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

When I arrived, Jeff wore a formal blue shirt and striped tie. I asked him if he had an interview, he said he likes to dress up occasionally.

Donnell and BJ had an argument about what Perfect Pitch means.

I saw that Donnell had three saxes, including his soprano sax. I asked him about them, he said he had had the soprano fixed and he would play all three of them at once. I said like "Rahsaan Roland Kirk?" He was surprised I knew about him. He was a jazz artist who was known for doing that:


Before they started, I talked with Tim (LJ) and Angie. Angie asked why I chose to work with FF. I told her that I had been to the Chuck Brown Birthday performance on DVD and that 911's performance there was my favorite performance ever. I said that 911 and Trouble Funk were my two favorite groups and that Trouble Funk isn't performing anymore. Tim said that wasn't true, I said they aren't performing regularly, but I had seen them play last summer. He went on to tell me how he worked with Trouble doing security, and that he knew a lot more about them than Familiar Faces. I told him about Reo and Tee Bone filming the FF performance at Club Levels. Angie said she'd only been following GoGo for a year. I asked her what she'd been listening to previously, she said R&B and Gospel. I asked her if she followed Gospel GoGo. She said not really.

Nephew talked about my blog with me. He also said that the female back up singer Danni from Soundproof is Packy's cousin, and Yannie's cousin (who is also Packy's cousin). There was a young guy taking pictures, he's looking to sell them.

Familiar Faces
Mike was not here tonight, not surprising since he said at rehearsal that he had gotten over the flu, but not his head cold. The first set had a furious drum solo by Jammin' Jeff, where he even loosened his tie for a bit. Donnell did shout outs to guests from the Nation of Islam, FF is going to play before Louis Farrakhan speaks on Savior's Day Monday at the DC Armory. Donnell talked about when with Rare Essence, they would wait in line to hear Farrakhan speak "The Word". He also did a shout out to an activist who fights against violence in DC. Among the songs they performed in the first set were Alicia Keys' Diary, Toto's Georgy Porgy and their instrumental of John Legend's Prelude / Let's Get Lifted. Nephew told Doc and Dwayne about my characterization of Soundproof's lead talker at practice; they laughed and said they disagreed. Sharmba Mitchell was there.

The second set, they performed Destiny's Child's Soldier, Rare Essence's Body Moves, Jennifer Lopez's Get Right, Tom Browne's Funkin' for Jamaica, Terror Squad's Lean Back with Ebony guest rapping and Lap Dance. They closed with what has been their closing song: Sly and the Family Stone's Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin). I said hello to Michon before I left.