Tuesday at Rehearsal
Private location

Familiar Faces
I arrived shortly after Donnell and walked in with him. I brought my custom jacket to show Doc and Halima. Duane Face came in a little after. Donnell played a CD of requested songs for a wedding they will perform at next month. Duane showed his teeth - to show that his braces were off. He said he had to learn to eat again all over. He will be getting a retainer in two weeks. I discussed how after I would get my braces tightened, I could not eat solid foods for two days. I talked about the kiddie cabaret I was at the night before, Donnell said that's not a real kiddie cabaret - where you bring your kids. Duane said he had recently played in a jam session with BJ, Jammin' Jeff and a white guitarist from the DC Funk Squad. I identified the guitarist as Zachary Cutler, who is on a funk listserv I am on and who recently moved here from Oberlin in Ohio.

Doc, Bobby Smoot, and Halima arrived shortly afterward. Halima had changed her hairdo: the color was tan, and the size and shape were different. Donnell re-played the wedding CD for Halima since all three songs were female vocals. Jacques and Mike arrived. Donnell called Mike and Halima into a front line meeting. The rest of the band members went over their standard songs with Bobby Smoot. Godfather and his son arrived during this time and joined in. Later, Dwayne arrived. Still later DP came in, but went into the front line meeting. Nephew also came in. Finally, Lorenzo arrived: Duane put away his own keyboard and switched to playing congas (Jacques had long since moved to the drum kit). The standards they went over are as follows: Erykah Badu's Didn't Cha Know, Trillville's Some Cut, Faith Evans' Mesmerized, Ludacris' Number one Spot, Rare Essence's Geraldine, Rare Essence's Marinda, Fantasia's Free Yourself, Erykah Badu's Cleva, Mariah Carey's It's Like That, Prince's Take Me With You, Jill Scott's Whatever. They briefly called Halima out of the front line meeting to go over My Funny Valentine. Then everyone not in the front line meeting packed up. Cherone was there and said hello.