people in their 20s. He said that they played in the Market Lounge a few weeks ago but that they don't have a regular weekly gig lined up. He said he also plays with Sugar Bear sometimes. When he handed me the consent form, his name was listed as Vonzae Jenkins.

I asked Doc who his NBA playing uncle was; he said Wilson Washington, that he had played at ODU then went to the league. (Actually he began playing at Maryland, but had a falling out with Lefty Driesell and then transferred). He told me how when he (Doc) had injured his ankle, it was when he was running up the stairs. He couldn't walk without crutches for three months. He was afraid to jump after that so, that was the end of his NBA dreams. He said that it was okay, in those days even Dr. J was only making $800,000. He said it was cool hanging out with the NBA players and seeing them as normal people, drunk after games.

As more band members arrived, we sat and watched TV - Adia, Doc, DP and I watched the boxing. They first showed Laila Ali's fight, then the pre-fight for Mike Tyson. Doc said that Tyson was back in shape and "Mark my words, he will be the champion again."

Familiar Faces
The opening line up for the first set was: Mike, Adia, Donnell, DP, Dwayne, Doc, Godfather, Pooh and Packy. BJ arrived after a little while. Dwayne did some of the most aggressive soloing I've heard from him - I enjoyed it. The sound was really good - Donnell and DP's horns' sound was really crisp. Packy got off the congas after a while and later Bojack and Charlie came in and played. The Tyson fight was clearly a distraction for both the band and the audience until Tyson was knocked out in the fourth round. This was clearly their best first set I've heard from them.

At the break, Marceia Cork asked me if I was Jordan and I said I was and she introduced herself. I told her that I had meant to email her back. We went into the lounge to talk and hear each other better. She said she hoped to talk with others and hear about their experiences in order to learn what to do and not to do in order to work on going national. I told her about my conversation with Donnell earlier in they day and I introduced her to Donnell. He gave her a card so she can talk with him later. She went on and told me more about her situation. Her husband works in IT and supports her - she has given up her day job in advertising to devote her efforts to music. She started songwriting at age 8 and went into advertising - her creative efforts are related to each other. She went to Duke Ellington - I told her Donnell did too. I told her how I used to work in the music business at Rhino but had a degree in accounting. She got my number so we can have a more extensive conversation. She had to go (I think she may have just been there to get in touch with me) - I actually went out after her to see if I could introduce her to Jauhar, but she was gone.

I went into the lounge and hung out with Dwayne, BJ and Mike. I told Dwayne how good his solo was - he said it was so loud he couldn't hear it. I later talked with Mike; he asked me how I liked Rearview2. I told him it was okay. He said "Did you check out the clips?" I said, "No." He said, "You have to check out the clips, they're free!"

As the second set started, I noticed Donnell had changed his shirt, Dwayne wore sunglasses and Bojack changed his shirt. Godfather said something in response to Bojack's bare chest. Donnell said in response, "Something's wrong with Godfather. We need to get him a mic." DeeDee asked if she could sit at my table, I said, "Of course." She said, "I thought you might have company." She later moved to the next table so a couple could sit at my table. The guy at that table asked me to dance with his sister Lisa, who clearly didn't want to dance. I declined. Later, I danced on my own and he motioned to me again, but I shook my head no. Mama Chelle was there and said hello. Donnell did a shout out I didn't hear completely to a girl dancing in front of the fireplace, I did here him say something about "Woodrow Wilson" and she smiled. She put on quite a show with her dancing: she was very demonstrative and did air drums and later spanked herself to the drum beat. During the middle of the set, Donnell mentioned seeing Go-Go Mickey and that he "Had a little boy's haircut." I didn't see him (I am usually good about seeing guests come in) until a few minutes later. He came in from the lounge over to the congas. I saw what Donnell talked about: Go-Go Mickey's hair was cut very short. Go-Go Mickey immediately took over, after a bit they performed Kool & the Gang's Jungle Boogie. That was probably partly in tribute to the ex-Rare Essence percussionist Jungle Boogie. The second set really cranked. Donnell said, "That was Go-Go Mickey and Eric Butcher" repeatedly. Why he didn't say Milton Freeman and Eric Butcher I don't know.

During the second break, I again sat in the lounge. A guy in a Portland Trailblazers jersey was being hustled in pool by a girl who smiled the whole time. She was also very polite; when she bumped into people she apologized and said, "I wish I had a shorter stick."

The third set was the most crankin' as usual. Go-Go Mickey again sat it. The guy in the Trailblazers jersey guest rapped during their cover of Juvenile's Slow Motion. Donnell told the audience after being asked by a guy in the audience that "The boat ride is sold out. Ytee (the guy in the audience), the next boat ride is September 25th. You need to open a savings account and start saving now," - Ytee responded by giving Donnell the finger. Eventually they stopped performing, then finished performing with their usual closing tune, Prince's Purple Rain (tease). Donnell told Mark to cut it off. This was Familiar Faces' best performance I've been to. There was no joning, Donnell told everyone "To drive safely." Supa Dan advertised a pool party on Saturday to celebrate his birthday. Donnell asked what the women would be like at the party. Dan said that the party was co-sponsored by Black Men Magazine. I knew from their pictorial of Karin Taylor that they do bikini spreads of female Black models.

Karin Taylor, Picture taken by and Copyright - Jordan Rich

Thursday at Xcalibur
Xcalibur Restaurant & Lounge, 2519 Pennsylvania Av NW, Washington, DC 20500


BJ, Pooh, Mike, Doc, Donnell, Dwayne

Earlier in the day before I arrived, I had looked up 911's archived old website: Home, Contact, Calendar, and Pictures and Pictures 2. I noticed Michelle was listed as the contact person.

Tonight I had the hardest time so far finding a parking spot. I had difficulty with a number of potential spots because an SUV was in front of the spot. I ended up getting lucky with the spot I got. I walked up and said, "Hey" to Doc, who was unloading and lucked into a spot directly in front of Xcalibur. I followed him in, then headed out again because I realized I forget my Dad's camera in the car. I also saw Tracy walking in. After getting it out of my car, I came back and sat down upstairs.

Donnell, Pooh, and Mike arrived and set up. I talked with Doc for a while. I asked him where he got his nickname - he said it is short for Little Dr. J. He was quite a good basketball player and had aspirations of playing in the NBA until he had an ankle sprain that made him afraid to jump. He said his uncle played in the NBA and was a teammate on the Philadelphia 76ers with Dr. J. He said different groups call him by different names, "Kenny", "Doc" and Junkyard even calls him "Kenny Doc". I asked him about the practice CDs mentioned at the rehearsal. He said that he has 4 rehearsal CDs. He said that with Physical Wunders, he didn't have rehearsal CDs for his band, they have to learn everything before their first gig or else. He said he is a harsh band leader, but has had no fights with band members. He tells his band members that he won't give them rides or things like that, "Since a regular boss wouldn't do that for you." Doc talked about how when he had that gig opening for 50 Cent, 50 Cent wouldn't play until he was paid in advance, in cash. Doc said that 50 Cent was paid $35,000 to perform five songs, while Physical Wunders was paid $4,500. Doc said that it was rare when Physical Wunders would play elsewhere that they would stay overnight - he even talked about driving a five hour drive home at 3 AM. He talked about missing the old days, where a number of GoGo groups would play on one bill as a real competition between them. He also said he missed the days where GoGo groups would play multiple shows in a single day. I pointed out to him that when I went to Mayo Island, Backyard played there and then at Club Neon later that night. He hadn't heard of Club Neon, I told him it was an underage venue. I also pointed out that Familiar Faces had done two shows in one night earlier in the Summer - Barry Farms and then Cranberries. He said that he was late to Barry Farms and that he ended up not playing at all, since they were already locked in the groove. I asked Doc what his day job was, he said he works at a Lexus dealership. I noticed at the cook out that he drives a Lexus and told him so. He said yes but he doesn't get much of a discount. I told him that Nephew works as a finance manager for a dealership. Doc asked me if I knew why he's called Nephew, I told him that he's Donnell's nephew. Nephew told Doc about his making the best bass players list. FF members made virtually every category: lead singer, backup singer, keyboards, roto-toms / timbales, PA engineer, and most importantly - overall band. Nephew mentioned how much the buzz on Familiar Faces had gone up recently.

Dwayne walked in later, but sat down without setting up. Apparently, the owner, Greg, discussed with Donnell whether or not Familiar Faces would perform. Dwayne was told not to set up yet. BJ walked in, Doc and Dwayne told him that it was uncertain if they would pay, he said he was called and told that. That's why he didn't have his keyboard with him, which was good because he was parked far away. After Greg and Donnell convened, they decided that Familiar Faces would perform. Dwayne went to set up and BJ walked back to his car.

Familiar Faces
Because Familiar Faces started so late, they ended up performing one long set. There was a lot of humor - Donnell aimed a couple of internal jokes at BJ. A friend of Mike's and Donnell's named Oda Ray said hello to them. Mike said, "Here's a friend I haven't seen in a thousand years." Donnell said that Oda Ray had gone to Duke Ellington with him. Oda Ray was celebrating his engagement to Sonja (spelling?) - Donnell said to her, "I've known him a long time, I'm sorry for you." Adia showed up - to buy some tickets for the boat ride from Donnell. FF did get her to sing a couple of songs before she left.

BJ, Pooh, Adia, Doc, Mike, Donnell (Dwayne is completely hidden behind Donnell)
All pictures taken by and Copyright - Jordan Rich (Note: Pictures artificially brightened by flash, it was darker than it appears.)

Later on, Mike sang an acapella duet with Juanita Radden, a woman in the audience. Around midnight, Donnell called out "Can we get a waitress down here?" Annie, the Scottish bartender came down. Donnell pointed her out to BJ, whom Donnell called "Our thinnest band member who's always hungry." Obviously BJ was concerned that the kitchen would close before they finished performing.

When they finished, a girl in the audience named Stephanie requested to sing. She sang acapella. She warmed up before singing a song, which she directed at the happy couple. After that, Oda Ray wanted to serenade his fiance. He talked with the band about which song, Donnell said, "Everybody knows that song", but BJ said, "Not everybody..." He ended up singing Bobby Caldwell's What You Won't Do for Love. Donnell said, "Are you serious man... wasn't that perfect. This my man, look here, me and him went to high school together, he was the bully in the high school. (Laughter from the audience). Duke Ellington, you know what was going on over at Duke Ellington." Mike interrupted, "There was no bullies at Duke Ellington." Donnell continued, "There wasn't a whole lot of straight dudes over there, me and Oda was two of them. I don't know how she (Sonja) wasn't crying, I was almost crying over here..." (in response to his singing). Donnell then sang the chorus to What You Won't Do for Love. Then he continued, "That was perfect man that was perfect." Someone (I think BJ) said they were trying to get Mike to sing it. Donnell said, "This is the funniest thing: Mike's been begging us to play that song and we act like we don't know it (look here for an example). Laughter from the audience. That's the funniest thing right there. We don't like Mike a whole lot, that's my man Oda Ray. Hey Ayre Rayde, yeah original Ayre Rayde..." He started singing Ayre Rayde's Welcome to the GoGo "Welcome to the GoGo, where it's all been happening, you can have a party or drink Bacardi and meet some brand new friends..." In response to the audience, he said, "Before that, yeah, Chance Band (I guess Oda was with Donnell in Chance Band). You all thought this was a fluke, right? Me and him go back since the playgrounds... What else did Ayre Rayde do? That's the only one I really like... (laughter from the audience) I'm a Rare Essence man, myself... That's the only one I really like. That's it everyone, August 28th, right? At least give me an invitation in the mail, do something... Congratulations! You cleaned him up, he was a mess. What was that, '82, did you even graduate?" Michelle next went up to the mic and started singing. Donnell said, "Something's wrong with you Michelle." She asked BJ, who was the only band member with his equipment still set up, to play something and he started to play Parliament's Flashlight. Donnell's response was "Please someone get Michelle out of here," which he said repeatedly. Oda left and Donnell said, "Congratulations". BJ started playing something, with Juanita singing along on the mic. She later sang acapella with Mike yelling out "Sexual Chocolate!". I told him that Huck-A-Bucks had done that on their Live PA disc of the album "You Betta' Move Somethin'!. This was the end to a unique performance filled with humor and guest appearances, I filmed some of them. Mike mentioned something about a disagreement with his sister where he said he would sing (Whodini's or Rare Essence's?) Freaks Come Out at Night at her wedding. Michelle talked with Mike about sometime singing track #10 My First Love from Anthony Hamilton (his album is entitled Comin From Where I'm From). Mike asked her, "Will you wear that dress? I will be distracted if you wear that dress." She replied, "Oh, then I won't wear it." He said, "No, I want you to wear that dress." He then went over to hug her, but she gave him in his words, "a grandma hug." He said, "Let me give you a man's hug." Then he started to dance with her - his dance was so wack I was going to film it, be she said, "He's got his camera out" and he stopped. We all sat down while the band waited to be paid.

I asked Michelle how long she's known the band. She said, "Since '1983 at the Coliseum." She said she had some great photos of Rare Essence at the time with BJ and Donnell having hilarious posed looks (there are some similar photos here). I told her I am interested in submitted photos, she can email it to me. I said that "I've seen some of the old pictures, even some of Donnell with hair." Donnell gave me a dirty look for that one. Here are some of those pictures (in fairness, he did still have hair in the bottom picture, from 2000 during the taping of Rare Essence's "Doin' It Old School Style".




Michelle then told a story about BJ at Eastside. BJ (according to her) had been squirted in the face by a girl in the audience, so he played the keyboard with his eyes seemingly all the way shut. He insisted that she was exaggerating. (There are more details of this story that I can't print here).

Somehow the subject of being bored came up and Michelle said, "Nothing is worse than two old hags (her and her friend Nita, sitting right by her) sitting in the Safeway parking lot, conversating". Dwayne talked with Juanita about my blog and my thesis project and told her that "I remember and write everything that is said." I said, "Not everything", but he insisted "Everything." I told her about my project and she asked where I go to school, I said UNC, but that I'm from this area, born at GWU hospital, right by here (Xcalibur).

Donnell talked about going to see Sean Mays box in a match in Ohio at a resort (some of my friends went to a resort there that is supposed to have the largest rollercoaster, maybe it is the same resort). He said the flight would be real cheep $145. This led to a discussion of airlines. Pooh mentioned a new airline call Song. Michelle said she wouldn't trust a new airline. I pointed out that a number of airlines change their names when they have a reputation for crashing. Pooh talked about an incredibly cramped flight he was on with Air Tran. I told him that it was the new name for ValuJet, which had a very well know crash in Florida. Donnell asked whether there was really a difference in the likelihood of crashing from one airline to the next. I said that there are differences in terms of the age of the planes and better maintenance.

I asked Michelle if the birthday party two weeks ago here was for her mother. She said yes. I talked about her singing, lip-syncing followed by her riffing to 50 Cent's In Da Club - I pointed out her voice was scratchy. She motioned to get up and come after me then said, "You were bobbing your head to it."

Donnell talked about how Familiar Faces would be playing at St. Augustine in (Raleigh), NC in October. I said I should be able to go to that show. Michelle said that Familiar Faces should do something special for her birthday on September 23rd. Michelle asked Donnell if they would be going to King's Dominion again this October. She said last year's was good, it wasn't too cold. She said I should go to that. She also said that she wouldn't fall for "Foolio" (referring to Donnell) taking her on all of the roller coasters again.

The subject of dating came up. Donnell said that he would only date someone 30 and up that he's had problems dating girls in their 20s. I pointed out the conversation he had had with Jauhar on Sunday, where Jauhar said both of them were dating girls in their 20s. Michelle asked me if I was married, I said, "No, and I don't have a girlfriend either." I said that I was mostly pursuing undergrad girls at UNC, aged 19-21. Michelle said, "what about (dating) me?" I declined, as I am more interested in dating someone who is going to be around UNC. I pointed out how Donnell said that dating Michelle "Is like Finding Nemo. You ended up being with her for four years." Donnell responded, "At least four years." He said that Michelle needed to change her thinking and do one-night stands. He said she needed to "Do the Overnight Scenario".

This ended up being their last performance at Xcalibur. Greg subsequently renamed it the National Grille.

Posted by funkmasterj at 12:01 AM EDT

Updated: Monday, 26 December 2005 8:00 PM EST

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Wednesday at Takoma Station
Takoma Station, 6914 4th St NW, Washington, DC 20012

I asked Donnell how the studio sessions went; he said "Excellent." Before they started, Doc again said, "Damn keyboard players", since neither of them were there then, but shortly afterwards BJ arrived.

Familiar Faces
They opened up with Donnell, Dwayne, Doc, and BJ (although Adia, DP, and possibly Mike were already there). Donnell said, "Familiar Faces here every Wednesday, more than what you see now." Not too much later, Pooh and Godfather arrived. I said hello to DeeDee and Cookie. I also introduced myself to David, Jauhar's business partner. Dwayne had some aggressive soloing - that's what I like to hear! Pooh had some heavy beats in the first set as well. Bojack arrived and walked up and started playing. Donnell called up Donny Ray to sit in on vocals. After he finished singing, Donnell said, "I was really with him for a moment." Godfather responded by playing a few bars from the Theme to the Twilight Zone. Donny Ray was with a female vocalist that Donnell referred to as "Sweet Stephanie," probably Stephanie from EU. Towards the end of the set, Donnell talked about the boat ride on Saturday and sold tickets; he said he gets $1.50 for every ticket he sells. He said, "Jordan do you have a ticket?" I said, "Yes." He said, "Are you sure?" The audience laughed.

After the break I went into the sound area for the first time. Despite the brick coming down low, it actually has a higher ceiling than the normal ceiling in most of the rest of Takoma Station. At the end of the break, Dwayne, who is a drummer, played on the drums before they started up.

The second set opened up initially without Adia. Donnell said, "I don't know where Adia is, she must have gone solo." She walked up to the mic a minute later. The second set, as usual, was the best. A guy named Bud whispered something to Donnell. Donnell said that Bud was not going be going on the boat ride on Saturday night because he had to baby sit. Donnell said, "She told you that you had to baby sit, and you agreed to it?" During the set, a guy danced in an unusual manner: he would sort of hop on one foot. Bojack did most of the joning, but Godfather walked up the mic and did the "I'm Rick James, Bitch!" routine from the Dave Chappelle Show. Donnell responded by saying, "Not everyone should do drugs, they're too much for some people." I asked Donnell if the album was done, he said, "In theory. I still need to listen to it and approve it."

Tuesday at Rehearsal
Private location, Hyattsville, MD

Familiar Faces
I attended another rehearsal. The weather was terrible - it was raining really hard. When I arrived, Duane Face had just arrived. We talked from our cars, and then I sat in his car while we waited for Donnell to open up the door. He showed me the Take Me Out To The GoGo DVD Magazine, which featured a performance of him and his brother (vocals) in their first show with Fatal Attraction. He said the other members of Fatal act as if he and his brother don't exist, but advertise that clip. They were hired by the management at the time, Bag of Beats, but the other band members fired them after they changed management.

Duane said that he's been rehearsing with FF since November. He hadn't expected to play with them at all. He was told to be ready to play on Saturday, but since BJ came, he wasn't needed - he said that's fine, he enjoys his sleep. That's actually the major reason he doesn't go to many FF shows - he prefers to sleep. He has a day job.

Donnell arrived and opened up the door. Shortly after, Dwayne, Doc, DP (with his two sons), Mike, and Adia arrived. Doc said, "Damn keyboard players" since they didn't show up. Donnell talked with the other band members about listening to their practice CDs.

I interviewed Donnell by himself first since he had to leave at 10 PM. He and Adia left to go to Night Flight so that she could record some more vocals for the album. Donnell said Kevin (the owner), not Scotty Beats, would engineer the session.

After that, I interviewed Dwayne, DP, Mike, Doc and Duane together in a joint interview. I found both of the interviews to be very informative. The second interview was a good example of group dynamics. It lasted well over an hour. As it wrapped up, Nephew arrived. He encouraged Mike to add a song to the playlist that he played on his cell phone. Nephew said that he had a day job and did his work with FF "Out of love". We all got out of the rehearsal area after that.

Dwayne and Nephew had a conversation outside in the rain. Nephew said Donnell didn't really like rapping, when he first started, he got headaches.

Sunday at Night Flight
Night Flight Studio, Fort Washington, MD


Mike, Adia and Donnell confer. Tracy sits to the left. (Note: sound absorbing surface is actually black, not gray as it appears).


Donnell looking at the monitors


Mike in the vocal recording booth


Scotty Beats, BJ and Donnell listening to Mike's session
All pictures taken by and Copyright - Jordan Rich (Note: Pictures artificially brightened by flash, it was darker than it appears.)

Familiar Faces
Familiar Faces spent thirteen hours in the studio today - from noon to 1 AM working on recording vocals from Mike and Adia to overdub on tracks for their upcoming album, Evolution.

When I first arrived, only Scotty Beats was there. Shortly afterwards, Donnell arrived. He went over the second half of the live recording with Scotty. Familiar Faces has their own external 40 Gig hard drive. Scotty deleted certain items to free up space on the hard drive. We were in the Platinum Room again. Donnell went over the editing for the three live tracks to be included on the album: Marvin Gaye's I Want You, Anthony Hamilton's Since I Seen't You and The Roots' You Got Me. Scotty cut a lot to make them shorter. In listening to it Scotty said, "You give Godfather a lot of freedom." Donnell said, "He's like Michael Vick, he can do whatever he wants. When he's not leading, Godfather really has excellent feel."

Maryland basketball came up - Donnell and I both went to Maryland. I said that Walt Williams is my favorite player of all time; he asked "how could it not be Len Bias?" I pointed out that I had never seen Bias play. But in addition, as talented as Walt Williams was, it was his loyalty to the program that I most admire.

A girl named Tracy came by in order to buy tickets to next Saturday's boat ride- she ended up staying for a while.

Donnell talked about last night, he said if he had thought about it, he would have introduced me to Tee Bone himself and Reo. Reo was in charge of the filming and Tee Bone now works with him. He said that Trouble Funk had a real machine back in the day and that Reo and Max Kidd had split the management, Reo was in charge musically and Kidd did the promoting and they even had an eighteen wheeler. He said that he was surprised to see Reo; he doesn't go out that often anymore. He also said that Reo would have a lot of stories to tell.

Tracy, Donnell and I watched the Lumberjack World Championships: during the speed climbing event, Donnell talked about he had to know how to do gaffing - climbing telephone poles with shoes with metal spikes - Donnell is a Verizon serviceman. He told a story about another Verizon employee who had his ankle broken all the way and has an artificial foot as a result.

Then later Adia arrived (after Donnell and Scotty had finished with two of the tracks) - she wanted to hear the edited version of the first half, which Donnell had on CD in his car. Adia and I sat in and listened to it through his car stereo. She said that "Donnell doesn't let us hear much of the recordings." She listened to it not in entirety and was very critical of her own performance. She pronounced it (what she heard) as "tolerable." I asked her how she joined FF, she said me Donnell through a mutual friend, she had an audition, but nothing happened. Six months later, he ran into her and hired her. I heard the other side on this later; Scotty asked Donnell how she joined. He said the same as above - where he finally hired her was at a party she performed at; he realized she just had tremendous personality. We joked about driving to New York in Donnell's Jaguar.

Adia and Mike, who showed up shortly thereafter, were there to replace Tony Sharpe's vocals - these tracks were recorded over the last two years. Tony Sharpe left the band a while ago and is now a member of Whop-N-Em. Adia was up first, but after warming up, a joint decision was made for Mike to go first - recording so shortly after performing had affected her voice, so she wanted more time to let her voice rest.

They discussed EU's failure to properly capitalize on "Da Butt" from School Daze. They had an unusual situation of Gregory "Sugar Bear" Elliott being the front man, but not the creative force. Ivan Goff and William "JuJu" House wrote most of the songs (and Marcus Miller wrote Da Butt). I told them that Marcus Miller also wrote for Miles Davis a song that FF performs, Tutu. Miles had a large advance from Warner but they gained control over his publishing of any songs he wrote, so he had others write all of his songs. Donnell said that they and their manager took too long shopping for a record deal (they ended up signing with Virgin) and didn't properly capitalize on Da Butt. I said that the album Livin' Large is overproduced like Trouble Funk's major label (Island) album, Trouble Over Here, Trouble Over There despite being produced by Bootsy Collins was also over-produced and neither was really GoGo. Donnell said that if that's my definition of over-produced, than Evolution will be over-produced, it is not raw GoGo as it is intended to the larger market, not just DC.

There was a long discussion over movies: Donnell said that Scotty usually had really good opinions on movies, but had recently steered him wrong. He talked about movies featuring rappers as actors - the one he talked about was one that they just "Threw a rapper in there." Mike said that some rapper movies are good, such as 8 Mile. Mike mentioned LL Cool J. Donnell laughed and said, "He's still making bad movies." They talked about Deliver Us from Eva, but Donnell said that's where he realized that Gabrielle Union could really act. Donnell said, "What about Schindler's List?" Mike said, "Now you want to try to be intellectual..."

Donnell talked about making money from Vinnie D's $55 Motel, which was released on Donnell's label Colossus. Scotty talked about meeting Vinnie later (Vinnie D also uses the stage name Vintertainment), through a female friend. He said he was at his place and saw the framed record up on the wall - he said he was very talented.

Adia said she was the same age as Pooh (24).

Mike would listen to the lyrics, write down his parts and then go over aspects of the singing, such as enunciation, pitch and timing with Donnell, Scotty and BJ who arrived shortly after Mike started. Some of the vocals on the album were BJ's. Given the conversations about his not singing live, I directly asked BJ about it. He said that prefers not to sing live, singing in the studio allows you to correct your mistakes. Donnell said of one of the tracks, that it was Tony Sharpe's best song ever, but with Mike it was just another song on the album. I asked him why if it was so good, why is he not retaining Tony Sharpe's vocals? Donnell said that he's not Tony's manager and that there's no real benefit for FF. He also said that with noticeable mixed personnel, it becomes a compilation album, which he doesn't want. I asked him when the songs from the album would be part of FF's playlist. He said he planned to add them all eventually, but due to changes in personnel it hasn't happened yet. He did later say that they had played some of these songs live earlier with previous personnel (it was in the context of Mike doing his last song for this session - he hadn't written down the lyrics set, so they went phrase by phrase.

Mike said that James Funk looks like Beetlejuice from the Howard Stern show. He also said that Funk looks like Bojack, and Bojack's brother looks like Sugar Bear.

Donnell said "Mike has done really well, considering Tony had performed this song live with 911 a number of times before recording it".

At one point, Donnell talked about Y2k (of whom he said he always intentionally messes up their name) moving from Safari Steakhouse to La Fontaine Bleu on Mondays. He said it was a mistake, at Safari they had crowds of 250, 200 of them girls who got in free. At Fontaine Bleu, you have to pay a rental fee; he didn't see how they would make money. He addressed why their owned planned Mondays at Fontaine Bleu fell through - the promoter was the boxer Sean Mays (spelling?), but he had to leave to train.

Donnell and Mike discussed Saturday night's performance, particularly the second set. Donnell criticized Mike for not singing in the same key as everyone else in the performance of Sly & the Family Stone's Family Affair. Sugar Bear had started it. Mike said, "They were all off-key, I was in the right key. I couldn't find the key they were singing in."

At various times, Donnell would want Scotty to have his finger on or off the button for the studio intercom. It allows a person in the recording booth to hear what is said in the studio. At one point, Scotty did not have it pressed and we all laughed at something and Mike could tell, he said, "What are you laughing about?" At other times, Donnell would tell Scotty, "Press the f*cking button!"

Donnell talked about Eddie Vann, this was a welcome home because he had gotten out of prison (actually 6 months prior). Donnell told a story about Eddie Vann - Rare Essence needed $12,000 to put out the album Live at Breeze's Metro Club in 1986. RE had $6,000 and they went to Eddie for the other six and they split the profits. Donnell talked about how with any album the initial royalties were real high, and then it tapered off over time. While some years later, they got a $50,000 royalty check. Donnell went to give Eddie the $25,000 check - he looked at it, pocketed it and said, "How's the family?" "That's Eddie Vann for you."

Later Kato and Teago came in to interview FF about the album for the the upcoming print edition of Take Me Out To The GoGo Magazine (Note: the cover has been made, it features FF prominently). I filmed the entire interview. They asked how FF compares to other bands in the mature market. They asked Mike if he would return for to Rare Essence for a reunion - he saidn "Only if it was a really big set of shows, for serious money (I won't print the amount)." Kato gave Adia a new nickname "Adiva". After a while, Kato and Teago left.

Also Mike left for a while to take his son somewhere, and then he returned. Jauhar came in with his son and his business partner, David. Mike announced their presence by saying, "Here comes the bearded bald-headed clan" (both Jauhar and David fit that). Donnell asked Jauhar's son if he had gotten rid of his Michael Jordan jersey yet - he smirked and said no. Donnell then asked him if his dad still cheats at basketball. Jauhar and Donnell had a back and forth argument about dating younger women and Jauhar razzed Donnell about Kobe Bryant as well. They too, left after a while.

Cheryl, Mike's ex-wife, visited for a short time. Donnell teased Mike in front of her, but she wasn't buying. After she left, Adia asked Mike how many kids he has - three, his eldest son by another woman and twins - one daughter and one son by Cheryl. I asked Mike if Muse was his real last name, he said yes, and was curious why I would think otherwise. I said that muse is a musical term, it would be appropriate for a stage name. Mike said he and Cheryl were together for a while, but only married for four years - they still are friends, but it didn't work out. Donnell said, "It was a Barbie meets Ken story." Donnell asked Mike if Cheryl was on Rearview2.com, he said no. He said the heroin problem in Baltimore is really evident - he filmed one of his videos from a parade and there weren't too many worthy candidates in the parade. Mike said Cheryl is related to Markie (I assume he means Biz Markie), that Markie is a genius. Donnell said "No, he's very talented, but not a genius. Marc Cary (a DC Jazz musician) has a friend who can listen to an entire show, then play it back, note-for-note. At Ellington, there was a genius there Jamie Kowalski, you could just put both arms on a piano and he could tell you every note. They had to bring in special teachers for Jamie because he was so advanced."

Mike asked what Boolah had talked with Donnell about on Wednesday; Donnell said he likes to conduct exit interviews. He went on to discuss how he values professionalism and reliability over talent. He said that "Doc may not be the best bass player in the game, but he is a solid citizen."

Mike asked at one point, "Whatever happened to BT Express?" I said that "Disco died." Actually, BT Express was going to perform at an East Coast Convention the following weekend.

I later asked Donnell what he thought about Y2K, which he hadn't talked about in the interview with Kato. I asked because a lot of people have said good things about them. He said that "Scuba Steve" Covington from Y2K was one of the guest rappers at Safari Steakhouse on Friday.

Donnell said he doesn't like to deal with musicians who are all about the money, when he fired Blue and looked for a replacement drummer, he talked to a few people. The first asked for a specific amount up front, so he didn't get a call back. The second, Chuck Brown's drummer had a long conversation with Donnell and money didn't even come up.

He said L!ssen's success is catching up with them - they didn't work up their way to success it just came suddenly and now they are dealing with problems. He said the ultimate example of fast success was Maiesha (Rashad) with their covers - they were drawing four thousan people a week. Donnell went on to say that he doesn't believe in equal pay - people who draw more people in the audience deserve to make more - he went on to say that at the Market Lounge, Sugar Bear would take home more than half of EU's pay. He said Sugar Bear is the biggest Bama in the history of GoGo, still playing songs like "Shake it Like a White Girl", but he still draws crowds. Rah is probably good for another 50 people and X 20, Funk 120.

Mike had a nickname for everyone - he called Scotty "Dennis Miller", BJ "Vince Carter", and Donnell "Geoffrey Holder". Scotty said of himself, "I also moonlight as Ghostface".

Adia left as soon as she finished. When Mike finished, we all left.

Saturday at Club Levels
Club Levels, 1960 Montana Av NE, Washington, DC 20500

This was a "Welcome Home" celebration for Eddie Vann, one of the founders of the Universal Madness urban clothing line. I arrived at 10:30 PM. Thomas was there, with his son and nephew. There was a metal detector just inside. I had to put away my camera, which was not unexpected.

They were in a different performance area than their previous performance here. When you get to the second floor, you can turn either left or right. To the right is the performance area they performed in last month. To the left is the area they set up the buffet in, and past that is a VIP room to the left and then the dance floor and performance area (it doesn't have a stage, per se, the floor is all the same level). At the very back is a bar, so people sitting at the bar can actually watch from behind the performers. I first when to the prior performance area, but noticed it had a different drum kit, so I went to the other one and saw FF's drums and percussion. A number of video cameras were set up to record this performance.

I expected FF to perform at 12:30 AM, the same time they performed here before. I went before that to check on the Buffet, and Godfather introduced me to Little Benny and told him about my project. A little later, he also introduced me to Rory "DC" Felton, the original Sax player for Rare Essence, who said, "Put me in your book." I actually did briefly meet Eddie Vann, when we bumped into each other in the hallway.

While waiting for the performance to start, Doc came over and introduced me to Tee Bone, Trouble Funk's percussionist. I told him I am big fan and he will contact me later. He worked one of the video cameras.

Familiar Faces
I talked with Donnell to confirm the studio session on Sunday. The line up for the first set was Mike, Adia, Donnell, DP, Lil Benny (on vocals and trumpet), DC (on background vocals and cowbell), Dwayne, Doc, Godfather, Pooh, Bojack and Charlie. It was really crankin'. During the break, I talked with Ron "Moe" Moten from HOBO. and my friend Tywon Harzeez from Continuous Music. A number of regulars were there.

I danced during the second set - there were line up changes: Little Benny and DC left, and BJ and Sugar Bear arrived during the set. There were six black outs during the performance (two in the first set, four in the second), but the band did not stop performing during them, and a number of people lit up their cell phones and lighters. Sugar Bear only did vocals. He did a lot of improv, including some screams. He had them perform Sly & the Family Stone's Family Affair. During this set, a group of three girls danced in front of me, having fun watching themselves dance in the mirror on the wall. Sugar Bear sang Shake It Like a White Girl and they definitely shook it differently than a white girl would. The one girl definitely made an effort to put her butt out right in front of me. It was a really crankin' and memorable performance.

After it was over, I went and talked to Tee Bone and sat in the back. Adia told me how after I mentioned the Lt., he showed up less than ten minutes afterward. Doc, Adia and I talked about her and the Lt. for a while.

Godfather told me about how He, DC, and Footz were the opening core for Rare Essence. Little Benny had brought Godfather in and he originally played harmonica. They realized they needed to change their name from Young Dynamos because eventually they would get old. They were supposed to all come up with new names and bring them to the practice, but instead Footz called them and said their name was going to be Rare Essence, the reversing of the name of a perfume "Essence Rare" that Footz saw in his mother's (Ms. Mack) Vogue Magazine. He said they were okay with the name, that they rehearsed in Footz' garage, so that they just were happy having a place to play. He said that Donnell and others joined later. He talked about leaving Rare Essence and coming back. He also talked about leaving a job because they accused him of drug use.

Friday at the Safari Steakhouse
Safari Steakhouse 9430 Annapolis Road Lanham MD 20706

I missed the first set as a prior engagement went long. When I arrived, Nephew waved me into the booth with him where he sat with two of the three girls I hang out with at Safari Steakhouse performances. I asked them where their friend was, they said, "She's in Louisiana, she's in the military."

Doc waved me into the side lounge that I've never been in. Apparently, the band members hang out there during their breaks. I hung out with Doc, DP, Godfather, Packy, and Dwayne. Doc talked with Packy about the next night's performance at Club Levels - he said that even though he grew up with the owners, he feels uncomfortable there for some reason. He went on to talk about how he thinks that FF is catering to what they think the audience wants, instead of defining a sound and having the audience come to appreciate it. He said that Nelly and Outkast created their own sound and made the audience come to them and have been very successful (even though he added that in their latest album, OutKast use a lot of Earth Wind & Fire's grooves). He said that every band that has really defined its own sound has "f*cked up somehow" - Backyard had their own sound and then changed it; Northeast Groovers had their own sound (although he could hear Trouble Funk in them). "Chuck (Brown) started the groove, but Rare Essence perfected it."

DP and Doc compared how tired they were, having worked up until shortly before the performance, Doc won because DP didn't play at Xcalibur the night before. During this conversation, Kevin "Kato" Hammond and Mark "Teago" Ward of Take Me Out To The GoGo Magazine came by and introduced themselves to me. Kato asked Doc about Physical Wunders still performing.

The sound man (probably Googie), who is a friend of Doc, came in and talked with Doc - Doc had sold him a bass, that he in turn had sold to someone else and the amp for it had already cracked. Doc said that it was probably because whoever bought it had tried to play it too loud - that most GoGo musicians play much louder than they really have to because the PA system should amplify them anyway. He asked me how loud they were and I told him I had missed the first set. Doc asked Kato when he was going to take Whop's picture down from the front page of Take Me Out To The GoGo, I mentioned how Adia's picture was up for the longest time, Kato said he would put up another FF picture (I noticed later he has up a FF publicity picture of Godfather). Donnell called the other members of FF back to perform and I ordered food and said hello to Mama Chelle at the bar, then went and sat down.

Familiar Faces
The line up was complete: Mike, Adia (with her hair down for the first time I've seen), Donnell, DP, Dwayne, Doc, Godfather, BJ, Pooh, Bojack, and Charlie. The second set was pretty crankin'. I talked with Charlie - he couldn't believe how long my blog was. After the set, Mama Chelle sat down and talked to me, she said that because of her work, she can't go out during the week and enjoys reading about the shows she can't attend. She asked me about why there was no description of Thursday's performance; I told her that I hadn't had time to do it yet. Even people I didn't know knew me by name. One girl asked me "If I really liked GoGo or was I just doing this because it's my job" - I guess she, like other people, don't realize what I am actually doing. While some people think I am a reporter, I am actually working on my Masters thesis in folklore at the University of North Carolina. Also, I am doing my thesis on GoGo precisely because I am a GoGo fan. Fortunately, FF is busy enough that there is less time between performances, so it makes me longer to write descriptions.

After I finished eating, I went to get a drink (soda - I don't drink alcohol) and they started up. I decided to watch the third set from the bar because there was a better view from there. The third set, as usual, cranked the most. There were a couple of guest male rappers, one of them rapped during the performance of Terror Squad's Lean Back. One of the two guest rappers was Steve from Y2K. The third set was noticeably loud (given my discussion with Doc). I noticed for the first time that Safari had GoGo pics and sold roses. I talked with Donnell about the studio sessions; he told me that there were more sessions on Sunday at noon. I told BJ that I had videos of his drumming; he said he was interested in them.

I noticed on my drive home that the performance had really eased all my frustrations of the day.

Thursday at Xcalibur
Xcalibur Restaurant & Lounge, 2519 Pennsylvania Av NW, Washington, DC 20500

I arrived early so that I could interview Pooh before Familiar Faces started performing. I arrived a little after 8 PM, the upstairs area, where they perform, was nearly pitch black and empty except for the Scottish bartender Annie.

I found an electrical outlet in the alcove leading to the women's bathroom, so I set up on the couch there to conduct the interview. Pooh and Doc were the first to arrive.

Some work men came in (Xcalibur is new) and one showed how nice the men's bathroom was to the other and said that "It's too big; people will be having sex in there."

I interviewed Pooh after he had eaten. He asked me to post it online after I have transcribed it - the only negative was the pre-recorded music playing at the time was rather loud. Here is the transcript (not exact with every um, etc.):

JR: When did you join the group?

DP: 03, like August, around this, almost this time of year.

JR: Where did you learn to play music?

DP: I?ve been playing since I was like five years old. I was playing the choir at five years old. I always knew ever since I can ever remember.

JR: What other groups did you play with besides 911/Familiar Faces?

DP: Before 911 there was Northeast Groovers, Raw Image, Pure Elegance, Obsession, there?s a number of groups.

JR: Do you have any side group that you are playing with now at the same time as FF?

DP: Gospel group Heaven Sent. I play in church, the Union Temple Baptist Church. That?s about it now.

JR: Other than entertainment, what purpose does GoGo have do you think?

DP: Entertain, as far as entertaining?

JR: Yeah, what do you think is the purpose of GoGo? Entertainment is obvious... I mean do you think there's another purpose to GoGo?

DP: Represent DC.

JR: Okay. What do you think makes GoGo so popular?

DP: The nation, the national's capital. DC natives, metropolitan area. If you weren't born and raised on it, you won?t enjoy it. So it's a DC thing.

JR: What do you think about it primarily being a DC thing?

DP: It's a good thing, it's a bad thing. The good - it's always home. The bad - it's not nationwide everywhere like R&B, Jazz, Gospel. It's not like that. It's not like that. I think it should be, but it's not a music that grew on everybody.

JR: Do you think a group of musicians from outside this area can be an authentic, be considered authentic by DC natives as a GoGo group? Like if someone formed a GoGo group of say people from Pennsylvania?

DP: You're asking would it work?

JR: Yeah, do you think it would be possible for them to be considered authentic or...

DP: It wouldn't be the same, it wouldn't be the same vibe.

JR: How do you define GoGo as?

DP: Always related to African music, drums. I think of GoGo drums, Congos.

JR: What instrumentation should a GoGo band have to have?

DP: A lot of pockets. Keep the crowd going. Keep everybody moving.

JR: How do you define Pockets & Sockets?

DP: How do I define them?

JR: Yeah.

DP: It depends on whatever mood I'm in. How I feel when I play. I could be coming out of a song? I may look out and see how everybody's date is sitting around and I try to get them up on their feet. If they're already dancing, I try to get them dancing harder.

JR: Do you think all music performed by a GoGo band is GoGo?

DP: (Laughing). Once it's got the GoGo beat on it, then it's GoGo.

JR: Does all GoGo music have to be dance music?

DP: Hmm, to me, it do. If it has a GoGo beat then it's danceable, you dance to it.

JR: What do you think of the current trend of some GoGo groups like TCB not really playing Congos at all?

DP: It's great because it catches all the younger crowd, high school kids, middle school kids, it's just a generation thing. So they're doing their thing so. When it's on the older circuit...

JR: What do you think needs to be done to maintain the tradition of GoGo for future generations?

DP: They need some guidance. Some of that has lost the touch of the true GoGo. It's not really...

JR: What do you think the true GoGo is that's being lost?

DP: It's not that many pockets being played by younger bands. There's a lot of noise making, it sounds to me... but that's the younger generation that's what they want, so that's what they get. That's what they pay to get. So older crowds, they're not going to go for that. When they get older, the younger generation, I don't know what they're going to expect. I don't know if it's going to be bad for them at one point. I guess it's kind of bad for them because the bands are not motivated to be true to get to the next level.

JR: What do you see as the future of GoGo as?

DP: I see the future of GoGo almost like, like a rap thing just IN DC. I don?t think it's going to go anywhere because bands; they're not willing to do what it takes to go to the next level.

JR: And what do you think it is that they need to do to?

DP: Bands need to come together and form this area together to get a unit to be able to go around the world or go national. Although people like Chuck Brown they have been over the world, but as far as the younger bands, they don't, they don't have what it take to travel.

JR: Trouble Funk too (has been around the world).

DP: Trouble Funk, EU.

JR: EU, yeah... What do you think about the way PA Tapes are distributed and paid?

DP: As far as listening, the sounds, whatever?

JR: Well, I mean in terms of as a musician, I mean as a member of a GoGo band, how would you rather... You know what the situation is now, you sell the master and then they sell it out and there are no royalties. Beyond that, do you prefer that more PA tapes? How many live performances should be put out by band say in a year?

DP: It would be nice if they put out, because like you said we don't get royalties, it's being sold.

JR: You just think commercial...

DP: Commercial CDs.

JR: Okay, how many studio albums do you think a band should make in a year?

DP: It depends on how they are laying the grooves down. They changing the grooves every couple of months then they can go out in the studio and a do a number of tracks put 'em out. Not bring them out until year to year so it's the same thing, may change up to a few ___s (something I can't hear), but that's about it with that.

JR: What made you decide to join a GoGo band? I mean you've been in a number of them.

DP: What started me off in a GoGo band?

JR: Yeah.

DP: My brother. He influenced me. He played the trombone. Talking about Quentin, which was "Footz" used to play drums for Rare Essence. What he did every show, I had tapes of them and I used to listen to the tapes, played the tapes. So that's how I got started with GoGo.

JR: Okay. What's your primary reason for playing? Is it simply for money or...

DP: Career. It's a job.

JR: So you plan to make this your career? Do you have another job now or is this...

DP: No, no other job. Playing drums.

JR: Yeah, I just know that some of the other guys who... I understand that GoGo like Funk is a lot of people, I mean you got eleven people playing at a time and that's a lot of people to split money between...

DP: Right, right.

JR: I mean that's one of the reasons that Funk went down after the 70s is because it's expensive to maintain, you know, that many people in a band.

DP: Yeah, it is.

JR: What do you think about the amount of cover songs that are played as opposed to original material?

DP: It's cool. It gets everybody warmed up, started off. You know, it's like, it's like exercising. You can't just go out there and go all out, you know, you got to warm them up. Let them tap their feet, nod their head and then they ain't necessarily move out on the floor. By the time they get on the floor, it's time to turn it up, give them what they want.

JR: What other styles of music do you incorporate in your playing?

DP: Gospel, Jazz, a little fusion and that's about it.

JR: What else do you listen to besides GoGo?

DP: All the time Gospel music and Jazz music: Chic Corea, Dave Weckl band, plus some fusion, basically Dave Weckl band, Dennis Chambers, people like that.

JR: What do you think defines a good performance?

DP: What defines a good performance from the band?

JR: Yeah.

DP: The energy in all the music. If the energy's in there once it's set from beginning to end; it's a good night, can't complain.

JR: What do you think is the connection between the audience and the band?

DP: The energy. You feed off, you feed off the crowd and each other. So you see everybody moving, we got some kind of connection going. Have to keep them going to the next level.

JR: How many people in the shows do you think you know personally outside of the band obviously?

DP: Wow! I can't count. Some people may know me, I don't know them, they just know of me, that type of situation, but there's quite a few...

JR: What do you think about the fact that some people associate GoGo with fighting and violence?

DP: I think it's just their opinion. I guess they're trying to label it the same way they label Rap as being violent. But it's all there to me, I mean you don't have to go out and put what you're saying on the CD, it's just music to make you feel good. Bob your head, dance to or something. A lot of people take music out of context these days. I think the artists need to go back in, all artists need to go back in, regroup and think about what they want to put out before they take it to a level they didn't intend it to go to. To prevent the violent thoughts, they need to know what they are saying in their lyrics before they stir up thoughts.

JR: What do you think about how Familiar Faces is right now?

DP: Laid back. We?re not the violent type. We're like the cool crew, like the pretty boys. We're not R. Kelly, you know were not that that type of vibe. Just party, have a good time.

JR: How do you see the future of Familiar Faces down the road as doing?

DP: I see the band doing a longevity type road, staying their own identity. It's not like the style will ever die out. I don't know how long each member will stay in the band, but the band should be around for a pretty long time.

JR: Is there anything more you wanted to say or ask me?

DP: How'd you get tied up in?

JR: When I was in college one of my fraternity brothers was a big Funk fan and he was white like me and he took another one of my fraternity brothers who was my closest friend to an Earth Wind, & Fire concert. And so he started listening to it and I started listening to Funk. I was into Funk more than he was. So I read about GoGo and I really honestly have only heard like one PA tape (Note: I am referring to SOULO 2001-06/10 St. Ames Church PA GoGo Slide) that I didn't like. I like music that cranks a lot. Well GoGo does more than any other music that I know of.

DP: So you like to keep moving?

JR: Yeah.

DP: Cool. What do your friends think about GoGo?

JR: Most of my friends think I'm weird and... I have a Cousin who I hadn't talked to in years because she lives far away and I emailed her my website and she?s like, "I didn?t know I had a Black Cousin."

DP: (Laughs).

JR: I was like, okay.

DP: It's cool and do you ever let her hear any GoGo tunes?

JR: Yeah, and when I've told people that this is what I want to do my work on for my thesis people have asked me and I've played some for them.

DP: Who else have you interviewed other than this band, Familiar Faces?

JR: This is it 'cause like I figure aside from the band members, I plan to interview people who are regulars. It's more a matter of logistical difficulty of going up to different people and having time to actually interview them. I am also planning to even though Boolah's not performing with you guys, interview him and Duane Face who sat in while Doc was away.

DP: Right.

JR: I guess I am open to as many people who know about GoGo as possible.

DP: I think it's real cool that you decided to do us.

JR: Well you know I went to the Chuck Brown concert, the one that's out on DVD. That was the best concert I've ever been to and 911 stood out as the best.

DP: They left their energy with you.

JR: Yeah.

DP: That's what it's all about, that's the energy, that's what I was talking about. Once you ___ them out, you can't go anywhere, it's there. It's what you always expect when you come out to see that one band. That same energy that they left with you, maybe like 2001 it's still with you now. I know they didn't sound like this. They're not the band that you're doing your thesis now, you know. I know it's not the same band, but...

JR: I know that like Rah and 32 aren't members. (Rah is supposed to be) The new lead talker for Raw Image (a rumor, but it never happened.)

DP: I heard that also. The guy that played last night (Smoke), all three of us were in Northeast Groovers together with Rah and 32. Also the female that sang last night, Michelle (Blackwell), she played too.

JR: Oh, really?

DP: It was like a Northeast Groovers reunion for me, to be onstage with them two.

JR: You know Duane (Face) said that Groovers is his favorite band.

DP: Yeah, he keeps telling me. That?s a lot of energy right there... by the first song, by the time the first song was over... but I enjoy Familiar Faces just as much. I've got nothing to complain about. I am ___ relaxed guys, Pooh don't need no publicity? (This sentence is really hard to make out, I am not certain of the words).

JR: (Laughs).

DP: I mean all our publicity.

JR: (Laughs). You were twelve last night... (According to Donnell's teasing of Pooh)

DP: My age doesn?t matter... it could be twelve, fifteen, thirteen, the oldest I?ve been is sixteen. It's all cool. So when does your thesis come out?

JR: I have another semester of classes, and then after that I take comprehensive exams, and then I defend my proposal and then I actually work on the thesis. The sooner the better, it may be that there is more stuff that I need to ask and I?ll come back up after I take my exams. I would say attending performances is fun too.

DP: Right. It's cool man. How do you like, enjoy coming out every night? It's almost like you're a band member, you're at all the shows. You're just not physically playing.

JR: I'd love it if I could do it all the time, but waking up on time to go to classes or stuff like that... I am hoping to continue actually working on this after I graduate because I am going to go for a doctorate (Note: I do plan to continue working on this, but I am not going to be pursuing a doctorate.) after this. I am hoping to go to a school in the area, I was looking at GW but their... the head of that... he said that the scores they are looking for are REALLY high.

DP: Oh, okay. Not so good. Extremely high scores. Then again, you know somebody...

JR: Actually, I was born at their hospital, GW...

DP: I was born at GW also. The old one (hospital) before it moved. You know I had to tell Donnell the he can't say I was born last week or something, you know he got a lot of jokes.

JR: Yeah, I don't know if you remember he was talking about when we where here a couple of weeks ago.

DP: About your blog?

JR: Well no, he was talking about his family was reading what I posted and talking about dating Michelle, and they were like, "You can get into trouble for what you?re saying" and he said, "It's just jokes, it's not serious."

DP: Right, he got a lot of jokes, a whole lot of jokes. He's a confident dude, a real good dude. I'm glad I met him. The band got a lot of, a lot of laid back dudes.

JR: You know I feel like in a lot of ways that I'm lucky because I got to work with a bunch of people who are so willing to work with me and to...

DP: There's a lot that won't, they won't give you the time of day...

JR: Yeah, actually I don't know if you read about, there was an article about this rapper named Blyss

DP: Blyss?

JR: in the Washington Post like last month and he's a DC rapper and he's trying to make it big. And so the guy who's writing this article went with him to a show and he was taking notes and they kicked, threw him out of the show.

DP: Because he was writing notes?

JR: Yes. When I went to the cook out, I went to the front and I took pictures of the front of the Mad Chef...

DP: M-hmm.

JR: Just 'cause I was going to put them on my website and they came out, they're like, "Are you a reporter? Can I have your business card?" I was like, "No, I?m just here to work on a thesis..." (I can't hear the rest of the sentence.) That's the same type of thing I think they were worried about that was a week after, a week later was when Ant (lead talker of Elevation Band) died and then actually right before the cook out there was another guy who apparently was a regular (poster) on PA Palace named Kenny who had been killed. After leaving the Mad Chef; he was killed in a drive by afterwards. Apparently it was something that started there.

DP: Oh okay, Wow! Rough.

JR: Alright.

DP: Thanks for the interview.

One of the things he talked about was that he used to be a member of Northeast Groovers; he said that with Smoke and Michelle Blackwell at Wednesday's performance, that it was like a reunion and gave him lots of energy when playing. Doc agreed - he said that all they needed was Rah and it would be like being the Northeast Groovers. We also discussed the ongoing rumor that Rah will be the new lead talker for Raw Image. Doc said that they (Raw Image) are just noise to him, that they have no identity. He said it was better in the 80s when every band had their own identity. I also asked Pooh about what he thought of the name change from 911 to Familiar Faces - he said, "It was new; the members come from all over." Pooh also said that he was comfortable with the interview because he was a communications major. I asked him if he graduated yet, given that he had played three seasons of minor league baseball and he said not yet, that he would be graduating soon.

Familiar Faces
The line up was: Mike, Donnell, Doc, Dwayne (arrived during the second song), BJ and Pooh. Donnell started off the first set by saying "Every Thursday Familiar Faces is here, and Jordan. He must like the food (I was eating at the time). I think he uses the same plate every time." The food is good - I have tried their crab cake and steak and cheese sandwiches. The first set was good.

During the break, Donnell asked me what was up - I told him about interviewing Pooh and he laughed. I talked with Mike, asking why he was called Black Elvis, which I heard here. Donnell said, "He doesn't want people to know he's Black Elvis because Black Elvis said some bad things about 911." Mike said, "I am not Black Elvis, but I know the guy." I asked him about the other nickname mentioned, "Dickie". He said, "That is my real nickname." Donnell told a story about how he called Mike and Mike's sister answered and asked him if he wanted to speak with Dickie. Donnell said that he had to think for a minute that Dickie was Mike.

Mike said that a British Sex Reality TV show wanted to follow him around based on his website, Rearview2.com, which is dedicated to the female buttocks. I told him about the FHM model known for her "perfect" butt - Vida Guerra. He told me about another model (not appropriate to post here). Donnell was familiar with Vida, said that he didn't like her, "She has a face like a cheerleader." I said, "She's not known for her face." I also said that she dated Jeremy Shockey.

Donnell told a story of how Donnell had asked BJ (who ate pasta as Donnell told this story) how the food was and BJ replied "Alright." Donnell responded by saying, "Hey BJ, this is Greg, the owner (who stood right next to him at the time)." BJ denied the story was true (and the food is certainly much better than alright).

Mike said BJ should sing, DeeDee said, "You could save Donnell the embarrassment." Mike responded by singing Stand by Your Man. Donnell said, "People have told me they like my singing."

A couple of girls came up during the break and one asked where the band was, Donnell said, "They're on break." She asked if she could go up to the mic and sing, and Donnell said "Go ahead." During the second set, a group of girls including those came up and danced for a while. Someone was filming, but he was more concerned with customers than the band, it was probably for some type of advertisement. Also during the second set, Boolah showed up, said hello to BJ and sat down by him. When Mike saw him, he said, "What are you, a genie? Did you just pop up from thin air?"
Boolah (sitting in audience), BJ, Pooh, Mike, Doc, Donnell, Dwayne
Later, Donnell joked that "Boolah was stalking them." They appeared to be done, and a guy in the audience with a woman asked them to "Play another song, at least a half-song." They performed an entire slow ballad for them to slow dance to. Then they performed their typical closing song, Prince's Purple Rain. I decided to shoot some videos from this. I was only looking through the viewfinder. Doc walked off the stage with Boolah following. After they walked out, Mike joked about "A band member walking out who needed a breast reduction" (he referred to Boolah, not Doc). DeeDee laughed about it. When I looked up after capturing the movie (it only captures three minutes at a time), during which Donnell said, "Jordan's going to go to Rearview2 and never come back to any of our shows," I noticed that BJ and Pooh had switched instruments! I decided to keep shooting - Donnell said, "Take the picture Jordan, I don't know how much more of this I can take!" Donnell encouraged them to "get all their fantasies out."
Pooh, BJ, Mike, Dwayne (behind Mike), Donnell
All pictures taken by and Copyright - Jordan Rich (Note: Pictures artificially brightened by flash, it was darker than it appears.)
He joked about their gospel style and started to sing a gospel song. When Doc walked back in, Donnell said, "A lot has happened since you left." Donnell said that "BJ even has the drummer's look down."

After the performance, Donnell and Mike talked about Mike's girl "Miss Brown" and her friends at Takoma Station on Wednesday. Mike talked about when he was at Howard (University), he met the girl of his dreams, but she dumped him after he didn't make it on to Star Search. Pooh and Donnell kept joning on how he didn't make it, with Donnell doing fake hysterics - "I didn't make it on Star Search!" Donnell said this was another of Mike's "Fish that got away stories." Mike even knew who won on Star Search, Bo Williams. Bo was the only one to beat some competitor named Stan, who wore white shoes. This got Mike to talk about that scene from National Lampoon's Vacation where Randy Quaid's character gave Chevy Chase a pair of white stacks and thought he was really giving him something nice. Donnell said he had never seen that movie, Mike even saw it in the theatre. Donnell said he understood, apparently Mike went with a couple of his friends and saw the movie after smoking weed. Mike talked about he did perform at the Apollo, but not on TV. This further lead to a discussion on how New York hates DC. Donnell and BJ talked about a show at the Ritz in New York City where Rare Essence toured with Shabba Ranks - the audience threw quarters. Mike said that when he was at the Apollo, they told him to say he was from "Forest Heights, MD not DC" because the audience hates DC. BJ, Donnell, and Mike said that that's because "DC is not on New York's jock, that Baltimore, the West Coast, everywhere else follows New York."

Donnell was curious about the terrible parking in the area, what would happen if there was a huge turnout? Donnell also talked about instead of everyone hanging around waiting to be paid, that they will be paid once a week, maybe starting as early as August 1st. That's unfortunate for me, as them hanging out having these discussions is great for me.

Unfortunately, apparently there was a miscommunication between Donnell and I as I was to meet up with Donnell later to observe him going over the mix of the live recording, but when I got to Night Flight Studio, there was no one there. They had finished before we left, and Donnell and I had not conferred.

Wednesday at Takoma Station
Takoma Station, 6914 4th St NW, Washington, DC 20012

I arrived early so that I could talk with the band members, as Donnell said it was okay to conduct my group interview of them at rehearsal on July 27th, but that I should confer with each of the band members. I told BJ about the conversations online about why he doesn't sing in performances.

Nephew asked me, "Why did you have to tell everyone (via this blog) that I was sleeping? I was very tired from running." I asked Nephew how the studio sessions on Monday went. He said that they went okay, but that Mike and Adia still need to come back in again to finish it - Mike is more experienced, he's been recording for twenty years and Adia has only for two. Nephew said he didn't know if the mix of last week's live recording was done.

Adia said she was tired, she went up to the stage and later passed by, noticeably walking funny, she looked at me and said, "I was in the gym today" (as if I would think otherwise? or even if it was my business?).

Familiar Faces
They started a little late. Before they did, a young guitarist played with Dwayne's guitar a little. The line up for the first set was: Mike, Adia, Donnell, DP, Dwayne, Doc, Godfather, BJ (on a Yamaha SY-85 keyboard, see here for details), Pooh, Bojack, and Charlie. For the second song, they had a guest rapper named "CBR"? from Memphis by way of Atlanta. At the end of the third song, it was cut off and Donnell said, "that was BJ (meaning the ending of the song), I would have let them sing forever." BJ got up and said, "Bullsh*t!" For the third song, Pooh, Bojack and Charlie had a furious jam. Mike said, "I don't what that was, but I like it..." (Me too). At the end of the first set, Donnell said, "I know my baby Michelle Blackwell didn't come in and disrespect me by not saying hello to me." Of course she did after that.

At the break, I told Adia, "your boyfriend's not here." She said, "who's my boyfriend." I said, "The Lieutenant." She said, "I'm glad, but don't mention his name because you know he'll show up if you do." Sure enough, ten minutes later, he walked in. Later I walked over to her and she said, "I told you!"

I talked with Donnell and asked him if the live mix was done, he said, "No, it will be done tomorrow."

Pooh was the only one who said he won't be at the rehearsal, but said I could interview him before tomorrow's show.

As good as the first set was, the second set, as usual, was better. Donnell did announcements and he turned around and told Godfather, "I don't need music playing while I talk." He said, "He comes from the church, having music behind the preacher." Some of the women sure danced hard - one girl danced in a crouch with her butt just off the ground, then with her knees fully bent and her back on the ground. Donnell was concerned and helped her up. Smoke of Nu Styles Band (formerly of Northeast Groovers) sat in a for a while on congas. A guy named "Whitie" guest rapped for a song and later Michelle Blackwell sang Happy Birthday. Boolah came in and talked with Donnell (later Donnell said (when Mike asked him) that this was Boolah's exit interview) and sat in the audience - I talked with him about interviewing him before he left. For their last song they started to perform an old Rare Essence song - I didn't catch which one, but they cut it off. People in the audience kept urging them to resume. Donnell said of Pooh, "He's too young to remember that song. He's only fifteen, he was in pampers when that came out, he's only twelve." At the end, Donnell said, "You have to leave, we're responsible, release the dogs, lock the doors." I went over and said hello to Smoke. This was a very crankin' performance, especially with the full percussion playing.

Sunday at the studio
Night Flight Studio, Fort Washington, MD

Familiar Faces
I sat in with Familiar Faces at the studio to work on their upcoming album and possible PA as well. I first arrived at the originally scheduled time of noon. Night Flight is in the back of a house in a residential neighborhood - its owner is Kevin, formerly of the GoGo band Prophecy in his mother's home. I played pool with one of the employees, then waiting for a return call from Scotty Beats (the engineer FF was to work with); who told the manager Jeff that it was re-scheduled for 8 PM as D-Floyd had to work. I left and came back a little before 8 PM (I did see at home that FF had emailed me about the re-scheduling, but I had already left by that time).

I could see FF's equipment minivan already parked there. I walked around back and Bojack, Thomas, and Googie sat there with Bojack's congas and Bongos set up in their stands. Bojack asked me about where in Bethesda I am from and what other GoGo bands are my favorites. I told him Trouble Funk and that I had seen them last weekend. Thomas had three cell phones and a two-way radio. Bojack talked about how his Mercedes was in the shop. They discussed how the second percussionist at Reggie's, Charlie, is a protege of Bojack's. Bojack held a cowbell, insisting that he could play a beat with just the cowbell (and drum stick), but Googie said without another beat to match it with that it was "Just noise". Scotty came back and told us the current session was running long, the FF session wouldn't start until 9 PM.

Googie had somewhere to go, all three of them got up and walked out: Bojack didn't leave, but the other two did. At one point I went back to my car to get cough drops (I had literally coughed myself to sleep after getting home from Reggie's) and Bojack talked with Jauhar out front.

Donnell showed up later and talked with Scotty about (producer) Rich Harrison's hit songs with major label artists that feature GoGo beats. Rich Harrison is from DC and is Scotty's cousin, Scotty engineers for him. At one point, Scotty asked Donnell if he thought Rich might have heard a specific GoGo song as inspiration for the GoGo-featured song Take Your Hand on Usher's album "Confessions". Donnell responded, "Did Jay-Z hear Overnight Scenario?" (This is a reference to Jay-Z's sampling of the song for the song Do It Again (Put Your Hands Up) from the album Life and Times of S. Carter, see here for more details). Later, Donnell referred to this as how they get big and keep us (GoGo bands) in the "poorhouse".

We finally got in at around 9 PM. I used my Dad's DV video camera, but the battery, which was supposed to last three hours, died in a little over four minutes and he didn't leave me an A/C converter, so I used the other digital camera I have been using for the rest of the session - I took a few stills and a number of movies. We were in the Platinum Room (there is also a Green Room at Night Flight). There is a mixing board along with a MacIntosh computer system. The software used is Pro Tools HD - Scotty said that the HD version allows you to create a warm sound.

Scotty, Donnell, Bojack, Jauhar and myself were in the studio. In a discussion with Jauhar, Donnell had said he was surprised after reading an interview of Marc Cary, about just how smart he was.

Today's sessions focused on mixing/editing the live recording from Wednesday. FF's album, which Donnell said with work on the packaging and all should drop in the top of September, has been worked on for two years. Mike and Adia will overdub their vocals on the studio tracks on Monday to reflect the changes in personnel since the tracks were originally laid down. In addition three tracks from the live recording will be included on the album, and Donnell is considering including the entire live performance (Scotty was present and working the sound at the performance) as a bonus with the album.

Bojack was not present at the recorded performance, so he was here play the congas and bongos for overdubbing onto the the live mix. Apparently Dwayne had a bad cord, since his feed went in and out on the recording. It turns out that BJ played the grand piano on Wednesday because his keyboard did not work. Scotty and Donnell had a conversation about it. BJ said the Ensoniq ASR-10 (which belongs to Familiar Faces, not BJ) worked properly at home, but did not function at Tuesday's rehearsal. Donnell told him to bring the Yamaha keyboard which works, but he ended up bringing the Ensoniq on Wednesday, and it did not work. Scotty said that they don't make or even REPAIR that model anymore; he suggested that BJ come by and copy his sounds on to Scotty's ASR-10, which he can then transfer to a sampler to preserve them in case the ASR-10 ceases functioning altogether. BJ also played the mini-moog on Wednesday, but for some reason it was not recorded. Also, Donnell's tenor Sax had squeaked during Wednesday's performance- he talked about how he was so angry, he wanted to break it in half. So Scotty edited to remove some of that as well.

Jauhar left and later Nephew and Mike came in. Mike only stayed for a little while - I guess he was there in case he would be recorded in that session, but it did not happen.

When Nephew came in, he wanted Donnell to settle an argument he had had earlier in the day with some girl over whether Patti Labelle is a better singer than Chaka Khan. Donnell said that he had this discussion with the late Ms. Mack (Rare Essence's manager) years ago. She had said that you can't really compare Patti, Chaka, and Aretha Franklin. They come from different musical backgrounds (Gospel, Jazz and R&B) and are so good at what they do respectively that you can't really rank them. Donnell said that Whitney Houston and Beyonce (Knowles). Nephew said that prior to Beyonce's solo album (Dangerously in Love); he didn't know she could sing. Donnell said people just see her as hot and don't realize she has real talent. They turned to Scotty to settle it. He said that Beyonce really is talented in that vein, although she has to "create power", but that she is very talented. However, he said someone who will blow up is Fantasia (Barrino) from American Idol. He said that he's never seen American Idol, but that he heard her on in his hotel room in New York and that her singing so affected him that he cried. Donnell also talked about Lalah Hathaway, the singer and daughter of DC native singer Donny Hathaway. Scotty talked about how Donny met Roberta Flack at Howard University. Donny was an undergraduate and Roberta a grad student. Donny would play the piano and sing outside and that caught Roberta's attention. Shortly after this conversation, Nephew went to sleep and slept until the end of the session.

Donnell told Scotty that Adia "Would be a star for this market, she has the personality, she just needs to work on her intonation."

Googie came in later and assisted on the mixing - Donnell said, "Googie help Scotty, he doesn't know anything about GoGo." As soon as Bojack finished, he left. While working on this, a number of musical discussions went on. Bojack thought Saturday's performance at Reggie's was terrible. Donnell said that "Bojack just hears what's going on around the congos, he doesn't hear what the audience hears in total." I told him I thought it was really crankin', but that I still thought that Club Levels was their best performance this summer. Donnell said that he hated it. He also told me that while it appeared that Go-Go Mickey just happened to be there (which is what I thought), it was pre-arranged, that "He was paid to be there and you can print that." (It makes me wonder how many other of the sit-in performances by other artists are pre-arranged vs. happenstance). He said that it was like "Michael Jordan with a bunch of senior citizens. Go-Go Mickey is so talented and dominating, he is a like an octopus, with his hands a thousand places at once."

I talked about how Rare Essence is releasing a live album with DVD on August 3rd. He was well aware of it and said that "It was a mistake." I asked him why and he said that "Rare Essence is a group known for its innovation and original songs, and that for them at their high level to do covers unless they do it at the highest level (in terms of quality music) will lower them in terms of prestige in the eyes of GoGo fans." He went on to say that "L!ssen does the best covers." He did say that he heard the RE album and DVD was good. I mentioned how I heard L!ssen was reverting back to more GoGo, Googie asked Donnell about that because he hadn't heard about it. Donnell said that "L!ssen had been doing 70% covers and 30% GoGo and now there reversing the ratio." He said, "That was a mistake too."

I asked why Familiar Faces had only put out one PA release this year (and only six total the previous three years); Donnell said, "That with the care that Backyard and Rare Essence have taken with their PA releases, it has really raised the bar on quality. This makes substandard releases highly noticeable. Old PA's have had fights and other things that aren't being included now."

Donnell and Scotty also talked about other studios in the area, Cue, Central Recording Studio (Bladensburg, MD) and Sheffield. Cue offered to buy any equipment/software required by Scotty as an incentive to try to keep his cousin, producer Rich Harrison, as a client. He asked for Pro Tools HD, and they declined (I can't print why here). Donnell talked about how Rare Essence had used the studio before with another engineer known as "Face".

They discussed of how studio speakers "lie" - that the recordings sound differently in regular speakers. Donnell talked about how they recorded eighteen different mixes of Lock It - they would go to the one band member's Saab in order to listen to it, but later it would sound differently. It turns out the band member had tuned his car stereo so that it would sound like the studio's stereo, thus defeating the purpose.

They only got through the mixing the Jazz set of the recording, so we all left at a little before 3 AM. Scotty arranged a time with Googie for Monday to resume working on the mixing and Mike & Adia's overdubs.

Saturday at Reggie's
Reggie's Sports Kafe, 4881 Glen Dale Rd, Bowie, MD 20720

Reggie's is fairly close to Safari Steakhouse. I arrived a little after 10 PM. The support staff was setting up - they had to move the two stacks of three speakers as the bottoms of the hanging lamps were below the tops of the stacks. There was a really thick audio cord.

Elevation Band
Elevation Band's members showed up at about 11:15 PM. One of the vocalists, Chi Ali, came over and introduced himself to me. Their female vocalist was in a really bad mood sitting at the table by me (since their lead talker had only recently been murdered, I can understand that). She basically had to be persuaded to come on stage. One of Reggie's bartenders made them move the audio cord so that people would not trip over it before allowing Elevation to start performing. While they warmed up, there was a lot of distortion. While the distortion was gone when they started playing, the one audio guy worked on the audio (and standing in the middle of the band) during their entire set. Their line up featured four vocalists (one female), a guitarist (who played behind the right speaker with his back to the audience), two keyboard players (each with two keyboards), a drummer (who was shirtless) and a percussionist. Most of the members of Familiar Faces arrived during their set; Chi Ali did a shout to D-Floyd as soon as he saw him walk in. Adia walked up and handed her tambourine to Chi Ali. Ali appeared to have his eyes completely shut at times when he spoke. They were pretty crankin'. All of the band members appeared to be in their 20s. I did miss a little of their set when I went over to the buffet, which was almost completely gone anyway.

Familiar Faces
A lot of FF's regulars were there: DeeDee, Michelle, another one of the party goers from Thursday (whose name I don't know). Ron "Moe" Moten, the organizer of the cook out on the 27th, was there as well. Nephew said he was glad I had posted (Michael) Jordan's field goal percentage and that it was over 50% before he played for the Wizards. FF's line up was: Mike, Adia, Donnell, DP, Dwayne, Doc, Godfather, BJ, Pooh, Bojack, and Charlie. Bojack added bongos, congas and roto-toms to the equipment Elevation used and Pooh had some of his own snare drums and all his own cymbals. I recognized Charlie immediately as the second percussionist from the cookout, and went over to talk to him (that's how I know his name). The crowd really gathered for them - and they gave a really crankin' performance (Bojack and Charlie played in both sets) - up to their maximum crankin' level (although Club Levels is still their best performance I've been to this Summer). During the first set, Doc came up and sang lead vocals on one song. In the second set, a male guest danced behind the front line for a time. They performed in darkness until around 2:45 AM when all of the lights came on. They did a false ending, and then performed the rest of their closing tune, Terror Squad's Lean Back.

A friend of Donnell's named Tom-Tom asked for a copy of the tape of tonight's performance. Donnell said that Googie hadn't taped it, that Googie isn't the same Googie anymore, he used to drive the truck, carry the equipment, uncoil the wires, work the sound equipment and tape performances all at the same time. Tom-Tom said that Googie said he had a minidisc recording of the performance, to which Donnell said, "He's lying." Donnell suggested maybe Go-Go Nate or Go-Go Orlando (the pride of Charles County) could tape next time.

Another fan's description.

Thursday at Xcalibur
Xcalibur Restaurant & Lounge, 2519 Pennsylvania Av NW, Washington, DC 20500

When I arrived, Doc was the only member of Familiar Faces there; he worked on setting up the audio connections. The prerecorded music was Familiar Faces, but I didn't recognize it. Donnell asked Pooh if he needed a rug for his drum (there is always a tan rug inside the biggest drum in his kit).

Familiar Faces
There was a fairly sizable crowd for this performance, most of whom were here for a birthday party, including DeeDee. Allison was there as well. Familiar Faces started performing late, but largely it was because the party organizers didn't want them to start performing until the guest of honor arrived. They did some light improvising while waiting. The line up was: Mike, Donnell, Dwayne, Doc, BJ, and Pooh. The guest of honor was Ms. Holmes, Michelle's mother. Michelle probably organized it. I hadn't recognized her when she came in because she changed her hairdo. They called her up (front & center) for her favorite song. That started people dancing - she even tried to get me up. Clearly Donnell knew many of the party goers from the Holmes-Jackson families. Despite being without congas, BJ and Pooh provided a strong backbeat for this performance.

At the break, Greg the owner came and talked with me briefly, but he was distracted because he was concentrating on which speakers were playing the DJ music. I asked Donnell about the FF music that played when I walked in, he told me that it was a compilation they put out - a FF release I thought I didn't have. One of the guests asked Mike if he would sing any Frankie Beverly. Mike said that "Donnell doesn't like Frankie Beverly". Donnell said, "No, I like Frankie Beverly", to which Mike said, "You're just saying that." In the second Set, Donnell made fun of Keta (spelling?), saying that she really loved apple martinis. The party started dancing again - this time Michelle pulled me on to the dance floor much to the band's encouragement. Shortly later, Mike called her up to the mic - to sing the female part. Michelle at first just danced behind the mic, but also sang with the choruses before improving 50 Cent's In Da Club. The dancers formed two parallel lines with one solo dance in middle (switching off at times). Donnell said that he could tell that the Apple Martinis had hit Keta. Donnell also razzed Mookie, Shawnelle, and Andrea. Some of the women had a lot of flexibility - they would go into a crouch with their butt barely off the ground, then come right back up again. Later on, Donnell said that Keeta was crazy, even crazier than Michelle, who he thought was the craziest girl in DC. Mike did describe Michelle's dancing as "Like a tall (22 ounce), cool glass of water" (Michelle is tall). Mike compared one of the dancers to Luther, the dancer on Solid Gold who didn't dance, he only pointed. He also said that BJ looks like the original Lionel on the Jeffersons (actor Mike Evans who temporarily left to work on "Good Times") - I don't see any resemblance at all. At one point Mike imitated what he called the funniest scene in any movie ever, the "Sexual Chocolate" band scene from Coming to America. They did their usual closing song, Prince's Purple Rain. Then Mike said that "They had an unofficial contest - who is the most conservative - DeeDee wins, she didn't sing, dance or even sweat." Then they started performing again and briefly DeeDee danced with Mike, but when he tried to get her to sing, she ran away.

When they done, they broke down the equipment and waited to be paid, like last week. They cut the birthday cake (rather large, over three feet long by around 15" wide) and offered it around at this point.

Much of the conversation after that was on the merits of Kobe Bryant (who just that day had decided to re-sign with the Lakers) vs. Tracy McGrady and Michael Jordan. Donnell is a Kobe fan and Nephew argued with him, saying that Kobe will never win anything now and that now that Tracy McGrady is in the West, he will burn Kobe four times a year. Donnell kept repeating what other (than McGrady)superstar lost 19 games in row like the Orlando Magic did and he had even talked about quitting. Donnell also talked about how Kobe played great defense and McGrady played none. He also said that McGrady was like Dominique Wilkins, he scored a lot because he took a great amount of shots. While Donnell acknowledged that Kobe is a ball hog, he said so was Michael Jordan (whom he and I hate). Nephew said that that was because they ran the offense through him. Donnell countered that he took a tremendous amount of shots and Nephew said that MJ shot 50% for his career. Donnell wanted to bet on it, but Nephew backed down (It is close - 49.7%, compared to Kobe's 45.4%). Donnell went on about how Jordan had the ball taken away from him in the 1995 Eastern Conference finals, "raped, molested" in his words for the winning score and that Jordan didn't even chase after him. He told Pooh he was too young to remember (Pooh is 24). Nephew pointed out that Jordan only played 17 regular season games and the playoffs, Anderson said he did that to 45 (the post-retirement jersey number Jordan wore), he never would have done that to 23. Donnell also talked about the steal that was made into a commercial, when Iverson as a rookie took the ball and Jordan landed on the floor. Donnell then went on to defend the Shaq trade - Shaq was traded on Wednesday to the Miami Heat for Lamar Odom (a small forward), Caron Butler (a wing), Brian Grant (a power forward) and a first-round draft pick. Slava Medvedenko is the only center currently on the Lakers' roster. He and Grant would be mincemeat against the other teams in the Western Conference. Donnell talked about how the Bulls never had a real center (but did not play in the Western Conference, either). He also talked about how Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was not that great in the end of his career (he got the Lakers to the finals his last season and they would have been competitive if both Byron Scott and Magic Johnson hadn't been injured) and earlier. He pointed out that Kareem was out of Game 6 of the 1980 Finals and Magic Johnson scored 42 points for the win. I pointed out how Kareem would have been the Finals MVP but they didn't want to award it to a player who wasn't physically present at the final game (to present the trophy to). He tried to draw Doc, (like me) a longtime Laker fan, but Doc said, "All these guys have made millions of dollars, they aren't giving any of it to me, I don't care." Nephew said that "Shaq is 7'1" 360 pounds, who can contend with that?" Donnell said that Greg Ostertag is 7'1" 360. I said Ostertag couldn't even handle Eric Montross (in the 1993 NCAA final). Donnell said, "okay, Shaq is more athletic." Donnell also said that Shaq couldn't defend Tim Duncan, but Nephew and I pointed out that Duncan plays power forward, not center. DeeDee laughed through much of this discussion and at one point said something that fortunately I did not hear, since Mike said, "Watch out, everyone will be reading that tomorrow." She replied with "Yeah, I'll probably have to fight Charles' girlfriend" (a reference to comments by her at an earlier performance).

They then talked about their next gig at Reggie's on Saturday. Pooh asked if they were playing with Dynasty Band. Donnell said no, Elevation. I confirmed that I had already seen the flyer on PA Palace's board. The flyer is below. Pooh said that they really have to be on their game with Elevation.

I asked Nephew whose nephew he is, and he pointed to Donnell. He said, "It is good to have a boss who won't ask you to do anything he won't do." Donnell replied, "There is a method to my madness."

Live Recording Wednesday at Takoma Station
Takoma Station, 6914 4th St NW, Washington, DC 20012

I read Nephew's posting that this performance was going to be recorded for a live album. With that in mind, I not only took pictures, but short movies (in the second set) as well. I figured this would be a unique opportunity this summer. Unfortunately, doing this not only caused me not to be able to pay full attention to the music, but also made my thumbs and shoulders sore.


Godfather, Dwayne, BJ


Doc, Pooh, D-Floyd, DP, Godfather (behind DP), Dwayne


Packy, Adia, Doc, Mike, Pooh, D-Floyd, DP, Godfather
All pictures taken by and Copyright - Jordan Rich (Note: Pictures artificially brightened by flash, it was darker than it appears.)

When I arrived, I talked with Donnell about the upcoming studio sessions. The Lieutenant was there and said hello. Doc and I discussed the Trouble Funk performance I attended on Saturday; he wondered why they don't play now and then in DC. I talked with Doc for a while about musical direction of a number of GoGo groups including Familiar Faces. He talked about how L!ssen is reverting back to (regular?) GoGo from their Neo-Soul R&B stance. Doc said he couldn't understand why they felt the need to change from what is working. He said he wasn't aware of any original songs they had, I told him about Sunshine, which came out together with a DVD (which is a documentary of L!ssen). I also told him about how Rare Essence has a live DVD & CD coming out on August 3. I told him how I will pick it up so that I can compare it to Familiar Faces. He said they have a totally different sound, that with D-Floyd, people are used to him "Trying to bring down the house in DC", whereas Familiar Faces has more of a laid back Jazzy feel to it. He said he wasn't sure how to label/categorize FF. I suggested Neo-Soul Jazz (covers) and Rare Essence songs. He reiterated to me that he isn't sure where Familiar Faces is going. We talked about FF's upcoming album, which is part studio and part live (tonight's performance). Doc said it will be interesting how the studio album comes out. It will have original material, some of the tracks have been in the can with different (previous) personnel from 911 - he said the older material is too valuable not to use.

The performance started a little late because they had to be more conscientious about making sure all of the mics and the sound were what they should be. Papers were on the floor next to the drum kit that I assume were recording contracts for the album. This performance had BJ on grand piano - the first use of the piano I've seen this summer by them. It turns out that this was because his Ensoniq ASR-10 was not working; see here for more details on this and other aspects of this performance. Other than the set-up, I was impressed by that the fact that they were recording did not make them act differently than other live performances.

Familiar Faces
The line up tonight for the first set was: Mike, Adia, D-Floyd, DP, Dwayne, Doc, Pooh, Godfather, and BJ on Mini-Moog and Piano. A guy named D-Bone came over and told me he is working with FF, promoting them and that he would be interested in my pictures. In the second set, Packy played percussion together with a guest percussionist, Demetrius Owens. Allison, the girl from the last Safari Steakhouse performance danced front and center. It was a good performance, but unfortunately I was distracted by the taking movies. They closed as usual with Prince's Purple Rain. The only joning by Donnell was when he asked two girls if they worked with "Luther's janitorial service."

After the performance, I talked to Demetrius (that's how I got his name). He told me that Ricky Wellman was his uncle and asked me if I knew who he was. I said of course, he was the drummer for Chuck Brown and Miles Davis (and is currently with Whop-N-Em). He said that Ricky performs (with Whop-N-Em) at Takoma Station on Tuesdays, that I should check him out. I then introduced myself to Marvyn "Blak" Johnson of One Fam Entertainment - he said he knew who I was from taking pictures and that he liked how I wrote about everything that happened in my blog write-ups.

See here for some of Mike's nicknames.

Junkyard Band / Beenie Man / Backyard Band / Trouble Funk at Mayo Island
Mayo Island Enterprises LC, 503 S 14th St Richmond, VA 23219

I figured this was my only chance to see Trouble Funk this summer, so it was worth the trip down to Richmond despite the 2+ hour drive each way. The parking was free. Unfortunately, cameras were not allowed. Many people came prepared with folding chairs - this is an outdoor venue on a grassy field with the performance area being a stage within a tent. They delayed letting us in the gates until around 5:40 PM. This event was only for those twenty-one and over, and they required IDs, which irked many of the people waiting to get in. I found the other people rather polite: two girls who set up their folding chairs in front of me deliberately set down their chairs in a way to minimize their obstruction of my view, even asking me. The performers were transported backstage (blocked off by security and police tape) by a short bus. Trouble Funk sold copies of their last official release, a live performance last year at Mayo Island (I of course already had a copy that I picked up at Showplace in Lanham, MD). The CDs came with a poster that announced they will shortly have a 25th Anniversary performance DVD/CD!

There was an MC; I believe he is a local (Richmond) comedian.

Junkyard Band
Junkyard performed first, with three vocalists (two men and a woman), a drummer and two percussionists (one at a time, but one came from playing the congas and more to playing strictly congas and was replaced by another percussionist) and I can't remember if there were one or two keyboards. This was my first time seeing all of them perform, as when I went to see them at the Mad Chef, the crowd as well as the dim lighting blocked my ability to see anyone other than the two male vocalists who sat on top of speakers right below the ceiling. Their performance was good, but they only performed a short set of around 30 minutes.

Beenie Man
After a short break, Beenie Man came on. The crowd was feeling it, but I wasn't. To be honest, pretty much the only Reggae artists I am really a fan of are Toots (whose music I can't get enough of!) and Bob Marley. I walked around a little during this set. People were real polite - when I ever I got up, no one took my spot. The reason he performed second was apparent in his closing words, he had to leave because he had a performance in Jamaica that night. His set was over 45 minutes.

Next came an hour long break with pre-recorded music with an additional MC. They hyped up the crowd by playing old school hits and having them sing along. The crowd grew noticeably big during the break; there were a lot more people there than during the first two sets. This was by the far the largest audience at a GoGo performance that I've attended - at least several hundred people. It was also the most diverse crowd of any of the GoGo performances I've been to this Summer.

Backyard Band
Backyard performed next. They had four vocalists (including Big G of course), a sax player, a trumpet player, two keyboards, a guitarist, a bass player, a drummer and a percussionist. They performed a crankin' long set. Clearly they got the best crowd response of the night. Big G talked about appearing in a film Divided City (by Bruce Brown, who earlier did Streetwise (aka 24/7), a movie also featuring GoGo musicians as actors) and in The Wire. They announced that their upcoming album, Hood Related 2 (two CDs like the first one) would soon be in stores. A number of people left after their performance. They performed again later that night at Club Neon.

Trouble Funk
Last was what I waited for: Trouble Funk. Their line up was four vocalists (not including Big Tony, who was on vocals and bass), a guitarist, a sax player, a trumpet player, three keyboard players, a drummer, and two percussionists (with two separate percussion kits - one with congas, timbales, and I think roto-toms, one just with a large set of roto-toms). Big Tony's voice is back. They opened with Welcome Back, the theme song to Welcome Back, Kotter. I believe the next song up was Andy's Groove, but I'll have to listen and confirm. After that came (Let's) Get Small. Then, on request, they performed two covers Juvenile's Slow Motion - at first Big Tony said, "No, we'll skip that", but then said, "Let's see" and then they hit it. The second cover was Usher's Yeah! During their set, a couple of girls tried to help me improve my dancing - one said, "Let me help you dance on the beat"; not likely to be improved in one set... Next they performed Pump Me Up. Then they performed a medley of Trouble Funk Express, Supergrit, Xavier's Work That Sucka to Death, and Don't Touch That Stereo. They closed with Drop The Bomb. They got the second best crowd response of the night - I loved every minute of it. They finished promptly at 11 PM. As everyone walked out, there was a CSX train traving on tracks above the back of the field.

There was an after-party at Secrets, 2001 East Franklin Street, Richmond, VA 23223. I did not attend since I had a long drive ahead of me.

Friday at Crystal City Hyatt
Hyatt Regency Crystal City, 2799 Jefferson Davis Hwy, Arlington, VA 22202

I left home at around 8 PM. I unfortunately was only able to find a parking space nine blocks away. I walked in, asked where the Allen Iverson event was, and went down the escalators. I talked with Cookie and one of the other Positive Black Men Coalition staffers. I noticed there was a group of ladies dressed like cheerleaders in matching white shirts and skirts and white sneakers. At the weapons check, they made me hand over my pen and told me I couldn't take my camera in. I walked back to my car to put it away.

As I walked out, I saw a guy who is one of Iverson's handlers, he said, "I hope they don't wait too long for him (Iverson), he won't show up until 1:30 (AM)". I assured him I was here for the band.

When I returned to the Hyatt, BJ was at the escalator. I asked him when Familiar Faces was performing he said some time after 12:30 AM. I was relieved that I didn't miss anything. I went through the weapons check again, and a group of girls were there, wearing white shirts with various sexually explicit messages printed on them. They were a group (later on I saw that their shirts had messages on the back as well as the front).

It wasn't until 9:40 that I actually got in to the floor that the activities were at. When I got to the bottom floor, I asked where the events were occuring; a woman pointed out the VIP room and the performance area. Another guy asked me if I was from ESPN (I have no idea where that came from) and if I was chased (because I was sweating from walking 18 blocks). A (stenciled) image was projected against one wall showing the PMBC and the other co-sponsor, Nothing But Attitude.

I sat down at a table in the performance area (I saw Packy & Thomas setting up) and checked it out while soaking in the cool air conditioning. There were two areas for GoGo pictures and certain areas roped off specifically for the celebrities. Tables and chairs were on either side of the dance floor. DeeDee told me that food was supposed to be served soon in the VIP room.

I went over there and sat down by members of Familiar Faces. I spent a long time talking to BJ, Doc, Dwayne, and Packy. A girl from VH-1 and a producer talked with BJ, Doc and Dwayne. Dwayne talked about how he's been playing music all his life; he's never had a job outside of music. He said that he makes his real money as an audio engineer, that he plays more for fun than money. (I am not certain of the exact order of our conversations, but I will include what I remember). They talked about how Junkyard Band has the best stage presence, but Packy said, "They just need a new drummer." Doc talked about how Y2K is the most versatile GoGo band, they can play well in any genre. He recommended that I check them out live some time this summer.

Doc and Dwayne also talked about the lack of direction in Familiar Faces, that the members are individually talented but don't have great chemistry together as a band (Doc had talked about that the night before with me as well). They both also said that when they were hired (Doc in October), they were told this was 911, but "Familiar Faces is not 911". But probably personnel differences is not the only way that "Familiar Faces is not 911." Dwayne asked Doc, "What is our direction?" Doc said, "I'm just a hired hand, I follow the guy next to me." Doc said, "We are doing a lot of Rare Essence songs."

We also talked about Trouble Funk - Doc had talked with me about them on Thursday. He said he had ordered Trouble Funk's "Live and Early Singles" from 2.13.61 (Henry Rollin's label). Packy talked about Trouble Funk's percussionist who played a "super tom". Doc said that was Mack, that he was dead. Doc talked about how Trouble Funk didn't get enough respect as trend setters, he asked me to tell him how the audience treats them on Saturday. Packy also talked about how he remember twenty years ago when "(Let's) Get Small" came out, he was five years old at the time and when they played it, everyone got down and danced.

Doc and Dwayne talked about how (non-DC) rappers didn't want to perform with GoGo bands, because the GoGo bands would outperform them. They talked in particular about an '83 performance at the Capital Centre with Trouble Funk and Kurtis Blow. Doc said that that's why Kurtis Blow then recorded with Trouble Funk I'm Chillin': if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. They agreed that GoGo bands don't think that way. They discussed whether there could be a main producer for GoGo, not just someone to mix an album, but do song selection and more work. They agreed that if GoGo were to go mainstream, it would change and not be GoGo as we know it. Dwayne also talked about how they (GoGo bands) are Blacklisted, that Rappers from outside DC hate DC and make fun of people from DC.

The cheerleaders came in - I had seen people having their picture taken with them. Dwayne suggested they may be selling a calendar as well. They put the food out at 11 PM and we all went and ate.

Miss DC sat at the table next to ours; she wore a formal red dress and her sash.

We saw Little Benny hanging out with Godfather. Doc said, "I know he's (Benny) not going to sit down with us. He must be performing with Soundproof Band." Dwayne said, "I'll call (James) Funk". Both Dwayne and Doc agreed that James Funk has the most ability to work the crowd of anyone in DC - that's why Chuck Brown hired him. Doc said that Funk could say that it would just be him performing and he would get a crowd to come. Dwayne talked about how the first time he had seen Rare Essence perform was at the Capital Centre and that Rare Essence was the closing band and that they were late coming from Baltimore. He said that people were sleeping but as soon as Funk started performing, everyone woke up immediately and started partying. They said that 80% of DC rappers imitate the style of Funk, that there are three rappers that are followed: Funk, Chuck Brown and Little Benny. Doc said that Funk really knows music, all genres, that's why he get along with the other radio personalities at his station who are in their 60s (Funk has to be in his 50s). Dwayne said the negative side of Funk was that people would consider him "a tyrant". Both he and Doc agreed that that's how all great band leaders are perceived, they know how they want everything to be. Dwayne talked about how Funk would even scrub down the microphone cords. He also talked about how when he first started working with Funk that he had moved to GoGo from R&B, so he wasn't aware of his stature. Funk set up all the equipment, then went to another room to let the band practice while he listened through the vent. He said Funk came in and asked, "Who changed the settings on the amp." Dwayne said he did, and DP went over and said, "Don't you know who that is; you don't mess with James Funk." Doc said, "He's the last of the clan that started Rare Essence." (His brother "Footz", the drummer was shot and killed on September 17, 1994, and his mother, the band's manager Ms. Mack, died of natural causes).

The Lieutenant was there, mostly chasing after Adia. He was drinking (alcohol) and talked about how he "would take the shortest route across the state line (to DC) that could, rather than risk the Virginia police." Speaking of drinks, there was a gimmick of putting a glowing green fake ice cube in our drinks. They were actually plastic cubes with a light inside.

Doc talked about the pain in his playing hand. Somehow the topic of hair and vanity came up - Doc said that he would just let nature take its course when he started to lose his hair.

Doc & Dwayne agreed that back in the day, Sugar Bear was not just the best bassist in GoGo, but in the East Coast. BJ, Dwayne, and Pooh work together in a Gospel GoGo band called Heaven Sent. Dwayne talked about how MVP was told for certain shows by promoters that Little Benny was not allowed to perform with them after fellow artists complained (out of jealousy).

After Soundproof's first set, Doc & Dwayne weren't sure if they had a second set or FF was supposed to go on. Packy asked them, and they said, "You're supposed to tell us, that's your job!" Packy left and came back and said that Little Benny hadn't performed with Soundproof in the first set, but would probably sit in on the second set.

Doc talked about how Tony Brown's (drummer for EU) son Anthony "Chief Rocka" Brown was killed after a show. Doc said, "I never want to have that feeling, you're not supposed to bury your kids, they're supposed to bury you."

Dwayne and Doc and I then talked about music and video trading and PAs. Doc talked about a concert video he had, Wattstax. I told him that it is coming out on DVD in a few months (September). I also told about a DVD out on Stax that has a bio of the Bar-Kays, called Soul Comes Home (I haven't picked it up yet, but plan to). Doc was impressed with my Funk research, he asked me, "How old are you, 50?" Hanging out and especially talking with the band (essentially backstage) was the best part of this night. I didn't meet any celebrities, but this was far better.

Soundproof Band
After they set up a DJ table in the VIP room, I decided to go to the performance area and check out Soundproof Band's second set. Unfortunately, the acoustics were horrible: the musicians were way behind the vocalists in the mix. When I first walked in the room, I could barely hear the musicians; I had to walk into the dance area directly in the path of the speaker's output to hear them. People were definitely into it (including Nephew and Donnell), dancing to them, but I wasn't feeling it. As DJ Kool would say, "The music ain't loud enuff..." They had four vocalists (two men and two women) in addition to Little Benny. I have forgotten the exact line up. I'm not hating on Soundproof, I really don't have an opinion on them until I hear them in a venue with better sound. I only caught part of their second set anyway.

During the break, Familiar Faces set up. A girl named Ebony (not the one who frequents Takoma Station) came by and introduced herself as a friend of Donnell and told me she had been reading my blog. She also introduced me to a (female) friend of hers (whom I recognized as a regular at FF performances), who gave me an awkward smile (understandable since she had no idea who I was). DP came over to say hello, he said, "A big show, I hope we do well." This was a big show; the crowd was much larger than at Safari Steakhouse, which is their normal biggest audience.

Familiar Faces
Most of the members of FF wore black. They had a special set up - they did an opening skit with Adia and Mike sitting on a white bench with a black curtain behind them (the rest of the band and their instruments were hidden). There was also a smoke machine. In the skit Mike told Adia "He was still in love with her". She said, "You waited until the night before the wedding to tell me?" and walked off the stage. This was the lead-in to Mike singing solo a love song with the (hidden) band playing behind him. Then they wrapped up the curtains. The line up was: Adia, Mike, Donnell, DP, Dwayne, Doc, Pooh, Bojack, a second percussionist (not sure who), Godfather and BJ. While clearly still the sound from the congas was behind where I would like it, the sound in general was good and they cranked. They performed one long set. It was obvious that a number of people were in attendance to star-gaze, as when the celebrities left the performance area, a majority of the crowd left as well (presumably to the VIP room), although I did see some of the bodyguards dancing on the dance floor after that. The lights came on and they finished with Prince's Purple Rain, with Dwayne playing a great solo. That's what I had been missing from him - he doesn't solo nearly as much as Boolah.

When they finished performing at around 2:45 AM, sheriff's deputies escorted everyone not in the band out (not just out of the room, but to the floor above) including me. So, if there were any post-performance remarks, I was not there to hear them. Unlike at the Mad Chef, I was able to retrieve my pen (they're expensive). As I walked out, a guy asked me if I saw the players (the celebrity athletes), I told him I saw Iverson and I heard that Lebron James was there (announced by the DJ during the break). He said that Tracy McGrady, Randy Moss, and Tim Thomas were also there.

Thursday at Xcalibur
Xcalibur Restaurant & Lounge, 2519 Pennsylvania Av NW, Washington, DC 20500

Tonight I left as early as last time, but did not get lost and parked right by the Xcalibur, so I arrived real early. That was good because it gave me a chance to talk with the band members, particularly Doc. Donnell worked on setting up the audio equipment. He said, "With Googie not here, I am the only one who knows how to do this." Doc said, "You have no idea what I can do." Doc came over and asked me if I knew IzReal "Izzy" Wright. I said that "I don't, who is he?" He told me that he has a studio in Waldorf (MD) and that he works with Ras Lidj.

Ras Lidj
He said that Izzy had told him about my website and that my assumption was incorrect: Physical Wunders has not broken up, that they (nine members strong) still perform twice a month on a circuit "Like a chitlin circuit" mostly in non-traditional GoGo venues in Virginia. I told him also that he (Doc) had emailed me a few years ago to correct my discography. (I really need to do a major update at some point soon.) He said that Physical Wunders put out nine records, three of them albums, the rest singles. Then he left me to eat (I had a delicious crab cake sandwich).

I thought for a moment about what Doc had said - I had emailed Sean Wright who must be Izreal; I had gotten his email address from the Washington Post MP3 website on Ras Lidj. I had looked up the site because a girl posted on TMOTTGOGO that she really liked Ras Lidj when he sat in with Familiar Faces at Takoma Station, but Donnell had called him Reggae Ray (which Doc told me he used to go by), but Kato had said that he was Ras Lidj. He said yeah, he had gotten Ras Lidj into performing with Physical Wunders. Doc went further to discuss how Sugar Bear of EU gotten him into the business in the 70s, that he had been performing for 28 years. He discussed an opportunity to tour with Ginuwine (real name Elgin Baylor Lumpkin, who had started off singing with Physical Wunders) that he declined because he is married with kids and has a good job. I told him about Rhino's handy man, who was a drummer that Dweezil Zappa tried to recruit, turned down that offer for the more steady paycheck. He recommended other musicians, and the touring band ended up breaking up, justified his caution.

Doc talked about how Physical Wunders had opened for 50 Cent and that when 50 Cent came out, there were eighteen guys wearing identical outfits including bulletproof vests and that it wasn't until he started rapping that you could tell which one was 50 Cent. This was because someone was out to get 50 Cent at the time.

Doc said that there are a lot of GoGo bands with a lot of talented members, but without the chemistry that makes great bands. He said that chemistry is more important than all of the members being really talented, for instance Earth, Wind & Fire is a great band, but not everyone was really good. I told him how after their second album, Maurice White fired most of the band, and then the new EWF made it big. He talked about how not enough GoGo groups had their own definitive sound - Backyard Band, Junkyard Band, EU, Trouble Funk, Rare Essence and Chuck Brown are trend setters. He said in he believes Junkyard Band is the quintessential GoGo band. He said that a lot of young people forget that Trouble Funk started the roto-tom sound, and that Rare Essence ran with it, but Trouble Funk started it. He played a Trouble Funk tape and his son said, "They stole that from Backyard", but Doc corrected him. I told him how Duane Face had told me he didn't have any Trouble Funk records. I told Doc how I am planning to see them on Saturday at Mayo Island, Richmond. I told him how their latest official release, Unplugged Live at Mayo Island which was recorded last year, but released this year, has crankin' music, but (Big) Tony's voice is gone. He said Little Benny's voice is basically gone, but he gets by anyway. He said he needed to get the Trouble Funk compilation listed on my website with all of the big hits (except for Arcade Funk); I told him it is on Amazon. He also said that early Northeast Groovers best continued Trouble Funk's roto-tom sound.

Doc talked about how it is a shame that GoGo bands don't support each other enough that rappers will hate one another personally, but tour together if it means money. He said that bands that leave (the DC area) have a tough time getting back the local respect when they come back, that it took EU a long time to come back. He said a lot of groups go through different membership changes, that Andre ("Whiteboy" Johnson - the guitarist and now leader) was the only member of Rare Essence still with them, that he remembered Rare Essence before Donnell was a member. I mentioned how someone on the PA Palace board said that Rare Essence is the Temptations of GoGo, to which Doc agreed, he said "Go-Go Mickey could leave and his replacement would be really popular, definitely not as talented, but as popular". He said that it is unfortunate that pretty much all of the members of Familiar Faces have other projects going on, that whenever one guy leaves and either comes back or is replaced, that it takes time to get back "Up the pyramid". He talked about how Ms. Mack told Rare Essence that they shouldn't leave (DC) that they were making plenty of money in DC.

Doc said he isn't a hater, that L!ssen has something going, if they make it, he will wish them well. He also told me that he studied the history of successful Funk bands such as Earth Wind and Fire and the Bar-Kays to see what they did to be successful (Doc, if you read this, here is Larry Dodson's email address larrydod@juno.com from the latest Bar-Kays album). Then I went back to eat my sandwich.

Unfortunately, very few people were in the audience. Donnell mentioned he didn't have time to call anyone (it is an invite only audience for men); he said he knew Bojack wouldn't come. Donnell asked me about the photo of Doc on this blog that his son told him about (it was actually only linked to in an earlier post, but here it is):

BJ talked about how he has a picture from 1985 of Doc with a glass bass. Doc also mentioned that he wore leather pants in that picture as well.

Donnell talked about how funny some of my descriptions are, particularly the note about Rayful Edmonds. I told him how I added a Sax picture to last night's description based on his friend confusing the Soprano Sax with a Clarinet. He said that family members were telling him that he should say things like "He's seeing Michelle" (see here, but Donnell said his response was "They're just jokes."

Familiar Faces
The line up was: Mike Muse, D-Floyd, BJ, Pooh (with a different drum kit than he normally uses), Doc, and Dwayne Lee. This time at the Xcalibur, they had two front line mics, and Donnell did the audio set up. The pre-recorded music they played while FF was not performing was different from at other of their performances - it was dance techno - ugh! They started out instrumentally, and then Mike joined in. I was tired and started to fall asleep a bit in the first set.

The Lieutenant showed up during the break and said hello.

During the second set, the audience and band members were distracted as the TV above them was showing Dancing with Divas: A G-String Special, which is apparently an HBO series about strippers that shows all. While singing Marvin Gaye's I Want You, Mike turned to the TV and said, "I have to take a five minute break to watch this. I didn't turn this on, but whoever did read my mind. I know nobody with pay attention to us for the next ten minutes." Shortly after, he resumed singing. During the second set, both Nephew and girl in the audience were sleeping (not because of the music, I can assure you), at one point, Mike dedicated a song to DeeDee of the Positive Black Men Coalition because she was the only woman awake. Before performing their last song, Donnell kidded, "Here's a song we came up with in 1982", Mike responded "1984", of course it was Prince's Purple Rain. Donnell said he didn't like Prince: Mike said you don't have to like him, but you do have to respect him. Donnell started singing Raspberry Beret, and went on about how his favorite Prince song was about where his friend went off to war on the album, Around the World in a Day. Donnell said that he thought the same about Rick James and he went over the skit on the Dave Chappelle Show. Donnell heard that George Clinton (who had performed with them (either RE or 911/FF) at some point somewhat recently) got thrown off a plane for smelling too bad, that he never takes baths anymore if he ever did. A long musical discussion ensued as well as a discussion of humorous stories which resulted from Donnell challenging Pooh on having been a minor league baseball player for the Chicago Cubs organization. DeeDee asked Pooh how old he was, that "He looked sixteen". He said "Twenty-four". Mike responded to Pooh that he had a cousin who played minor league baseball. The result of this discussion was that Donnell said, "That's what I miss about Rare Essence, that they would tell lies and each member would top them."

Mike talked about how it took longer for him than a musician to memorize songs, but was easier for musicians. Donnell said, "Don't you mean musician" (singular) - a jab at BJ. BJ said, "You think yours are the only songs I have to memorize; another guy wants me to know twenty-eight songs." Donnell asked "Rahsaan?" - BJ tours with Rahsaan Patterson. Donnell talked about a show at the Warner Theatre with Rahsaan and Rachelle Ferrell (wasn't sure of the last name, just a stab in the dark based on looking at Allmusic.com), how if she were playing in his living room, he'd be in his bedroom watching M*A*S*H re-runs. My waiter (a Caucasian guy with dark hair, dark glasses, black slacks and a gray collared shirt) said, "What you should have said is, if she were singing in my drive-way, I would go out if I had to take out the trash." DeeDee asked why he didn't like her and that Cookie didn't like her either, he said she made weird faces when she sang and sang obscure songs instead of her hits.

Mike Muse talked about how he really liked Steve Wonder's album, Fulfillingness First Finale, as well as the song, Girl Blue (from his 1972 Album Music of My Mind), which Mike said was a quintessential Neo-Soul song.

Donnell talked about liking India Arie until she started dating the midget (Musiq). Donnell debated with DeeDee over whether Musiq's song, Love (off the album Aijuswanaseing is about God (Donnell for, DeeDee against). She said that he said it wasn't in an interview, but Donnell and Nephew said that didn't mean anything, he could be lying. Donnell also talked about the merits of his song Halfcrazy from the album Juslisen.

Charles Smith had cancelled Saturday's date at Reggie's. Charles was a basketball player at Georgetown (graduated in '89) and played for the Boston Celtics before having his career ended when he hit someone driving drunk. They talked about Charles' girlfriend - BJ and Donnell said she was cute, but DeeDee said she couldn't get past her mole on her face. This led into a discussion of Steve McNair's (starting quarterback for the Tennessee Titans) drunk driving arrest video. He had been arrested in 2003, but the video became public last week. I told how the officers involved had taken home copies of the video. Donnell made fun of how McNair had said, "Don't you know who I am" and the cops said they knew who he was and cuffed him anyway. The video also shows him taking a breathalyzer and Pooh said you don't have to, "I would never agree to take a breathalyzer."

At one point DeeDee talked about her heritage of having a grand parent who was Filipino and a grand parent who was French-Canadian. Mike said in response, "French-Canadian, Cappuccino!" Nephew laughed real hard. DeeDee said, "Eric (the only time I've heard him addressed by his given name) what are you laughing so hard for?"

Bojack had said (at some point) that he and Go-Go Mickey were the best percussion duo, but Donnell said that Jungle Boogie and Dave could sing. Mike went on to talk about how Jungle Boogie would like his hands when he played the congas (even the drumsticks). Donnell said, "Remember when Dave Green went nuts? He was playing when all of a sudden he started kicking the congas. Donnell had asked 'what's wrong?' Dave Green responded, 'They killed Martin Luther King!' Donnell said, "This was in the 80s..." (probably 15-20 years after King's death).

Donnell talked about a fight BJ had with Whiteboy where BJ said, I'll be back, everyone got there stuff and split before he could return and in Donnell's words, "Go postal". He also mentioned how after Godfather was fired, he came back the next day walking with a limp (not real) walking with a cane, and they supposed that Godfather was going to hit Whiteboy with it (since he was known for hitting Jas Funk upside the head once).

At some point, Mike talked about how BJ doesn't sing - Donnell said he can't, except for when he sang the James Ingram part of the song Secret Garden (which featured a quartet of Ingram, Barry White, Al B Sure! and El Debarge) from the Quincy Jones album, Back on the Block But the funniest vocal they kept talking about with that song was Godfather doing the Barry White Part "Yeah, baby
I'll take good care of you
That's what a man is supposed to do
And I'll be there for you all the time
Let you hair down
Let me get you in the mood
(Come on, come on, come on, come on)
Come on, take me, take me with you". They kept talking about how he smoked a bunch of cigarettes and put his head back to sing in the low bass and that he hit it in the first performance, but not after. Someone asked why he did it, and Donnell said (Jas) Funk told him too, you don't turn him down. They said that Go-Go Mickey did sing the Al B Sure! part of that song. A further discussion on this occurred online here and a follow-up here.

They also talked about how on rare occasions, Godfather plays the Flugelhorn. They also talked about a members only meeting of Rare Essence where they voted to go against Ms. Mack, but that she was smart. When they told her about the vote, she cried and asked to see s a show of hands of who voted against her - Footz (her son) was in front and he showed his hand proudly, but no one else did (they chickened out) and that was the end of the mutiny.

They also talked about two vocalists singing, with one vocalist running off the stage during the song; why - because his teeth fell out! The also mentioned how during a song, the RE vocalist Lawrence humped the ground, BJ said he saw him do it another venue as well. Nephew also talked about Big G (of Backyard Band) had been in some movie recently (I discovered Saturday that it was Bruce Brown's Divided City) and that he had signed a multi-episode deal to appear on HBO's The Wire.

I talked a couple of times with Greg, the owner of Xcalibur, about my thesis, he was interested. I did miss some of FF's conversation when I talked with Greg (which is okay). The reason that I had this fortunate experience of getting to hear and participate in these post-performance conversations is that the band members waited to be paid. After Donnell obtained the fee, and divided up the cash, people started to leave, so I walked out. Doc and Dwayne were outside and asked me the URL of my site. I told them that Donnell had their money, so they went back in.

Another fan's description.