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


Doc, Pooh, D-Floyd, Godfather, DP


Pooh, DP, Godfather, BJ, Dwayne


Bojack, Adia, Doc, Mike, Pooh, D-Floyd, Godfather, DP, BJ


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

When I walked up, Nephew took covers, he told me he was doing well, but would rather not being taking covers.

Familiar Faces
The line up was Mike Muse, Adia, D-Floyd, DP, Dwayne Lee, Doc, Pooh, Bojack (second set only), Packy, Godfather and BJ. Prior to FF starting performing, a friend of Donnell's went up and asked him about his "clarinet" actually a straight Soprano Sax. Donnell laughed and said it was a Sax, Mike said it was actually black and white and painted gold... (Note: I knew that both of Donnell's Saxes are Saxes, but wasn't sure which was which, so I asked for an identifying picture to visually identify sax types - it is below).


The first set, their Jazz set, started off instrumentally, and then Adia and Mike joined in. During the set, Packy complemented, "Good job, Duane (or Dwayne)!" Donnell said, "Watch out we have two Duanes now" - Duane "Pooh" Payne, the drummer, and Dwayne Lee, the guitarist. When Mike started singing, he said, "Hey Hey Hey", which was the trademark line for the character Dwayne Nelson on the 70s sitcom What's Happening. (Side note: I met the late Fred "Rerun" Berry (from What's Happening) at Rhino's Retrofest in 1999; he was a founding member of an LA-based break dancing group. I didn't think with his physique that he would be capable of advanced moves, but he astonished me with both his moves and his flexibility.) DeeDee introduced me to Cookie, also from the Positive Black Men Coalition. I recognized her from Donnell's talking about/to her at Takoma Station before, but hadn't spoken with her.

During the second set, a blonde girl with short curly hair in a white sweater and blue jeans danced in an unusual manner that had my waitress (also blonde, with a black shirt and jeans) smirking in my direction. Donnell asked (are you from), "New York City?" She whispered to him he said, "Harlem, doing the Harlem Shake, I knew it before you told me." The second set cranked as usual, but there was a smaller crowd than usual. Donnell said Adia wouldn't be there on Thursday (Xcalibur). The ending was a little weird - Donnell said, "We're done except for one song" which was Prince's Purple Rain, their usual closing song - Mike had a particularly exuberant extended vocal solo. After that, Mike Muse started singing Bobby Caldwell's What You Won't Do for Love to keyboards with Donnell intentionally mumbling the words along with him (the horn riffs in that song always remind me of the theme song to Too Close for Comfort). They finished performing a little earlier than usual, and the lights didn't come one until after they were done. No joning tonight.