Tuesday at Rehearsal
Private Location

Familiar Faces
I arrived first, and then Donnell arrived in a red car. He said it's his snow car. I said I hope it doesn't snow, he said it's supposed to get warmer, but his Jag is in the shop. Usually they give him a rental, but he didn't have time. He went around trying to unlock rooms, but could not unlock the rooms other the rehearsal room unsuccessfully. DP arrived with his two sons and daughter. Packy came (I've never seen him at rehearsal before). Donnell had called him so he could see what backup equipment there was.

Duane Face talked about how didn't go on vacations - he was off for the week from his job. He said he doesn't go anywhere because he's been everywhere with his Mom. He said something about how he spends time reading. Donnell said to Duane, "I've heard about you on trips, scholar is not the word they used." Donnell also told Duane, "I heard you badmouthed Googie." He's referring to a thread, on TMOTTGoGo.Com on who is the best sound man in GoGo. In that thread Duane said the best sound man was the guy who had the 808 the whole night. I assume he's referring to a Roland TR-808 drum machine being prominently in the mix. Duane said he likes the sound of the 808. DP - said Darrin X played that, but you can't do that all night.

Yaquim (he's a regular, but I didn't get his name until the next night), a fan, came in. They couldn't get into the next room, so Yaquim pushed up a tile and climbed over the roof into the equipment room. Donnell said, "If you fall we can't get you because the door is locked."

Rah had been at the Wednesday and Saturday shows, and had influenced how Jammin' Jeff played. Jeff had a huge pack of drumsticks. Jeff said that he goes through a pack worth $70 of drumsticks a week. I asked him if it was worth it, he said, "I hope so." He and Doc had a long involved conversation about industry history. Doc recommended a manager to promote Northeast Groovers as they would be the next Trouble Funk. Waterdance was playing on the radio in Atlanta, they don't play GoGo there. Doc talked about how people didn't know how to successfully market GoGo, to convert live performances into sellable product. Doc said that P Diddy did the DC video shoot and performance with GoGo artists to keep up his street cred, not because he was interested in GoGo. EU tore up the concert headliner MC Hammer when MC Hammer was big. Doc wondered why Chuck Thompson produced a Chuck Brown record - the young people don't know Chuck Brown.

Everyone but Jacques and Smoke, plus two guys who organized the Myrtle Beach trip were there. Donnell joked that Mike couldn't go; there wasn't a hospital close enough (since he's been sick a lot lately). Mike said, "I'm a survivor." Mike said "I love you" to Adia, who said, "I love you too". I asked Mike why he wasn't there on Friday; he said he had gotten food poisoning on Wednesday that laid him out for four days. I told him about the Jesus thing that Donnell said at Safari. DP spent a while working on the Amerie's 1 Thing (at the same time as Doc & Jeff conversation). He had one of his sons get his Harmon mute. At one point, when working on rehearsing, Dwayne, frustrated, cursed. To which, Donnell said, "Obviously you don't have any children." (Obviously he hadn't noticed that he told Dwayne or Doc earlier in the evening in front of DP's kids, put your sh*t over there.)

I mentioned to Doc how everyone who plays with a Harmon mute sounds like Miles Davis. Doc said that's okay, that's the trumpet player he grew up on, would I prefer Herb Alpert. I said no (Miles is my favorite Jazz artist, and I haven't heard any of Alpert's music). I did mention how Herb Alpert co-founded A&M Records. Donnell jokingly referred to Doc as assistant manager. They re-went over a John Legend cover; Donnell played the PA from Wednesday and talked about what he didn't like.

Packy talked about What? Band's show on Monday that the first and second sets were completely different. Rah dominated the second set, the other front line members dominated the first set. They had a fight - even though the audience was small, a guy came right up to the mic, scared Rah, who played the congas and timbales for the next two songs. Originally that's what Rah did in Northeast Groovers, until he begged to get on the mic. Packy also talked about Shorty Corleone's band Heat, which included GoGo Mickey and someone else, a drummer who had been fired from Y2K. Heat is not a GoGo band. They opened for Y2K at Reggie's, it was ironic that the drummer was there (the promoter didn't realize the drummer for Heat had been fired by Y2K), they stole the show from Y2K.

The other band members suggested that Donnell should check every mic. Mike joked about how there was only $5 in his pay (since he had missed shows). Jauhar asked if Donnell had gone to the DC Armory for GoGo Live 2005. He said no, they never had asked him he wanted to perform; they just printed the flyer (which featured a picture of him playing the Sax) without asking him. Jauhar said Benny went and got $250. Donnell said that wasn't enough to condone that foolishness.

Jauhar had a conversation with Donnell and me over Gary Williams, he is a basher. Donnell acknowledged that Gary can't recruit, pointed out we won (the 2002 NCAA Championship) with only Wilcox as an NBA starter quality player.

Nephew sat on Adia's organizer and scarf, she left without the organizer. I talked with Donnell about setlists - identifying tracks.

Nephew said there sort of had been a fight on Friday, a guy bogarting, purposely bumping into people. The cops took him outside. He walked all the way around, threatened to get into more fights, obviously drunk, but nothing happed.

Donnell talked about the possibility of having a live recording at Studio 54. They would invite selected fans, record on 24 track, and be able to re-do mistakes. We talked about the NCAAs and Donnell asked why Charlie Villanueva doesn't even have eyebrows. I told him that he has a disease; Packy said his cousin has the same disease, Alopecia Areata. Nephew does promote Friday's; I knew he did promotions, but not promoting. Nephew forgot Adia's organizer in the room.