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.