PLUNKY & ONENESS: News & Journals

My Capital Jazz Super Cruise III

Day 1. 8:00 PM Saturday evening, October 10, 2009 aboard the Royal Caribbean Grandeur of the Seas for the Capital Jazz Super Cruise in my state room.

I have just returned to my room to rest a bit after seeing Jonathan Butler’s solo guitar performance where he was joined by trumpeter Rick Braun for singular duo concert in the atrium of the grand ocean liner with the sunlight filtering from above and the Chesapeake Bay streaming pass the glass walls. People were hanging over the railings five floors up, lounging about, taking pictures and taking it all in. I felt blessed and happy to be there to witness the scene. I realized I am finally underway and this is what it will be all about: participating in a wonderful relaxing happening, filled with music, scenic views and camaraderie. The audience already feels like family, knowing we are bonded in our love for music, culture and each other. I feel it. And I can feel that they feel it too. That’s why most have paid around $2,000 to come on aboard and spend this week sailing from Baltimore to the Bahamas and Key West, Florida; to listen, party and be baptized in the company of world class jazz and soul.

It seems like these last few days leading up to this have taken forever. They have been filled with preparation and the expenditure of energy making music and madness. We performed at the Martini Kitchen last night (Friday) for our bon voyage party. The club was packed with beautiful hometown people, most of who had come for their own reasons to celebrate. We jammed long and hard, sweating out the hits and making the room pulsate to the rhythms of the night.

We played until 1:30 AM, our usual ending time, but that seemed a really late hour considering we were to gather at my house at 6:30 AM to load up and drive to Baltimore. By the time I got home at 2:15 and puttered around, wound down and got to bed at 3:00
AM, I had only less than three hours of closed eyes rest before making the wake up calls to the band and doing that final bit of packing. Of course, I had way too much stuff to bring and manage: three saxophones, video camera, digital recorder, 200 CD’s, clothes, tennis racket, laptop, six musicians, their guests, five vehicles, boarding passes, passports, directions, headaches, worries and staying positive in the face of fatigue.

Before going to play the gig at the club last night I spent a couple of hours assembling CD box sets and shrink wrapping them to have them for sale on the cruise. At that time I lamented having even scheduled the club date on the night before the cruise. But in the end or the beginning, it had all worked out. We drove in our caravan at speeds of 80 – 90 mph up I-95 North, made it on time, got everything loaded in at the port and settled in on the ship along with the other musicians and tech people all before the noon arrival of the paying customers.

Now I am getting ready to go have a 9:00 PM sound check poolside on the top deck of the ship. We perform at noon tomorrow (Sunday) but since we are the first act in that setting, both we and the sound crew want to take advantage to the opportunity to tweak the system and get things right for our show.

12:47 AM Back in my stateroom
Tired as I don’t know what! At 9:00 PM we went up to poolside for our sound check. The sound system, the engineer and the whole tech crew is first rate and the equipment is state of the art. We worked on getting the mixes just right and had a mini rehearsal for about an hour. I think the sound was incredibly good, ringing out over the bay in the black of night. We drew a small crowd out to the pool to party to our sound check. I think it will be a hot show tomorrow. I think everybody in the band was satisfied and our crew of Jay, Jon and Al were on the case and happy to be along.

I came back to the room, changed clothes and went to see Najee in concert. He is a very special saxophonist who knows his music, plays modern changes and writes very smooth melodic compositions. I always enjoy listening to him. He was backed by Spur of the Moment band, instead of his regular touring group. Spur is an outstanding group who has lots of experience being a pro backup band. They nailed Najee’s music, but the show lacked pacing and the tightness that comes from the comfort and nuances of a working unit. But the show did have its high points though. One was when alto saxophonist Candi Dulfer came out to jam with Najee on a song. And another happened when Najee was getting people from the audience to sing on mike and this lady really nailed her part of the song. I mean she really sang! And it turned out to be Silver, who was formerly a member of the group Chic. And that’s one of the beauties of this cruise, once in a lifetime pairings or unique musical moments.

After the show I went to the casino and learned how to play Three Card Poker. At one point I was down $90 and I was on what would have been my last hand, I hit a straight flush that paid $250! After 30 minutes I was up $100 so I quit while I was ahead.

Then at midnight we went up to the club to hear Chuck Brown who was absolutely killing it! They were rocking that heavy go-go swing thing. After the first 10 minutes the whole place was partying like they wanted to prove something! The sound system was off the chain. The kick drum was thumping you in the chest. The whole group was grooving hard. And Chuck himself looked like he was really having the time of his life. As always. The music was a tremendous unifier. This older, largely black DC area crowd powered this big-assed ship right on down the Chesapeake Bay headed for the tropical zone. But it was already hot on this cruise, right where we are!

Day 2. Sunday morning 8:30 AM
I dreamed of my set and went over the repertoire for my show in my mind while the ocean gently rocked the boat. The dark drapes in the cabin did their job, covering the porthole window so thoroughly, I couldn’t tell when the sun rose. I got up and crept out of the darkness of my stateroom and went up to the top deck to be greeted by a partly cloudy, warm and humid morning. Joggers and other early risers did their thing while the sound crew was already busy readying the system for today’s music. I laid back on a deck chair to ponder the ocean and to write the song list for our concert at noon today. I think we’ll get a good crowd given that it will be the first music of the day and before the football games start; and everybody onboard will be up and about, and ready to do something outside on the first full day of cruising. I am confident that the band will be ready to rock the whole ship and the passengers will enjoy our show.

A little bit of yoga. Shower. Breakfast. And then it will be time to get ready to do what we have come on this cruise to do – funk it up.

7:15 PM Sunday after my show. In the club listening to Ken Ford.

My show this afternoon ended up being a grand occasion! The weather was around 79 degrees with enough humidity to make it feel hotter. Folks all kicked back in the deck chairs, in the pool and the hot tubs, leaning over the railings of the top deck and digging our funk jazz and go-go grooves.

It didn’t get off the best of starts however. After such a great sound check last night, when we kicked off the set there was an annoying glitch in the sound system that imitated the bass drum but in an off time, so it was hard make the go-go groove happen. I was almost distraught and I am sure it showed on my face. My son, Fire, even reminded me to smile. Once the engineer corrected the problem, it took me a while but I was finally able to relax and let the songs and the rhythms take me and the audience on an enjoyable excursion into music glory. We played for two solid hours non-stop and by the end we had turned it into a Plunky dance party! People jamming on the dance floor, sweating out the hits and converted into Plunky fans.

Afterwards, there was a line of folks who bought my CD. I signed autographs and took pictures with my new friends. After that, I would spend the afternoon chilling out on the decks, watching the Redskins football game (they lost!) and winding down from the show.

I got so many congratulations, accolades and compliments! I don’t think have ever had more positive feedback from any show I have done. In fact, it seems like everyone I run into has something nice or better to say. After several hours of repeated praises it is almost getting embarrassing. People genuinely were impressed or moved or converted; musicians, staff, crew, and mostly music lovers just gush their approval.

I think the feedback is also a result of being up close and personal, artist and audience together in confined space, all be it a large space. We are seeing each other repeatedly on the various decks, in the venues onboard, in the corridors, elevators and lounge areas. People are taking pictures and conversing with the musicians to a degree that isn’t normally possible when the performer might leave soon after the show. Here, we are all in the same boat and interacting is the norm.

Day 3. Monday morning 9:00 AM

Last night at dinner and beyond I was still meeting people who wanted to take photos with me and asking me questions about why they haven’t heard more about me in the past and getting my autograph.

I spent the late afternoon and early evening roaming about, lounging about, watching a rainbow sail by and glancing at a glorious sunset.

After dinner I went to the casino and then I went to see Kem in concert. He was quite the consummate smooth crooner with a polished demeanor, a confident stage presence and a really good band. I stayed for the whole show and was quite impressed with his songwriting and his dynamic presentation of new material.

After that show I went to the midnight jam session led by saxophonist Mike Phillips. It was a slamming affair with Mike calling various musicians to the stage. The audience was packed into the club setting, listening and rocking to the likes of Candi Dulfer, Joey Somerville, Brian Culbertson, Prince band alumni, two outstanding trombonists and saxophonists who played unbelievable ornate improvisations and combinations. When Mike called Chuck Brown’s drummer to the bandstand the dance floor filled up and after a brief stint out there with the crowd I left to get some rest.

But I didn’t get much. I got up early this morning to go up to top deck, get some juice, use the Internet and get my day started. I am still tired from this weekend and I hope I’ll catch up on rest this week…

END PART I ///

Day 3. Tuesday, October 13, 9:00 AM in my cabin.

There may not be that much to blog about for the rest of the week. We don’t have to perform again, so for me this will be a vacation cruise, now docked in Nassau Bahamas, then on to Key West Florida and finally back to Baltimore. I have finished my work portion of the week, though I have told the band that we will take some group photos to try and get a new promo shot of the group.

The band members are enjoying themselves. The music, entertainment and scenery have been really special. We had a group meeting to discuss the show and the business of this cruise and I think we shared several good ideas on improving the preparation and flow of our concert shows. They want fewer surprises in the repertoire for concerts and big shows. They suggest a strong opening fanfare groove to introduce me. I have got to remember to not let any distresses show on my face and to keep entertaining even when things go awry. We want to use more dynamics and contrasts in volumes of the songs. All good suggestions.

Yesterday we docked at Coco Cay, a private little island owned by Royal Caribbean Cruise line, where we swam, lounged about, and had a beach party. When we got back to the ship we went to see Spur of the Moment perform in the club. They are DC’s finest urban jazz band and they were at their tightest last night. The placed was packed and the people were right in the groove with the groove. Chuck Brown even came out and did a number with them. The crowd went wild.

After that show we went to the comedy show and were thoroughly entertained by AJ Jamal and Jay Lamont. AJ Jamal went on second and he was very funny, but Jay Lamont was absolutely the perfect act for this cruise because most of his show was performing parodies of songs, imitating soul & jazz stars and talking about the impact of our music on our lives. He was so funny! The audience roared its approval and stayed in stitches the whole hour he was on. Now I know why people say, “side splitting” because I laughed so hard I had a pain in my left side. He nailed his impressions, sound effects, and had a great repertoire. He was a riot. And his impersonation of President Barack Obama was the best I’ve seen.

Later I played three-card poker in the casino; walked outside on deck five and then went to bed around 2:00 AM. Now this morning I’ll go have breakfast, exercise and go out into Nassau.

9:30 PM Back in my stateroom.

I got up this morning, had breakfast and then went out into Nassau. We got a tour drive around the capital city of 200,000 seeing the sights, getting historical information and sampling local cuisine. After visiting the Paradise Resort and its casino I came back onboard in time for the 4:00 PM poolside sail away party featuring War.

I decided to watch the show from the hot tub. Wow, what a scene: hundreds of music lovers partying poolside to War’s greatest hits. They played “Cisco Kid,” “All Day Music,” “The World Is A Ghetto,” “Slipping Into Darkness,” and so many others of their hits. People were dancing, singing along and whooping it up! The sound system was loud and clear, the band was jamming and the weather was almost perfect. Everybody seemed aware of the beauty of the setting and the conditions. Then after thirty minutes of the music reverberating all over the harbor, our Grandeur of the Seas cruised out of the harbor and on out to sea with the music pumping.

I was in the hot tub with several people including Jonathan Butler, and danced and waved and sang along loudly. There were three other hot tubs, a large pool, a surrounding balcony and people everywhere. Rich Braun, who got his start with War when he was right out of college, played with the group for the entire set. Candi Dulfer sat in as the first of a string of other great players who jammed with the group. War played for two hours, non-stop and the party didn’t stop until the music did.

Day 4. 8:00 AM in the Windjammer dining area looking out to sea.
There is just something about the sea. Maybe its vastness symbolizes our small place in the universe and dwarfs our sense of self. But at the same time, looking out over the ocean gives us a perspective of limitless possibilities.

We are now headed to Key West. We should get there in a couple of hours and stay docked there all day. This gives us a chance to be back in the USA for a while. Hopefully our cell phones won’t be in the roaming mode and things will be most familiar. One of the great things about international travel is seeing things, including your self and your culture from a different perspective. Another good thing is appreciating what you have at home, even as you want to continually work to change it and yourself for the better.

Looking through the wall of windows of the casual dining area called the Windjammer the ocean drifts by under a mostly sunny sky. The few clouds give depth to the panoramic view that spans from the farthest left across the endless horizon directly in front to the widest right. The morning sunlight filters through one the clouds brave enough to try to block the rays of our nearest star. A way off in the distance another ship passes as a tiny silhouette beneath its own set of clouds. But the ocean is an endless dark blue carpet beneath our very large ship. We float on the surface unconcerned about the 7,000 feet of water under it.

At the elevator I met a couple that I have gotten to know by sight and the woman says, “You know, Plunky, your are about the friendliest star on this boat! Some of the rest of them act kind of stuck up and stuff.” And I responded “Oh, that’s probably because they are just not used to being around their fans for such a long time and they are used to their privacy.” And she said, “Oh well, I cut them some slack then.”

A couple of things about that little exchange are interesting to me about me. I don’t think of myself as being a star or as being friendly. From my perspective I am a musician putting my music and my views out there from the stage and on recordings. But I don’t see me as a star; but I can see how someone seeing me from afar might. I am on stage, under the bright lights, with my sound and voice being amplified a hundred fold until they ring out filling the whole space and commanding people to dance or listen or suspend belief for a moment in time. That could be a star.

Also, I don’t think I am particularly friendly. Sure, I smile and I am genuinely happy that people appreciate and support our music. I don’t have to fake that at all. It is amazingly gratifying to have people say they love my music or my sound or my band or my energy. Wow! How cool is that! Of course, I smile and blush and touch or hug them. But in reality I am a bashful loner. From the very first word of a conversation I am trying to end it. My every comment is designed to be the last sentence so I can make my escape back to my shell, back behind my façade and that could be perceived as me being aloof.

And so it is with a lot of artists. We may use our creative output as a way to communicate even our deepest feeling and most intimate thoughts, but we do it from a distance. And we just may be really uncomfortable being up close and personal. Some may even choose this type of profession because it allows us to do just that – communicate through the veil of the edge of the stage or on a screen. You can see us and be touched by us, but you can’t really put your finger on us. Maybe lots of us performers are really masking our insecurities with bright lights and big sound and dancers and props. We are all, even we stars, children growing up into our dreams. Maybe everybody is a star, at least potentially so. Or maybe none of us are.

Day 6. 11:30 AM Thursday, October 15. Deck 6 lounge facing east with the ship heading northwest. Just passing Cape Canaveral.

Last night I stayed up until after 2:00 AM checking the poolside midnight concert by Mike Phillips and the Unwrapped All Stars. The concert was loud and slamming and the folks were proud and jamming. It was billed as a Sadie Hawkins dance so there were several fine ladies showing there wares and their dancing skills. But it was the music and musicianship that were the stars of the night.

Mike Phillips is a killer alto saxophonist who loves hip-hop and neo-soul and he has serious jazz chops and lots of energy. He does a super funky job on the midi wind instrument with auto-tuned vocoder, and he is a really good master of ceremonies. The group he assembled was an aggregation of young lions of jazz funk and soul that consisted of two trombones, two trumpets, two saxes, drums, percussion bass, guitar, keyboard, and electric violin.

They were all killing it with high energy and high quality musical chops. The drummer, who looked to be about 12, was a funk fool who was polyrhythmic as hell! But the super nova of the evening was clearly electric violinist, Karen Briggs, who came to prominence performing with new age musician Yanni. That girl bowed that thing last night. She gave me goose pimples and made the crowd roar. Like I said, I stayed to the end. The whole show knocked me out! What a blast!

This morning at breakfast I saw Mike and I told him I thought the show was off the chain and he in turn paid me high praise, saying that he had loved my show, he had stayed to the end and that I had set the bar high. I told him that the bar had been duly raised by his show last night.

Earlier in the evening last night we had gone to see Patti Austin in concert. Young alto saxophonist Marcus Anderson opened the show and he was really sincere, more than competent and quite a showman. He has the skills and the smile to win over audiences and have longevity in this business of jazz and soul.

Patti Austin displayed true professionalism, stage presence, vocal prowess and a recently trimmed down body. She looked good and sounded great with a pure, often vibrato-less voice and an impeccable sense of timing and pitch. Sometimes sounding a bit like Streisand, Nancy Wilson or Dionne Warwick, Patti explored the nuances and grand themes to be found in her repertoire of fantastic songs written by some of the best in the business. She has worked all over the world and recorded with giants in black pop music and all that experience showed in her concert performance last night, which was at times understated and but always luminescent.

When I see my band members at these shows I am gratified that they seem to be enjoying themselves being immersed in all this music. There is so much to be gleaned from seeing others in our profession doing what we do and at such a high level of proficiency. And in such quantities and variety. From the quiet self-assurance of Patti Austin to the exuberant boisterousness of Mike Phillips and his brash brass band, the range of sounds and personalities is really amazing. And all of it has its fans.

One of my vocalists, Chyp Page Green, stood transfixed in front of the stage at last night’s pool party and said she was just loving Mike Phillips show! And this morning I realized that that are several factors in determining what music and musicians we love. Repertoire is important. What the songs mean to you, the personality projected by the artist, the style or genre of the music, the sound and lights and tech, the reaction of the rest of the audience, and your own mood all influence the way and degree the music will impact you.

I think so much of the music and so many of these musicians are of such high quality that it could be hard for me to carve out a niche, much less excel in this talent-heavy environment. Yet ever while Mike Phillips’ group was killing it last night, a young lady came up to me to say how much she really enjoyed our show. And this morning at breakfast Wayne Bruce, the leader of Spur of the Moment, came past my table and did a fake kneel down and fist bump and said to me, “I just wanted to kiss the ring.” Wow, some high praise from several young lions for me, a funk veteran. Maybe I am due some accolades for my longevity in the game. Maybe I am an O.G. of Afro-funk jazz.


Yesterday, when we docked at Key West, my son Jamiah had to leave the ship, so I spent much of the hot October day making travel arrangements for him and his roommate to get back to Richmond to take care of business. I did get to do some sightseeing in the city with an old friend of mine, Elwood York, who not only took us to the airport but also drove us around, giving up a guided tour of the place. Key West is the southernmost part of the US, only 90 miles from Cuba. If you take US Route 1 South when you get to mile marker 0, you’ll be in the center of Key West, Florida. It felt like it was 95 degrees in that beach town yesterday and that heat drained me enough that I needed a nap when I got back to the ship.

Today I am still being amicably besieged for autographs, pictures and even a few prospective gigs. People are still saying that they are surprised they had not heard of me, given the power of my performance way back then on last Sunday. I am amazed because so much music and so many great performances have happened since then. Some things make a deep enough impression to be timeless, at least for a minute.

End Part II ///

Day 7. 1:30 PM Friday afternoon in club on Deck 6.

The DC-based group 76 Degrees West is playing their hit song “School Days,” a go-go jazz song that sounds so good when I hear on WHUR I always wish I had made that record as the follow-up to my song “Drop.” The group had an uneven start to their set today, probably because the show, which was supposed to be poolside, had to be moved inside due to chilly windy weather out on deck. They are rolling along now though, go-go swinging and with Eddie Backus on tenor sax, Marcus Anderson on alto and Joey Somerville on trumpet all sitting in. It has turned into quite a jam session and I am digging it. Right now Jonathan Butler is doing another solo session out in the main atrium and he is sounding so good. But you can’t do everything on this cruise. And I promised 76 Degrees West I would catch their set and I love Eddie’s playing.

3:00 PM Now I have moved to the atrium to catch the last part of Jonathan Butler’s solo presentation. He is doing Q and A now. He has really enjoyed himself this week hanging out every day everywhere on the ship and being accessible and gracious.

Last night we saw Jonathan in full concert and he was fantastic. His back up group was Spur of the Moment and I thought it was their best work all week. Jonathan is so expressive with his voice and his guitar playing. He sounds like Stevie Wonder and Donny Hathaway but with a South African flavor and an L.A. twist. The audience loved him and Spur of the Moment seemed inspired by his music and the moment, especially their saxophonist, Skip Pruitt. At the end of the show Jonathan went into his gospel mode, preaching and teaching and testifying, but the music still had that pop smooth jazz contemporary feel to it; very polished and improvised to fit that very moment in time.

Before that we saw and equally polished performance by Rick Braun in the nightclub venue. His show was very enjoyable, especially when he was joined on stage by Candi Dulfer, Brian Culbertson, and bassist Gerald Veasley.

So much music; so many good vibes; so much camaraderie and so many new friends and fans. So many learning and teaching moments. We are a family this week. Last night I did participate in the jam session. The music was hot and Mike Phillips and Karen Briggs were their usual superlative, powerful selves. When I went up to play along with five or six other horn players they called a straight ahead jazz tune on which I was barely able to hold my own with several young players who had the chops of old jazz heads. I would have much rather played some P funk, but you improvise, do your best and live the moment to the fullest. I learned I have to go back in the shed and practice a lot more and continue be dedicated to never stop learning, advancing, developing my art and myself.

12:00 midnight outside the CD store on board.
I am hanging out with several other musicians as I type this. We are all waiting for the gift shop and Capital Jazz reps to tally up our remaining CD’s so we can determine how many we have sold. While we wait the musicians are discussing various things about how things have gone this week, comparing notes on other gigs and tours, and generally agreeing that this cruise has been a really positive experience. Mike Phillips is telling stories about touring with Prince and funny things that happened when he was touring with Jill Scott while I type away on my laptop. (The store sold 96 of my box sets and 8 single CD’s.)

Now I am at home in my kitchen at 11:00 PM Saturday night October 17.
Earlier on Friday night I had been a little seasick. The boat had more pitch and yaw, as the sea was more active beneath us than at any other time this week. In fact, the cruise had been super smooth sailing up until that last day. I took some Dramamine and a nap and move about slowly, feeling a bit woozy, like being drunk.

Before being outside the Gift shop that last night I had gone to see Candi Dulfer’s show in the club at around 8:00 PM. She was hot and her repertoire was mostly straight up funk a la James Brown/ Maceo Parker. She was a lot more than credible; she was spot on with her alto sax soloing, rapping, singing and the pacing of her show. Having toured with Prince and jamming over the years with a lot of funk heavy weights, she is a powerful presence and a dominant force to be reckoned with, especially internationally where that brand of funk has a big audience. I really liked her show, her sincerity and her command of her presentation.

The last show of the week was the Brian Culbertson concert at 10:30 PM Saturday night. Brian has been on all three of the Super Cruises and his show demonstrated why he is an award winning festival favorite and why he will be back for Super Cruise IV. He has tremendous energy and an infectious smile and persona on stage. Playing the keyboard and trombone, he leads the band, and acts like he is having the time of his life with grand gestures, facial expressions and humorous posturing. He prances around the stage, striking poses, dancing and interacting with the band. Employing dynamics in the extreme, he alternates between funk and smooth jazz, using breaks, stops and sudden shifts in volume and textures. He creates a party onstage and the audience is invited.

Later that night there was a pajama party in the club from midnight to 3:00 AM. I did poke my head in for a second to see how the crowd was getting down with deejay Spinderella and they seemed to be having fun.

I went to the casino where I spent a lot of my spare minutes this cruise week and where I became friends with several ladies who also enjoyed Three Card Poker. This last night I was mostly at the table alone with the dealers. Two days before I had been up for the week, holding on to six black $100 chips. One day ago I had lost three of those chips and on the last evening I had lost them all. So I was playing with my money at that point, down $200.

During the last hour from 1:30 AM until the casino closed down at 2:30 AM I had a great run of cards, hitting three of a kind three times, trip 8’s and three Kings, twice within three hands. Later I hit trips 8’s again and several other good hands and finally ending up $1,125! What a great time to win, right at the end, with no chance to lose it back! I shared my winnings with the band.

I turned in at 3:00 AM after setting my phone alarm for 5:55 AM and got up at that time. I was squirrelly eyed and tired but excited to be docking back in Baltimore. It was cold and rainy but still a wonderful time to be getting off the boat; even with the extreme contrast to the over 90 degrees weather in the Bahamas and Key West just hours ago.

We had breakfast; I collected the money from the CD’s sales (100 x $29.99 less 30% commission to the cruise line; wow!) and disembarked by 9:30 AM Saturday. We drove back to Richmond and I was so tired that I passed out for a deep-sleep nap almost right away. At 4:00 PM I was still feeling like I was still on the boat and using my sea legs. I was still almost drunk with sea motion even though I was well inland, when I got a call to go play tennis. Crazily, I agreed and at 5:30 PM I was out on the court, “freezing,” stiff, woozy and wondering about my own sanity, but warming up to play doubles tennis with three other wild and crazy tennis enthusiasts.

Even now at a quarter to midnight I am still feeling like I am on the rocking ship. And that’s odd because for the vast majority of the hours on board you could barely feel the ocean’s motion. But I do “feel” it now. Still.

Epilogue. 8:00 AM Sunday morning October 18, in my kitchen.

I slept good and hard for over seven hours for the first time in weeks. A week with a ship load of music and activities, sudden chilly weather and three sets of tennis after driving from Baltimore on three hours sleep might knock you out! I am still a little bit tipsy but I can feel that today should be the last of that.

The Capital Jazz Cruise III was a fantastic voyage for me. The music, the musicians and the warmth of the audience inspired me. I learned so much from the experiences and I am charged up with determination to do and be better; and that’s worth the price of admission to any gig or university master class. Of course I only had to pay with my time, energy and open mind.

And what great payoffs! I have never made so many sales and new fans from any one gig in my life. If you consider that there are six discs in the 2012 Collectors Box Set then we distributed over 500 individual discs to music lovers who are likely to listen and in some instances turn some of their family and friends on to our music. So many patrons on the cruise told us how much they loved our show and our music and our energy; and several said they would be coming to see us when we come to DC or Baltimore or New York or Texas and wherever they were from. And I got solid contacts for bookings in Maryland, New York, London and Atlanta.

No doubt I will be contacting the Capital Jazz people to lobby for a slot on next year’s Super Cruise IV already scheduled for the last week in October 2010 leaving out of Miami. I want my same performance slot, playing for the opening pool party.

In the meantime, I am committed to doing and getting more: more practice, yoga, strategic planning, marketing, chops, and more polished professionalisms. Instead of being discouraged by the great music coming out of my more youthful compatriots and competitors, I am inspired by my own wealth of experience and the respect given to what I do.

I am rededicated to giving up the funk and the best that I got, every time I have the chance to take it to the stage. Music is my ministry and my mistress. And the basis of my mysticism and magic. It is a source of inspiration for me and my shadow. I plan to continue to explore develop and share the inner and outer workings of juju, funk, soul, world, African, blues, reggae, hip-hop, Latin, gospel and jazz. Understanding that they, like we, are much more alike than dissimilar is an essential step toward oneness.

Scroll down this page to see the latest news and travel journals from past touring, including trips to France to perform and to Cuba to produce the documentary film, "Under The Radar - A Survey of Afro-Cuban Music."

J. Plunky Branch offers music for old fans and new with an impressive 5-disc compilation, Plunky & Oneness 2012 Collectors’ Box Set, a retrospective of the best of his last 20 years’ 12 CD albums. Long known for his versatility, saxophonist-producer Plunky has exceeded the bounds of eclecticism in this extensive library of songs organized into genre-specific CD’s: Urban Groove, Cool Jazz, Love Songs, P Phunk and Afro World, packaged into a box set.

This is a collection of songs by one of the most prolific and enduring groups of the last 40 years. The band originated in the early 1970’s as Plunky & Oneness of Juju, an avant Afro-jazz ensemble, and they developed by constantly exploring a wide range additional genres of Black music including R&B, funk, smooth jazz, reggae, hip-hop and neo-soul. Plunky and the group has continued to record and tour extensively and recently had a new break-through when Plunky’s song “Drop” received national radio airplay and became a dance club hit.

Plunky & Oneness 2012 Collectors’ Box Set is a virtual music library of the best of Plunky’s last 20 years’ releases. The compilation includes more than 80 songs on five CD’s plus a bonus disc that contains background information, pictures, travel journals and videos.

The original 12 albums recorded and released between 1988 and 2008 were each unique but similar in that they all contained multiple types of music, as Plunky consciously continued to demonstrate the “oneness” or common characteristics inherent in all Black popular music forms. The songs on the new 2012 compilation CD’s are organized by genre, taking into account that listeners are likely to utilize music albums in accordance with their moods, activities and settings.

Whatever your mood, this collection offers music to enhance and uplift it. Choose whichever hour-long CD matches your state of mind and the music does the rest. Disc 1 Urban Groove has saxy instrumentals for dancing or just grooving (and includes Plunky’s smash hit “Drop”). Disc 2 Cool Jazz is smooth tracks for a mellow atmosphere. Disc 3 Love Songs’ sensual music sets the mood for romance. Disc 4 P Phunk is all hard-core funk to move your mind and body. Disc 5 Afro World explores African rhythms and other world beats.

This is a massive compilation of music for all the senses and sensibilities; for Plunky lovers and for collectors of original urban, saxy, cool, funky, love inducing, Afro-jazz and more. The five CD set, plus bonus disc will be packaged in a regular DVD at list price of $39.99 with deep discounts for pre-release orders and downloads.

December 1, 2008 – On the flight from Newark to Paris…

I am not sure that I want to keep a journal on this trip. I am not sure I want to spend the time and the energy or share the introspection. My thoughts these past few weeks have been so personal that I am not sure if anyone else should be privy to them. I have been concentrating on promotion of my career, marketing my wares and pursuing personal and spiritual development so much that it seems I am self-absorbed. Maybe only others who are on a similar artistic journey or those in my personal musiclan would be interested in a blog about my experiences on this tour.

I have been working on a theory of musiclans – music clans – groups of people responding to and influenced by the same music. Those of us who are fanatical about George Clinton and P-Funk are in the same musiclan. John Coltrane music worshipers are a musiclan. Patrons who come to the Martini Kitchen & Bubble Bar on a regular basis are a musiclan. These are “tribes” who share a common cultural experience based on musical interaction. Sharing excitement, movement, inspiration and valuation of a genre, recording, performance, or composition of music. Deadheads, Beatlemaniacs, hip-hoppers, jazz lovers, Old school R&B audiences, line dancers, reggae groovers are examples of musiclans. Maybe this blog/journal will be for members of my musiclan - members of the I-Love-Plunky (& Oneness) Club. This one’s for you.


We are going on our one week Drive It Tour of France, to include two performances in Paris at the New Morning jazz club and in Montpellier in the South of France at Le Jam club. My seven-piece band includes my brother and long time collaborator, P. Muzi Branch, keyboardist-vocalist Tonya Lazenby-Jackson, guitarist Carl Lester, vocalist Charlayne “Chyp” Green, New York based drummer John “Jozack” Zachary and my son on electronic percussion Jamiah “Fire” Branch.

After days of preparation, a weekend of performances at our home base club, The Martini Kitchen & Bubble Bar, and packing, repacking and constant up to the last minute online marketing and management duties, it was finally time to embark on this, my next international performance excursion. I had been ready to go since last Monday, a week early; having my repertoire and set list planned out, my musicians passported, booked and ready and my personal and business activities all lined up, budgeted and on auto-pilot for the duration of my trip. I was a little antsy, hoping that the final week of waiting to leave wouldn’t allow for some mishap that would monkey wrench our readiness to go. No last minute flu or traffic ticket or court case or medical emergency or family issues or foreclosure on property. Well, in fact all of those things had come up but they were all resolved before that last week of waiting to leave. I didn’t want any new things to crop up.

This trip kicks off a December that is booked with a solid line up of gigs:
December 3 & 4 – Paris, France, New Morning Club
December 6 – Montpellier, France, Le Jam Club
December 9 – Washington, DC, Zanzibar on the Waterfront Club
December 12, 13 – Richmond, VA, Martini Kitchen & Bubble Bar
December 17 – Richmond, VA, Toad’s Place
December 19 – New York, NY, Ashford & Simpson’s Sugar Bar Club
December 20 – Lynchburg, VA, Private Corporate Xmas Party
December 26, 27, & 31 Richmond, VA, Martini Kitchen & Bubble Bar Club

I got to the airport at 3:15 PM for our 5:30 PM flight and found that there would be delays. The ticket agent was going to try to get us on an earlier flight so we could get to Newark in time to be sure to make our connecting flight to Paris. Muzi and Carl were a bit late so we couldn’t get checked in in time to be on stand-by for the earlier flight. So we had to wait until 6:40 to board for our original 5:30 flight.

The Richmond Free Press newspaper sent a photographer to get a shot of us getting ready to board our plane. It was a nice that they deemed it newsworthy that we local celebs were going to perform in Paris. In the recent days and weeks leading up to this trip, our community and fans from all over have voiced their approval and excitement for this confirmation of our musical success. So many folks have said things like “I’m so proud of you,” or “It’s been a long time coming,” or “You really deserve this!”

It seems that a getting to go on a tour on a tour in Europe or being submitted for a Grammy nomination are perceived as a validation of one’s music; and they are, to be sure. But these things are as often as not, a confirmation of one marketing efforts and perseverance, more than an indication of the quality of the music. Though I guess those things often go hand in hand. This period of success helps to validate one’s whole career and the efforts of so many who collaborate and help along the way.

We board the plane at 6:30 and then sit on the runway for another 30 minutes before finally taking off for Newark Airport. Our flight to Paris was scheduled to depart at 10:00 PM so when landed in Newark we had only a little over an hour to get from Terminal A by shuttle bus to Terminal C. There we met up with Reynald DesChamp, my French connection with whom I have worked for over 10 years, and John Zachary, our drummer for this tour. They both live in New York. We were all smiles; happy we were all together and on our way to Paris.

+++

The Paris flight was on time and uneventful, which is just the way I like them. The seats on this Continental 767 were smaller than on a Greyhound bus; a tight, barely comfortable fit for me, and an almost unbearable one for Tonya. Flying and especially landing in big cities always make me conscious of the magnitude of modern development: the highways and byways, the electricity and water requirements; the number of people and number of vehicles that have to be coordinated, is impressive if not overwhelming. So much energy, both physical and emotional. So much technology, both massive and micro. So many things working together to make things work together and so much of it unnoticed and taken for granted. The wiring of the runway lights and the wiring that make the airplane wing flaps go up and down and the wiring to the radar screens in the control towers and the wiring that run from the pilots brain to his eyes and hands and the wiring between minds in synch moving toward the same goals. A lot of wiring indeed.

On the flight we ate a meal, watched movies, read books and did a lot of other things to pass the 6 hour 11 minute flight. I brought my earplugs and mask to block out sound and light and proceeded to meditate and doze a little until the continental breakfast was served. Before too long we were landing in Paris. Entry and customs were a breeze. All our luggage and instruments arrived safe and sound. And we were here at last, ready to make music and good times happen.

Samy Elbaz, my main contact here in Paris, met us at the airport and we had a pleasant, post morning rush hour drive into the city. Paris is still a wonderful city; so vibrant, crowded but quaint at the same time. It looks like Brooklyn, the Bronx, London, New Orleans and Manhattan all at once. It is old, having been here for 23 centuries; and new at the same time, constantly reinventing itself and being on the cutting edge of fashion, architecture, music, dance and all the arts. It is the quintessential European capitol. I just love it.

We got to the Cambrai Hotel and our rooms were not ready. In fact, our reservations were made incorrectly - we were not expected until tomorrow. The hotel staff was able to accommodate us but it took an hour to get the band’s rooms ready one by one. I made sure everyone else was settled and my room took two hours to get straight. I was completely beat and bummed out. I didn’t like the hotel rooms because they were below our usual standard. I was really concerned about the ladies, especially Chyp, who is as particular, persnickety and as hard to please as anyone I know. But everybody went along with the program and settled in with no complaints. We were all so tired from the traveling we really just wanted to get some rest.

John Zachary and I walked around the neighborhood while waiting for my room to get ready. There were lots of stores, Africans, traffic and action all around. I went to exchange some money to have some Euros and I bought a phone card to be able to make calls by to the states.

By the time I got into my room, I had had to make three trips from lobby to take my horns, suitcase and other junk I had with me. I lay on the bed and nearly passed out with my clothes on. When I took my clothes off, I was too tired to fall asleep. I managed to get a couple of hours napping before it was time to get ready to meet our hosts to go out to dinner and sightseeing.

Samy and Reynald arrived to pick us up around 7:00 PM and we were driven to the New Morning, the venue where were would play tomorrow. We went to the club to make sure all the technical requirements would be met for our show. The sound engineer, Nadir, has done our sound mix for my previous shows at New Morning and he is really good as his job. Additionally, he really loves our music and respects what we do; and he willingly does everything in his power to accommodate us. There is a band performing at the club this night as well, and Nadir says that he will work on getting the stage set up for us after that show. He will work late into the early morning hours so things will be ready for us when we come back for rehearsal and sound check tomorrow.

Then we go all the way across the city to a small café to have drinks and dinner. All total there are 12 of us: the seven band members, three promoters, the MC and an extra friend of Samy’s. The café was very typical and very active. We spent several hours there drinking red wine, eating, talking and singing happy birthday to my son, Jamiah, who turned 27 years old today. I am not sure if it was the grandest way to celebrate his birthday in his world, but it was pretty special. I am sure he will remember 2008 as the year that he spent his birthday week touring in France.

Our driver for the night is Hugo, a friend of Samy’s who is a professional tour guide. When we left the café he took us on one of his patented drives around Paris, showing first-time visitors Jamiah, Chyp, Jozack and the rest of us Paris, the City of Light, decked out in all her Christmas decorations splendor. I had opted not to bring my video camera along on this trip because I have been here and done that before. But I forgot that this would be Xmas time and the lights and decorations were truly spectacular. We went to the Eiffel Tower, the Champs d’Elysee, the Arc de Triumph, the Notre Dame, the Louvre, the red light district near the famed Moulan Rouge; and had an ooh la la sightseeing trip.

By the time we got back to the hotel it was midnight. Once again I was too tired to sleep. I lay awake going over the songs and the show in my mind. I meditated, looked at television and then closed my eyes for about two hours until finally I got up and took a Tylenol PM. Even so, I was awake for at least another hour. But then, the next thing I knew it was almost noon!

I got a croissant, yogurt, cheese and coffee for breakfast and then chilled out until 3:00 PM, when the driver, Stephan, came to pick us up to go to the club for sound check. Wow! Our ride was a black Mercedes-Benz minivan sitting on rims; classy and hip. What a nice ride! The band arrived at the venue in style.

The rehearsal went well. We went over the songs with Jozack, who hadn’t played drums with us in years. I was a little apprehensive because I felt the tempos of the songs slipping or slowing down. This was largely due to his unfamiliarity with my show and his tentativeness caused by having to really listen to be prepared for all the changes I like to throw into the music without much warning.

At 5:30 we left the club to come back to the hotel to eat, rest and change clothes. We bought a lot of Chinese food right across the street from the club, took it back and feasted right in the hotel lobby.

+++

The show was really quite special! The opening act was a Ghanaian singer, Sophia Nelson, who spent time in London but now lives in Paris. She sounds like a mature and sophisticated Sade. Her band was composed of excellent musicians from Africa, Cuba and Paris and a background singer from Atlanta, GA. Their show was quite good and Sophia’s music was as diverse and international as her band and her own background.

After her hour-long set the MC brought us on stage to a rousing ovation and we proceeded to funk things up. We opened with “More Than Meets The Eye,” a jazz funk instrumental from my latest CD Drive It. Then we played “Follow Me” and “Hop Skip & Jump” from the Cold Heat CD. We performed old and new original songs and the audience seemed to really love the music. As we got funkier and funkier, they got more and more into it, dancing and screaming encouragement. By the time we ended the set they were screaming for more. We did an encore, left the stage again and thought that would have been the end of it; but five minutes later they were still screaming for more, so we went back out one more time.

After the second encore when we attempted to leave the stage one fan blocked the door to our dressing room not letting us off the stage. He would not move. The crowd was still cheering. He begged us to play one more song and even got down on his knees and offered me the ring off his finger. I thought he was too funny, but he was so exuberant with his protest that I relented and went back on for a third encore. Too wild! After that one Reynald, our road manager, propped door open so we could go right into the dressing room.

What a fun performance it was! The band really enjoyed themselves. Everyone was all-smiles and happy vibes ruled the dressing room as fans and friends and business people streamed through for picture taking and congratulations and expressions of how much they enjoyed the show. It was emotionally satisfying to feel the energy, support and love of these fans, our Paris, France musiclan. After the wind down and downing some red wine, our black Benz van drove us through the late-night, rain-wet reflective Parisian streets back to the hotel. All in all the night was a satisfying experience.

+++

Breakfast at the hotel the next morning was right on time. Though it was a light continental style with just yogurt, coffee, croissants with cheese and jam, somehow it hit the spot. I spent the morning resting. I surmised that even at my age I could do multiple nights of gigs in a row if I could spend the days resting. I am blessed to be able to make a living solely through my various musical endeavors: record sales, commercial performances, licensing music, school lectures, etc. Some musicians also hold down a day job while gigging most nights and that is a wearying proposition. It is imperative that musicians have a plan for how to develop their careers and businesses.

I made phone calls back to the states, used the Internet on my laptop from my room and generally had a pleasant day. The weather was again cool, rainy and blustery. But by afternoon the sun peeked through and lightened the mood.

I had a photo session for a jazz magazine and the photographer was an older gentleman who used two old Nikon cameras, one for color and one for black and white film. Amazing, not digital but film! I think the pictures will be like those old Blue Note Records album cover shots. I hope they will be cool. These days a photographer will often shoot 400 – 500 digital shots to get 10 good ones. This guy shot a total of maybe 30. We’ll see how they turn out.

I bought a shirt and tie at a local shop on the block with the hotel. This is a bustling area with lots of inexpensive shops and restaurants. The neighborhood is right around the Gard Du Nord (North Train Station) and it teems with activity and a mix of races. We are comfortable here and don’t have to spend a lot of cash to eat and pick up things we need.

Our driver picked us up to go to the New Morning around 7:30 PM and we already can see that the crowd will be bigger than last night. We are all relaxed and waited in the dressing room while Sophia Nelson and her band performed. I did go out to see some of their set, which was really polished, entertaining and urban. This second night confirmed my opinion that her international group with members from Africa, Cuba, France and Atlanta are all excellent musicians; and Sophia is experienced and attractive. Her warmth both on and off stage is readily apparent.

Our show was really hot, much tighter than the night before. Jozack on drums seemed a lot more relaxed and comfortable and funky. The crowd really loved the music and danced and swayed the night away. We took them on a journey through time and space and the music was our vehicle. Once again we had to do multiple encores. I had to really work my body to give the drummer a visual representation of where I wanted the energy level and the tempos. By the end of the night I was drenched in sweat. But everybody in the band felt like we did an incredible set.

Again fans came to the dressing room for autographs and photos. After a while all the flashes from the cameras started to blur my vision and I was happy when that part was done. I got so many comments from fans indicating that that they had been moved by the music and the show. One journalist whose name is Sheidia (which means Fragrant One) came both nights said she could feel our spirit and she was so impressed with our music.

Several people would clasp my hands or kiss both cheeks or hug me while giving heartfelt thanks for the music. I can usually sense when a person has been truly moved by the experience by the sincerity of their expression. I know how they feel because I have been that fan who has been truly moved by the music; like when I have heard Pharaoh Sanders or Sly and the Family Stone or George Clinton & P-funk or King Sunny Ade or John Coltrane or a moving gospel performer in church.

Some people in the audience seem transfixed by the proceedings, like they are having a spiritual experience. It is interesting because in some ways that is exactly what I am trying to do. I am trying to give my energy, my emotion, my very all, to try to transcend the physical by a sheer act of willful surrender to the moment, to create a transcendent moment in time. I am sacrificing myself for the greater good to create a special, timeless happening. I try to give my best in the belief that whether it is good or not, the performance will be uplifting by sheer acts of will and surrender. Even in a nightclub the musical experience can and should be spiritual. Because everything is, or can be…

After the show Sophia Nelson came to me to say that she could feel our positive energy from the moment we hit the stage and she was moved by it. She said that pure musical energy could not be faked; and she and I agreed on that point. She is a beautiful lady with a beautiful spirit. We talked for a few minutes and shared smiles. She said the next time she comes to see us she would have on a Plunky tee shirt.

One older French woman came both nights, bought a different tee shirt each night and wore them both, one on top of the other. One guy asked me when we would be coming back to perform in Paris and when I told him maybe as soon as April or May he literally skipped out of the club, like he was a kid and I had given him a small toy or piece of candy.

Tonya and Chyp talked about a woman in the audience near the end of the show that proceeded to strip her clothes off and security had to come to stop her. After the show when I cam out of the dressing room carrying two pairs of jeans a young women grabbed one pair and she and I were in a tug of war. She would not let go and I was determined to hold on to them because they belonged to the jeans company that was one of the sponsors and they had asked for the extra pairs to be returned. The girl even held on with her teeth. Then while holding on to the jeans with all her might with one hand, she proceeded to take off her pants, stripping down to her skimpy panties. So of course, at that point I let her have the sponsor’s jeans. But when she put on the contested jeans they were way too large for her narrow hips. But I knew that they would be. She put her own pants back on while I and the few other people still in the place gave her a round of applause.

The ride back to the hotel was in the flyest car I have ever been in. It was a black Mercedes-Benz limo that had been tricked out with $35,000 in extra accessories, including 22 channel televisions with 5.1 surround sound, individual temp controlled air-conditioning for each seat, Champaign bar, and assorted other high-tech goodies. What a ride! The driver made three trips back and forth to shuttle us to the hotel. The band was gassed and so impressed. A fitting end to the night.

The soundman gave me CD’s of the night’s performance and I started listening to it on headphones in my room. I was mesmerized by the sound and the grooves we had pumped out at the club. I stayed up until after 4:00 AM listening to it. I had a hard time falling asleep even then, replaying “Hop Skip & A Jump” in my head and silently writing new lyrics to the groove.

The next morning, Friday, I woke at 8:00 AM but lay in bed with my eyes closed trying to get rest even if I didn’t get more sleep. I got the continental breakfast downstairs and came back to the room to get ready for a video interview at noon. The interview went well and we had the rest of the day free. That afternoon I roamed around with Jamiah in the neighborhood shopping. We bought some hip Italian casual shoes and had Kentucky Fried Chicken for lunch. The KFC was the Blackest place in town, filled with Africans of all persuasions from the front door to the behind the counter staff. Chicken is the universal Black food.

Tonya stayed in and rested all day. Muzi, Carl and Jozack went sightseeing and Jamiah, Chyp and I went out on our own excursion. The weather was autumnal, but not at all unpleasant. We walked a couple of miles, then took a bus downtown to the Lafayette Galleries department stores area and did some shopping. There were bustling crowds shopping and sightseeing and watching the elaborate kinetic Christmas displays in the department store windows. We walked around some more, and then we took the Metro over to the Champs d”Elysee for more sightseeing and shopping and a lot more walking.
I was cold and tired and my knees were aching from pounding the cold hard pavement but it was rewarding because I know that Chyp and Jamiah were having their first Paris experience and I was happy to be their host and guide.

Finally, we decided to come back to the hotel around 9:30. We took the metro but got off at a stop that wasn’t the closest one to our hotel, which meant we had to walk several more blocks. Chyp hadn’t eaten and Jamiah hunted up a Chinese restaurant that turned out to be great; or at least it seemed quite good to us at that moment.


· New Guestbook Entry on our Website - added Fri, 5 Dec 2008 5:50:08am EST:
Name: Ben Still'a
Comment:

Dude, guys, yesterday in Paris you simply FUNKED THE SHIT OUT'A ME!!!!
I think it's the grooviest stuff I've ever seen on stage, seriously it was MIND BLOWING.
I really really, really don't understand why the New Morning wasn't fully booked... THAT is unacceptable!
Anyway we were there and we had sooo much pleasure feeling your groove.
PLUS I'm a BIG fan of the old-school Chuck Bown style GOGO swings you gave us all night, that was the best thing ever.
Hope you come back very soon in Paris. Peace.


We are leaving here at 9:00 AM in the morning to get to the train station for our 11:00 AM high speed train to Montpellier in the south of France; so I told everyone to pack before going to bed. I finally got to bed around midnight and slept only an hour and a half before waking up and not being able to get back to sleep until after 5:30 AM! I worried that I was blowing my chance to get enough rest before the gig that night. I was also coming down with a cold, with a sore throat and I was praying that I wasn’t going to have any major physical problems for the final gig of the tour.

Tonya’s call woke me up at 8:30 AM and that gave me just enough time to shower, shave and get a quick cup of tea before the driver arrived. Of course he was right on time so I was rushed. It took two trips in the van to get all of us and our luggage and instruments to the train station. Then we had an hour’s wait before boarding the high-speed train to Montpellier. Of course, our train car was the absolute farthest down the track from the station so we had to walk forever, hauling all our gear to it.

Once we got on board, the ride was really out of sight. Our seats were on the upper deck of the train, which afforded us the best views of the French countryside as we sped across the farmlands and through the occasional small town. The three-hour ride was smooth and pleasurable. I got a nap. Muzi took pictures. Carl talked to Reynald. We all had something to eat. The sun was out. And before too long we arrived in Montpellier where the weather was delightful and our spirits were lifted.

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Matthew, our driver for the day, met us at the station in a van large enough to carry all of us and all our gear. We went to the hotel, got settled in and I got him to take me to the pharmacy to buy some cold medication. An hour and a half later we went to the venue for sound check.

Le Jam is a hot club. It is a concrete venue with a small amphitheater layout. The sound system is super and the engineers really know what they are doing. We had a really good sound check and everybody was feeling like we would have a good show. After sound check I did a taped interview with Ann, a young woman from Barcelona, which is surprisingly only three hours away by car. After that we all had a really good meal at the venue. We had great red wine, a salad, French bread, and a roast duck and gravy over rice; followed by cheese and more wine and capped with apple pear pie and coffee. We were stuffed and ready for a serious nap. But there was not enough for one of those before the show.

By 8:00 PM here were already people lined up outside so we had a really good house when the doors opened. But the time we went on stage at 9:50 the place was full. It turned out to be not a good crowd, but an excellent one, definitely the best one this week. But then, it was a Saturday night, the weather was good and the people were ready for some funk. And we gave it to them!

Our show went extremely well. We were hot! The audience was pressed right up to the edge of the stage and the room pulsated with our grooves. They screamed and cheered more and more with each song. Our show flowed nicely and built in intensity and funkiness as the first set ended with them cheering for more.

This performance was a hot example of what I have been saying for years: if we could just get to do our regular good shows that we do at home, in Europe, we could be an international smash hit. This was like one of our good shows at Martini Kitchen: hot and funky with good dynamics and making people move; but with this time with the French fans going bonkers.

We did the second set and the audience was even more into it, cheering our every musical move. That only encouraged us to do more until it was better than a regular show; it became a series of really special musical moments. We did two encores, the second only after we had been in the dressing room and they continued screaming for more for almost 10 minutes. We had to do it. And even after that, they wanted more. We made lots of fans tonight. No doubt about it. We made converts.

They seemed to love us collectively and individually. They cheered and whooped and hollered for all of us. They really dug Chyp singing “Just Know That I Love You,” and Tonya doing “Nevertheless” and her hip-hop rap. They dug Muzi and Fire and Jozack holding down the grooves and making things funky. But they really loved Carl’s rhythm and lead guitar work. Carl was sizzling and when he went out into the audience and played, they went wild!

I think they liked me too! I think they appreciated my energy and my role as the leader of Plunky’s band.

The repertoire and the pace of the show were nearly perfect. We have great original songs plus we quote or touch on enough cover songs that the combination creates a show that is both new and familiar at the same time. The lyrical content and comments about politics, positive vibrations and spiritually is uplifting food for thought and a powerful concoction is created when added to the group’s musicianship and tightness. Our committed energy mixing with that of an audience that’s really into it creates a synergy that is more powerful than the sum of its parts.

After the show we had to sign autographs on posters. We had fans that kissed my hands. The people who promoted the show and who worked in the venue were sincere in their accolades. People thought it was a great show. We did a photo session, drank wine, and packed up our stuff while people continued to express extreme gratitude for our show. Ann, the young deejay from Barcelona, said she hoped to try to get us a gig in Spain.

· New Guestbook Entry on our Website - added Sun, 7 Dec 2008 7:19:58am EST:
Name: Paulie
Comment:

Hi Plunkers!!!! We were at yesterday's concert in Montpeller!!!! It was absolutely fantastic!!!! I loved every minute of it, it took me way back to my funking roots!!! 3 hours of simple aural pleasure!!! thank you so much, for your energy, your talent and your music!!! Looking forward to seeing you guys again!! love plunks!!!


Bruno, the head of the Cosmic Groove productions team who brought us to Montpellier seemed genuinely pleased with both the show and the full house. One downer was that we didn’t sell any CD’s. I had mailed a box of 30 CD’s to Bruno so we would have some to sell at the gig and so I wouldn’t have to carry them with my luggage. The box hadn’t been delivered to him until this morning, but he didn’t bring the CD’s to the club tonight. So although I kept telling the audience from the stage to “buy two of my CD’s, one for yourself and one for your mama!” and people wanted to buy them, there were none to be had. That’s so crazy because my gross revenues for the Paris shows was reduced by 20%, so the 400 Euros from the sales here at Le Jam would have been welcomed.

But the good news from Bruno is that Cosmic Groove is doing a major festival here on the Riviera at an outdoor amphitheater right by the Mediterranean in August and he wants us to play at it. That would be so hot and really cool!

We got back to the hotel at 2:45 AM and the driver is supposed to come at 5:15 AM so we have said we might as well stay up. I am typing this blog. It’s 4:00 AM now. Tonya and Chyp have taken showers and I guess I will get the others up around 4:30. We have 23 hours of traveling and layovers to do before we get back home to Richmond on Sunday night at 9:00 PM. Then we have a gig in DC on Tuesday at the Zanzibar Club, a Xmas party for a group of Black lawyers. I hope I get lots of rest before then.

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Our trip back home was one of my most arduous ever. The flights, the layovers and delays made for 23 hours of rest broken, butt-numbing tedium.

We left the hotel right on time at 5:15 AM and got the to the Montpellier Airport and went through the 45 minute process of getting us all checked in and our luggage checked through to Richmond. But the ticketing for three of us could not be confirmed from Paris to the states, so we had to do that in Paris.

When we got to the Paris Airport we had to go all around Robinhood’s Barn to get our tickets and boarding passes straight and to get to the right terminal and gate. Though that took us an hour, we still had four more hours to kill before the next flight at 1:00 PM. We napped, shopped, snacked, napped some more, medicated my increasingly bad cold, and dealt with the boredom and discomfort of the airport waiting area.

We finally boarded the Paris to Newark flight right on time. But once on the plane, we heard the pilot announce that we would be parked at the gate for one hour and the seven-hour flight would take eight hours and 40 minutes due to strong head winds. While it was long, the flight wasn’t that uncomfortable, because it wasn’t full and each of us were beside at least one empty seat.

When we landed in Newark for what would have been a three hour layover, we had only a little over one hour to get through customs, recheck our bags and get to another terminal for the flight to Richmond. But before we could get through customs all their computers shut down, so we spent and anxious 30 minutes in that line and then had to rush to claim our bags. Muzi and Carl couldn’t find theirs, so I rushed Tonya, Chyp, Fire, and Jozack on ahead. We found the bags and literally make a mad dash to the train to get to the next terminal, get through security and get to the right gate, with 10 whole minutes to spare.

Once on this the final plane we had to wait parked at the gate for 45 more minutes due to high winds and the back up of delayed planes. When we finally got back to Richmond, we were extremely happy to be home, however one of Muzi’s bags and Fire’s suitcase with his MPC instruments did not arrive. But those were delivered to our houses in the middle of the night.

++++++++++++

It may be hard for people who are not directly involved to realize how much planning and effort that goes into even a short tour like this one. I think even some musicians themselves would be amazed. I my case I have been working with Reynald for over 10 – 15 years, aiming to do dates in France, in a relationship that started with him distributing some of my recordings both here in the US, Japan and Europe. This tour was the third time in the last five years he and his friend, Samy, have promoted shows for us in France. In other words it took five years and a lot of perseverance to get the first gig over there.

For this tour we started planning nine months in advance, so it was like giving birth. There were lots of negotiations, emails, international calls, sending music, photos, web links, renegotiations, development of sponsors (like Edwin Jeans), working with publicists, journalists and photographers, arranging accommodations, airline tickets, flight changes, advertising, ticket sales, instrument and equipment needs, developing the repertoire, rehearsing the show, etc.

Then there are also the language and cultural differences. The French are often very excitable, argumentative, proud, edgy, and a little combative, even with each other, so any little misunderstanding can quickly escalate into a battle. A medium size change might mean war. Promoters in general think that their part is the most important and everything comes in second place after money, PR and ticket sales.

But artists are the ones who make sacrifices of time, money, family relations and many other things to create music and put on a show. In preparing for this Drive It Tour of France we contended with: producing and shipping CDs’, passport problems, threatened house foreclosures, major medical issues involving hospital stays, personnel changes, family issues, day job scheduling, luggage lost and found, diet and allergies, hang-ups, arrests and court appearances; and all manner of human interest stories and spin-offs.

On past tours I have kept notes and journals cataloguing the coincidences and synchronicities that happen along the way; noting how much luck, and how many interventions and blessings that happen just when needed to allow things to proceed as desired. These days I have also been realizing how much depends on my own efforts, my own planning, my marketing efforts, my sense of purpose and willingness to persevere and get the jobs done. If you don’t sow, you won’t reap. If you don’t dream, pray and work; you are less likely to achieve, acquire and inspire.

Gotta keep Moving…

New Urban jazz artist Plunky follows up his nationally acclaimed hit “Drop” with Drive It, a new 14-song CD album of pipin' hot dance music, funk, jazz and Go-Go. The hour-long disc revs it up, puts it in gear and stomps on the gas. Destination...the dance floor of the hottest spots in the city for the real grown and sexy.

The CD takes off with the up tempo title song “Drive It,” a hypnotic instrumental groove with classic hit potential amongst urban radio and club audiences alike. Next, Plunky brings back a 80's inspired Euro-retro-dance sound with “Gotta Keep Moving,” followed by the horn driven party starter “Every Way But Loose,” a remake of his 1982 release, which charted in both the US and London. Plunky also pays homage to the Mid-Atlantic Go-Go sound with a medley of DC flavored songs like “Life – You’re Full Of It” and “A Swing In Everything.” In addition to jazzed out instrumentals there are also funkafied teasers like “Toy Box”, which is playful and risqué ala Cameo; and, “Synchrofunkinicity,” a Parliamentonic diatribe with a nasty low end.

Drive It is a musical voyage of rhythmic styles: vocal and instrumental; smooth but pumped up; diverse yet consistently moving… This album is chock full of strong grooves destined to become urban radio and club faves.

Nationally syndicated radio host Michael Baisden and other urban and jazz deejays made Plunky’s “Drop” the urban-contemporary jazz song of 2007. Drive It will solidify Plunky’s place in the forefront of the new urban music scene. Plunky is already planning an East Coast promotional tour, festival dates in the US and Europe, in addition to highly anticipated club dates in his hometown of Richmond, VA.

Plunky has released 25 albums in his 40-year career. Drive It proves he knows how to shift gears and keep it moving.

PLUNKY’S “DROP” REACHES MILLIONS VIA MICHAEL BAISDEN’S

SYNDICATED URBAN TALK AND MUSIC RADIO SHOW



Veteran saxophonist, J. Plunky Branch, known to thousands of progressive jazz fans simply as “Plunky” is a prolific, versatile, and eternally youthful composer and performer who has been making audiences groove since the early 1970’s from his hometown of Richmond, VA to London and Paris. Plunky is making millions of new fans everyday via the airplay his song “Drop” is receiving on Michael Baisden’s nationally syndicated urban talk and music radio show.



“Drop,” the ultra-funky instrumental opening track on Plunky’s Cold Heat CD, is turning up the heat across the country. The song was produced by Danja Mowf, whose credits include Aaliyah and Missy Elliot. Incredibly, “Drop” is based on a sample taken from Plunky’s own “African Rhythms,” a tune that shot him to soul-jazz stardom in Europe over 30 years ago, in 1975. With “Drop’s” daily airplay on The Michael Baisden Show, Plunky is reaching 55 small and mass-market urban stations throughout the U.S. Baisden’s staff acknowledges that “Drop” is show’s most requested song. The track’s growing popularity is generating sales and critical acclaim, and it earned Plunky and his group a coveted engagement on the 2007 Capital Jazz Super Cruise along with Boney James, Pieces of a Dream, Lalah Hathaway, Ledisi, Sinbad and over 2,000 partying jazz fans.



Plunky is a charismatic bandleader who commands the stage with the same intensity whether he and his group, Plunky & Oneness, are performing for ten people or 10,000. The group has opened for legends like Ray Charles, Patti Labelle, Earth, Wind & Fire, LL Cool J, the Yellowjackets and B.B. King. Back home in Richmond, VA Plunky is an institution. When he’s not touring, the saxman jams on weekends to SRO crowds at the city’s swanky Martini Kitchen and Bubble Bar. He keeps the energy high, the beats funky and the melodies cool and jazzy.



Plunky’s catalog of 24 previous releases includes ventures into jazz, funk, world beat, gospel and “Nubian age music,” his term for some of his bluesier sax meditation projects. On Cold Heat, his 25th album released on his N.A.M.E. Brand Records, Plunky blows hard and sings about life, love and the pursuit of the groove with lyrics that teach, soar and inspire. The album’s slamming hip-hop tracks are a fresh new twist to Plunky’s repertoire, largely because they were produced by Setworkrz, the Virginia-based production duo with the Dirty South address and the international flavor. Setworkrz is composed of Plunky’s son, Jamiah “Fire” Branch, and partner, Al Dokes. The two young producers are generating hip-hop beats so hot that rappers, singers, moviemakers and television producers clamor for Setworkrz tracks and krunk grooves.



Cold Heat is a long awaited family affair for Plunky and Jamiah, who has added unique hip-hop magic to Plunky’s live performances for the past three years. This collaboration represents a milestone in Plunky’s colorful career, from being a studio musician for TV’s top-rated “The Cosby Show” to scoring a Top Ten Soul chart hit in London with “Every Way But Loose.”

Recently there have been more and more high profile Plunky concert dates including performances at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC with Wyclef Jean, Shaggy and Jimmy Cliff, and a show in Richmond with Go-go master Chuck Brown that drew 15,000.



Plunky’s extensive European touring has taken him to England, Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Recent performances in France led to the release of Plunky’s highly praised DVD project titled Plunky & Oneness of Juju Live In Paris. Plunky has also traveled to Brazil and to Cuba twice to research and produce music recordings and a documentary film, Under the Radar: A Survey of Afro-Cuban Music.

Plunky Newsletter

“Drop” to Receive National Distribution

Liaison Distribution, home of R&B, jazz, gospel, and Washington, DC Go-Go groups, including Chuck Brown, recently reached out to us in response to strong demand and continuing airplay of “Drop” in the Washington/Baltimore, Virginia and Atlanta markets. Our discussions have led to a national distribution agreement with Liaison assuring that the growing demand for our Cold Heat CD can be met through all types of retail outlets. Our agreement with Liaison Distribution will also make available our N.A.M.E. Brand Records back catalogue of 20 albums by Plunky & Oneness including early classics by Oneness of Juju. We are pleased to be associated with this renowned music distributor. Liaison Distribution can be contacted at 9435 Washington Blvd., Suite M, Laurel, MD 20723, 1-800-841-6201.
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Plunky & Oneness will be appearing at the Capital Jazz Festival at the Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, MD on Sunday, June 3. The Capital city Jazz festival is one of the biggest smooth jazz festivals in the world and the group is excited to be a part of this major music event.

Plunky & Oneness will extend our long-term performance run at the Martini Kitchen & Bubble Bar, 1911 W. Main Street in Richmond, VA through the end of 2007. Unless we are touring or appearing in concert elsewhere, the group appears at the club every other Friday and Saturday nights beginning at 9:30 PM, rocking the beautiful people with progressive funk, jazz and hipness.

On March 31, 2007 Plunky & Oneness performed at the African-American Trailblazers Awards at the Greater Richmond Convention Center. Honorees included Maya Angelou, Jessie Jackson, Mayor Douglas Wilder, Tim and Daphne Reid, Willie Lanier and Dr. Johnnetta Cole, among others. In addition to performing during dinner Plunky & Oneness performed a tribute to Ella Fitzgerald as she was honored posthumously. Two days later the group performed for the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus annual reception hosted by Chairman Delegate Dwight C. Jones. The event was attended by members of the legislature, Governor Tim Kaine and over 150 business and community leaders.

Plunky’s Documentary “Under The Radar - A Survey of Afro-Cuban Music” was screened and discussed at the 2007 Joint Conference of the National Popular Culture and American Culture Associations, April 4 – 7 in Boston. The film then moves on for screenings in Vancouver, Canada April 12 – 14.

Setworkrz, the prolific production duo of Plunky’s son Jamiah "Fire" Branch and Al Dokes, continue to produce slamming hip-hop and R& B tracks. They have a library of 12 CD’s including over 200 beats and instrumentals. So if you are in need of backing tracks for raps, or songs for your next album, or if you are in need of music for your film or television show, contact Setworkrz by email to plunkyb@aol.com and we’ll hook you up with the most up-to-date, melodious, magical beat-songs.
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Plunky and Oneness continues to garner attention and activity through its online presence at the following web sites:

www.plunkyone.com www.cdbaby.com/cd/plunky10 www.myspace.com/plunkyandoneness
Here are comments from buyers of Cold Heat through our CDBaby page:

Awesome!!!!
Reviewer: P. H.
I had to have the CD for DROP!!! It turns out the entire CD is HOT!!

Who is Plunky?
Reviewer: BigSniz
Had never heard of Plunky until I heard the cut "Drop". Man I went on an immediate search. This CD is straight up TIGHT! Get it while it's hot, but I think it will be hot for a long time.

I knew I had to have this CD the very first time I heard "Drop"!.
Reviewer: C. P.
What a groove!!!! You will never forgive yourself if you miss out on buying this CD.

Well Alrighty NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Reviewer: M. M. C.
Hey Plunky, You did it AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!! This CD is righteous. I love it. Please keep up the good work. Keep Richmond on the musical map.

Wonderful
Reviewer: L. W.
This is a wonderful CD, varied and played with real talent. Thank you!

Buy This Album!!! It's Outrageously Good!!!
Reviewer: Mo
Cold Heat gets constant play on my stereo because the songs are absolutely moving. I LOVE dancing to the entire album. Songs like Drop, Does Everybody Do It, and Hop, Skip & a Jump have an extra sexy vibe that gets the party goin'. Hollar Back and Why Don't You Love Me are deeply touching and the latter has moved me to tears more than once. That's some raw pain y'all! But it hurts so good 8-) I just love it! Do your self a favor and pick this one up. It's the complete package with strong sexy vocals, soulful deep lyrics, bold and vicious beats...all blended into a rich, funky, stunning work of art. 8-)

Drop is hot!!
Reviewer: Ange
Song #1 Drop is hotter than my morning cup of coffee. Love the new CD.

Email from L. N. J.
Plunky, your music is phenomenal! I absolutely love it! The Cold Heat CD has a little bit of everything for all types of dance! I have given that particular CD out as gifts to at least 4 people!
* * *

Well, that’s it for this time. Have a great spring…

Hello Friends and Associates:

In this issue:
· Plunky & Oneness On the Airwaves
· Oneness Gigs and Appearances
· Plunky Lectures and Screenings
· Sales and Projects
· My View from the Stage

Plunky & Oneness On the Airwaves
A video clip from our Plunky & Oneness of Juju – Live In Paris DVD is being featured on “Straight Ahead,” the jazz show on US cable television station BET J, based in Washington, DC. At the same time, WHUR-FM and other DC area radio stations have been airing our ultra-funky song “Drop” from our recently released Cold Heat CD. It is always gratifying when our jazz and funk is broadcast to the masses, but it is even more rewarding when our fans and friends call and email, sharing their excitement about hearing and seeing us on radio and TV. Funk you very much!

Oneness Gigs and Appearances
After many requests from loyal locals (and following in the steps of Prince, Celine Dion and Gladys Knight who all have regular shows in Las Vegas) Plunky & Oneness have booked an ongoing club gig in our hometown, Richmond, VA. For the 2007 winter-spring season we will be appearing two weekends a month at the Martini Kitchen and Bubble Bar, where on Fridays and Saturdays the beautiful, hip music lovers and people-watchers “Drop” by and party with us. (Next dates: March 9, 10, 23, April 6, 7, 20, 21)

Juggling our schedule to make a regular gig happen is challenging because of our Mid-Atlantic touring and the increasing demand for lectures, speaking engagements and film screenings. Recently Plunky & Oneness performed for a youth leadership conference in Pittsburgh, PA and for Black History Month programs at Virginia Union University and several Virginia public schools.
Plunky Lectures and Screenings
Plunky’s Black History Month lectures included a presentation at First Baptist Church in Richmond and culminates with engagements at the NASA Goddard Space Center in Maryland (February 26), and a lecture on the topic “Jazz and the Black Arts Movement – An Inside View” at the University of Louisville (Kentucky) on March 5.

Screenings and lecture-discussions of my documentary film, Under The Radar - A Survey of Afro-Cuban Music will be presented at Virginia State University on February 21 and at the national conference of the American Culture Association in Boston, Massachusetts on April 5.

I attended and spoke at the Urban Film Series - Night of Film, Poetry, Jazz, and Awards
Honoring Jazz Legend Roy Ayers at the Bohemian Caverns club in DC on February 8.

I was recently the featured artist in the Virginia Commonwealth University Hospital System “Musicians On Call” series, performing soprano sax solos in patient treatment and family waiting areas of the hospital complex. The overwhelmingly positive response to this program has led to a commission to work with the hospital’s music therapist to produce a CD of healing music. I have also been contracted to produce video and multimedia displays for the hospital’s plasma message screens. These projects expand the possibilities and visions for our music and video productions.

Speaking of video: The two music videos for the song “Drop” produced in Richmond and directed by Patrick Mamou of the The Management Group are posted online at AOL Uncut Videos, at YouTube.com and at MySpace.com. The music videos have been viewed over 20,000 times, giving exposure to the song and to some of our local beautiful and fly young models, actors and performers.

Sales & Projects
Retail and online sales remain strong for the Cold Heat CD and the Under The Radar - A Survey of Afro-Cuban Music DVD and the internationally distributed Live in Paris DVD, which includes a bonus interview documentary with footage of Dr. Martin Luther King, James Brown, Pharaoh Sanders, Maceo Parker, Fred Wesley, Fela Kuti and scenes of West Africa. Also available from our private stock of DVD’s is a new, unreleased compilation of 16 Plunky & Oneness music videos and travelogues, perfect for archivists and collectors.

I recently produced and performed on a recording with Ghanaian master percussionist Asante, playing religious hymns over traditional African talking drums to be used at funeral services in Ghana. I am often called on to perform solos at home-going services at churches and funeral homes here in the US, and I am honored that people request my renditions at those times which are so emotional, spiritual, intimate and meaningful to their families.

My Personal View from the Stage

As I approach my 60th birthday, and perhaps because in recent weeks we have seen the passing of so many musicians and performers, (James Brown, Billy Preston, Barry White, Levert, Ruth Brown, Alice Coltrane, among others) I have more of a sense of urgency to do more, increase my output, produce, perform, write, dream. Even though I have been doing this music thing for over 35 years, “Lord, I ain’t no ways tired!” Being busy is a good thing. And these days if you are not too busy, then maybe you are not doing enough or, at least, you could be doing more.

In closing, I want to remind you of the important role that you play as patron, audience member and supporter of the arts. Your impact is felt, not only when you spend your dollars, but also when you participate and engage. So next time you have the opportunity don’t hesitate to clap, say amen or cheer.

We invite your ideas your feedback, suggestions and referrals.

In these times when there is a more urgent need than ever for positive images and positive music, I am inspired by your support and your insights. Thanks for sharing.

Wisdom, Peace and Love Through Music,
Plunky

Cold Heat, the new CD album by J. Plunky Branch, is a 14-song collection of soul, R&B and jazz percolating over hip-hop beats. On Cold Heat Plunky plays with fire and keeps it cool making it icy hot and phunky.
J. Plunky Branch is a world-class saxophonist, songwriter, and producer who for over 35 years has been making some of the most avant-garde Afro-jazz funk on the planet. His recordings are collections of the widest range of progressive Black music, like John Coltrane jamming with George Clinton and P-Funk.
On Cold Heat, his 21st album, Plunky is still blowing his horn and he is now also singing his songs about life, love and the pursuit of the groove. With lyrics that teach, soar and inspire, Plunky’s songs on Cold Heat elevate, caress, and inform slamming hip-hop rhythm tracks produced by Setworkrz, the Virginia-based production duo with the Dirty South address and the international flavor.
Setworkrz is composed of Plunky’s son, Jamiah “Fire” Branch, and his partner, Al Dokes. These two young producers prolifically generate hip-hop beats so hot that rappers, singers, writers, moviemakers, and television producers all clamor for Setworkrz tracks and the krunk grooves they embody.
It was Fire who suggested that he and Plunky should do a father and son project and essentially Cold Heat is the result of that idea and lots of collaborative production work. Plunky wrote or co-wrote the songs and all the lyrics, then produced the recordings, soliciting the assistance of his longtime band mates: vocalists Tonya Lazenby-Jackson, Charlayne "Chyp" Page, Monica Jackson; bassists P. Muzi Branch and Ken Friend; keyboardists Howard Boisseau and Devon Jefferson; guitarists John Jackson, Ras Mel Glover and Carl Lester El; and drummer of Corey Burch; in addition to hip-hop producer A. Danja Mowf Maples
Like those who’ve inspired him, including Carlos Santana, Maceo Parker, George Duke, George Clinton, Herbie Hancock, and so many others, Plunky is a veteran in the mold of the ageless bluesmen who continue to play as long as they have something to say. Plunky is a jazzman who is known for his multi-faceted musical interests and who has often ventured into the realm of funk to express what is the life of the party or to explore the politics of the times.
Versatility and boundless energy is reflected in his output. Plunky continues to tour, performing in festivals, clubs, concerts, studios, schools, on television, and church. Earlier this year Ways2Move of France released the Plunky & Oneness of Juju Live in Paris concert and documentary DVD. Plunky regularly lecturers on the history of Black music, runs his own record label, oversees his son’s hip-hop productions, travels internationally and he produces music videos and film, including the award-winning documentary, Under The Radar - A Survey of Afro-Cuban Music.
Like much of Plunky’s ongoing work, Cold Heat rolls right along the cutting edge. It is a compilation of songs about love, aspirations and time shifts between yesterdays, tomorrows, and enjoying the moment.

PLUNKY & ONENESS OF JUJU – LIVE IN PARIS DVD

Saxophonist J. Plunky Branch his legendary group Oneness of Juju perform their innovative blend of jazz, R&B, hip-hop, funk and traditional African music in this concert recorded live at Paris’s New Morning jazz club. A bonus documentary reveals Plunky’s lifelong commitment to social justice by chronicling his involvement with the 1960’s civil rights and anti-war movements.

Reviews:
- Plunky and Oneness of Juju offer an extra funky live set in this release of a concert originally captured live in November of 2004. A twenty-two song set list including "Space Jungle Luv", "Be About the Future", "Got to Move Something", "World Wide Party", and "Every Way but Loose", ensures that the funk keeps coming as the party gets started, and an additional interview with Plunky himself, as well as a documentary on the man, offers a little something extra for the die-hard fan. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

- One of the best recordings we've heard in years from saxophonist Plunky Branch -- and one of the few to really capture the glory of his 70s classics with Oneness Of Juju! Given the billing of this set, it's clear that the older soul jazz spirit of Oneness is very strong in the conception of the set -- and the live performance features many classics from the group's 70s albums on Black Fire, played here with a good live energy and a strong sense of soul…

- I wasn't familiar with this artist before the purchase. Just saw the name around and heard one song. Heard this was a good package. It's great! The concert part is 1 hour and 40 minutes. Plunky and the Oneness take you on a great musical journey. The band is tight: these are pros! The filming was on point. There is also a bonus documentary, which runs about 30 minutes. Very informative and keeps your attention. If you like Doug Carn, Fertile Ground, Fela Kuti or any uplifting music, then this must be in your collection! – Reviewer Elphonics, USA

For further information: N.A.M.E. Brand Records, 2218 Rosewood Avenue, Richmond, VA 23220, 804-355-3586, www.plunkyone.com, Email: plunkyb@aol.com

Plunky & Oneness of Juju Tour de France March 2006

In November2004 our group, Plunky & Oneness of Juju, played in Paris for the first time. Now, 18 months later a DVD called “Live In Pairs” is being released and we are going on a mini- tour of France to promote it and to push for more touring in the coming months.

Sunday, March 19, 2006; on the plane at the Richmond Airport.
We are finally on the plane, finally ready for take off, finally on our way to Paris! If we can judge by the dues paying, the number of delays and planning re-adjustments that we have had to endure to get to this point, and if you truly get what you pay for, then this tour should be nothing short of “da bomb!”

Just today for example, my luggage was overweight and even after trying to re-pack and redistribute the tonnage I still had to pay $25 extra. Then our flight from Richmond to Newark was delayed, jeopardizing our making the connecting flight to Paris. But I am confident we will make it.

I have been anticipating this trip, this return engagement in Paris for the past 18 months. In November 2004 we had a triumphant premier at the New Morning, a jazz and progressive music venue in Paris. In had been a sellout, earth-shaking gig which was filmed for television and a DVD release and could launch a new phase of my career in France. We were supposed to go back a few months later in March of 2005. Then it was postponed until May. Then we were supposed to play at some festivals in July, but those dates were cancelled when the promoters balked at paying the plane fares during the high price season. In November of 2005, my French connections opted to invest in a large concert by the funk group, Brass Construction.

Each of these delays was disappointing. Over time they had a cumulative effect, eroding my confidence and my energy. I had for many years thought that if I and the group could perform the way we do at my gigs in the states, we could be a smash hit in Europe. And because my past European club dates have, in fact, gone so very well, they have in some ways spoiled me, making me want to devote all my efforts to touring abroad. It is a case of like the old song says, “How you gonna keep’em down on the farm, after they’ve seen Paree?” Touring in France and the major music cities on the continent has become my focus and my goal.

So in December 2005 we confirmed the booking of this date, March 21, 2006, at the New Morning and added weekend dates in Marseilles and Montpellier in the South of France.

The plane takes off.
Then two and a half weeks ago my French connections, Reynald, Samy & Daniel, called me to say they wanted to postponed this three date mini-tour until May or June because of poor advance ticket sales, poor winter weather and several unfavorable business conditions. One of the main reasons for doing this tour was to support and promote the release of a “Live In Paris” DVD of our last concert at the New Morning; and now the manufacturing of the DVD’s may not be completed on time.

Upon hearing about yet another postponement, I was livid, disturbed and disappointed again. The band members were knocked for a loop. And the Frenchmen couldn’t understand why I was so upset. They said, “The tour is not cancelled, it is only postponed!”

I had to explain to them that each person in the group has other jobs, gigs, families and other things to do besides being on call for me. Changing plans repeatedly or at the last minute undermines their confidence in the business. I was offended and the band was hurt that their personal plans would be adversely affected.

After a couple of days of wrangling with management and the promoters in France and struggling with budgetary and personnel adjustments, we decided to do the tour anyway; but with a 50% reduction in the budget and cutting musicians from the touring group. It was tough.

But all that is behind us now as we land at Newark Airport to transfer to our flight to Paris. Flying into a major city at night, you get the picture of an amazing light show on the ground: arteries of lights, sparkling jewels decorating the darkness on earth; awesome arrays of light decorating the night; sparkling colors like pre-arranged patterns of manmade stars. Car lights snaking in slow motion, like glowing blood cells moving through arteries. I enjoyed a futuristic wow moment seeing the light show as we approach our landing sight. This is like Sun Ra’s Outer Spaceways, Incorporated!

I wonder if I will really do want to do this live performing/ touring group thing forever? This trip should help me know… More will be revealed. Touchdown!

Then on the plane flying to Paris.
Interesting synchronicities: In the Richmond airport we met Lonnie Liston Smith who was just arriving from Paris, having performed the night before on a show with the Temptations. Also, I spoke of the phone with Drummie Zeb, an ex-student of mine who performs with The Wailers. He tells me they are performing in Paris on Thursday night and wishes me a successful tour. I tell him I will try to go see them in Paris. It seems that Richmond, VA is “representing” in Paris this week.

Flight landing notes: From above, the patterns of our real estate development and lifestyles become apparent. Schools, recreation, neighborhoods, transportation centers are sited and arrayed and create interesting and discernable patterns. Early civilizations that created giant land drawings like in those in South America may have indeed used woven fabric and heated air to fly high above the earth to see those paintings. So man may have been flying for centuries. We’re going from Richmond to Paris to perform; flying across the ocean to do a gig in the time it takes to drive from Richmond to Atlanta. Airplanes may be becoming the new transit for the masses, like buses. Flying and travel in general bring people closer together, makes us more familiar, more like family. Pretty soon all gigs may be local gigs!

Tuesday March 21, 9:00 AM In my hotel bed.
We got through French immigration and customs with no hassles. Unfortunately, one of Asante’s suitcases did not arrive. We got to the hotel, checked in and rested a bit before going to Radio Nova to do an interview. After that I ate and crashed. The next day, Tuesday, was cold and rainy so I spent the day resting, and Asante made himself a costume out of a towel and hotel bed linen, like he was a member of P-funk. We went to sound check at 4:30 PM and worked with the sound and tech crew until 8:00 PM. We ate in the dressing room. Then we painted up our faces, dressed, and did the gig.

The audience at the New Morning was very enthusiastic and intensely into the music and the show. I can definitely see possibilities for success here and in other progressive markets in Europe. Before the show I finally got a copy of the new DVD. I ripped it open, watched the documentary portion and I was completely blown away! That’s all I can say. The documentary opens with footage of the Martin Luther King March on Washington and the “I Have a Dream” speech. Then it continues with an extended interview of me. During the course of the 26 minute documentary there is rare archival footage of James Brown and his group with Bobby Byrd singing and Bootsy on bass; footage of Maceo Parker, Pharaoh Sanders, Fela Kuti all interspersed between shots of me walking around Paris and Plunky & Oneness of Juju playing live. The documentary is serious and of such a high quality technically that it is quite impressive!

Our show was tight and we rocked the house! The audience demanded two encores and we ended with Asante and Corey, and finally Asante soloing them into a frenzy. They wanted yet another encore but I said that was enough. After the show we had a stream of visitors to the dressing room, including Patrick, the director of Nocturne Distribution, who is distributing the DVD and CD release in Europe. He seemed pleased with the performance and he said he was going to have some of his people come to the show in Marseilles on Friday and he himself would come down to Montpellier for the show on Saturday. After the show we came back to the hotel in the middle of the night and went to bed.

3:30 AM Thursday Morning in my hotel room.
The next morning we got up and had breakfast at the hotel and met a group called the Crawford Brothers, a gospel group from Upstate New York also staying in the hotel. They performed last night at another venue in Paris and are doing gigs in France and Holland over the next few days. We exchange contact information. They say they come to Europe several times a year, most times for a week or a weekend and for some one-nighters.

We spent the day in and around the hotel because it was again cold and rainy and we could all use the rest. I did an interview for a publication and another for an Internet TV site. I met with Daniel, the manager, Patrick, the DVD producer and we talked a little business. Tonya, Muzi and I ate dinner at a restaurant next door to the hotel. Muzi and I shot pool. Then I crashed until 3:00 AM. Now I am up and not sleepy…

Thursday 5:00 PM in my hotel room.
I finally fell asleep around 4:00 AM. I got up at 8:30 and did my yoga, even though at the start my body was so sore I wondered if age or arthritis is catching up with me and beating me down. After breakfast and Internet work and some more rest; I took a bus and a metro to go sightseeing. I walked the hell out of myself.

I walk around Paris (the city of light and love)
And I think of you
I see posters and ads for haut-couture
I see you in those fashions looking so alluring
I wish you were here

Friday morning in the room before leaving for Marseilles.
We are a modern day menagerie, a troupe of troubadours, traveling from place to place to entertain, share ideas and amaze people. I wonder if it is worth the energy, the hassle and the concerns, boarding planes and trains, with bundles of instruments and costumes and artifacts from abroad. The circus is coming! Wow! What logistical complexities – just to entertain a few folks. But in this modern world what happens in the media is important, often more impactful than what happens on the stage. We’re here getting media coverage and we’re releasing new media product.

On the high-speed train to Marseilles.
We got out of Paris without too much hassle. We checked out of the hotel. Both Tonya and Asante had phone bills that they contested because they were using phone cards that they thought were toll free, but they were running up charges on the hotel phone. The hotel just waived the charges, which totaled about $100.

We took two minivan taxis to the Lyons Station in central Paris. In the confusion of loading up, Muzi left his suitcase in the hotel lobby and had to go back to retrieve it. It was a good thing we left with an hour to spare, so he had enough time to get back before the train left.

We have way too much luggage! We all agree that we could have brought much less stuff with us: fewer items of clothing, fewer artifacts, just less stuff. I am the main culprit though. I have one large suitcase of clothes, an even larger one with my sound effects processors and stands for my horns; plus my three saxophones, my briefcase, and my video camera. I have to have helping hands every time we move. I left one suitcase at the hotel in Paris until we return on Sunday, but I still have five things to carry and keep track of as we go for these two weekend dates down on the Riviera.

The high-speed train is a double-decker and it whisks us across the French countryside at 160 miles per hour. Still, even at that speed, the ride is relaxing. The Central France landscape is beautiful. Muzi says parts of it remind him of the mountains near Roanoke, VA. But the villages here are quaint and European, like the pictures in French grammar textbooks. The farmhouses and barns are all tan with clay tile roofs and they are aging gracefully. Trees and shrubs fence the parcels of land into neat rectangles. An ocean of flatlands, hills and valleys is punctuated by an occasional river, lake or train whizzing by in the opposite direction. A pensive and restful mood settles over the group and the whole train car…

Could we live in a cozy farmhouse out here in the middle of France? Or in Italy or Ghana or Venezuela? Probably friends, family and familiar things are too important to us. Maybe the two of us would be enough for us, at least a short time. This is too far away from it all. But, boy, it is beautiful to pass through! It would be great for a change, for a week, but maybe no more than two. It could be a vacation spot. A rustic, isolated spa-like visit for relaxation, sex, meditation and longing to get back to our normal. I think I want to spend my old age doing what I know and on the go as much as I am able. But then I’d like to think I could be content wherever there is beauty, comfort, access and you.

Saturday afternoon on the train to Montpellier. (The gig last night was da bomb!)
We got to Marseilles at 2:00 PM and the weather was sunny and warm. Finally a spring-like day to contrast to the wintry, dreary mix in Paris. Marseilles is too cute! Much more working class than the vibe of Paris. But Marseilles is right on the coast, the Riviera, and its port area and beach are breathtakingly beautiful. Tonya, Corey and I took a drive through the city with the wife of the promoter of the show here. We also drove over to and along the coast and we stopped to take some pictures and to ooh and aah at the views of the Mediterranean Sea, boats, cliffs, and the old buildings that border the beach. On a little cliff above the shoreline there is a large, impressive statue and monument to the Africans who came across the sea to Marseilles. The city is 2600 years old. And the Riviera is all it is cracked up to be!

We got back to the venue in time for the 4:00 PM sound check. The Cabaret Aleatore is a standup, black box space in a converted tobacco warehouse. The facility is part of a growing arts center, which has artists’ studios, a theater space and indoor and outdoor exhibit spaces. The venue is super funky with lots of high-tech gear, lights, sound and decorations. Sound check lasted until 7:30 PM. It was thorough and effective. We walked to the band house, ate dinner, changed clothes and went back to the venue for the gig.

My French management and promotion team had been concerned about getting an audience for this gig. Advance ticket sales had been paltry. But we ended up getting a really good audience, 573 paid plus 75 comps in a venue that holds 700. With guests, press and crews we were near capacity. From the stage it definitely looked like a packed house, with at sea of smiling, grooving, mostly white faces from the edge of the stage all the way to the back of the room.

The audience got into the music almost from the start; but they got more and more exuberant as we got funkier and funkier. By the end of the show and two encores, it was clear that we had triumphed and earned many new fans!

The night was revelatory. I had an epiphany or at least a series of revelations while lying in bed after the show: I could parlay my music, my experience, my history, my catalogue of recorded works and my current French connections into a successful, touring, music-selling career over the next few years. With my political/ spiritual bent, I could be marketed as a new Last Poets, Gil Scot-Heron, Pharaoh Sanders, Michael Moore, progressive act and media personality.

Young people could be drawn into our fold through hip-hop beats and my words. My show can be educational and engaging and enlightening and entertaining. I can use high-tech innovations for my stage shows and recordings. I have three DVD’s that can be used for promotion. With all these things going for me, I could aspire to become an elder, cultural icon a la Fela, Bob Marley, or Manu Dibango or George Clinton.

After the Saturday night gig in Montpellier.
Tonight’s gig and this mini-tour have demonstrated to me that this thing could happen! The performance tonight was quite good; we were a hit again. The venue, Le Jam, was small but well designed with great sound and tech. Roy Ayers played here the night before. The likes of Archie Shepp, Dave Holland and Lonnie Liston Smith all play this venue, which is connected to a music school.

We had no stands for Asante's conga drums but we improvised by using a platform for them. He was in fine form and he enjoyed moving the audience with his polyrhythms. Tonya had three keyboards and she had fun using all of them to work her show, manipulating the middle of the music, keeping it mellow, jazzy or funky as the songs required. She was super! Corey and Muzi were locked and grooving hard like Prince. The mostly college-aged, young people in the audience were genuinely into it. We were teaching them the songs as we went along. The longer the night went on, the more they got into it and the more they wanted. It was really cool to watch and make it happen!

After the show, I met with Patrick, the distributor who had come down from Paris and I think he was impressed and is being won over. He seems committed to committing resources to the promotion of the DVD project and by inference I think he will help with our touring and other future projects. I inadvertently left his business card on the table in the dressing room and I forgot to give him a copy of the new album, but both those things can be corrected.

We have the pieces in place and our foot in the door over here. We have a distributor, product, management, a good act, good songs, good press and an Internet buzz. Now we need a strong booking agent to complete our team.

Ideas and things to do:
§ "Sax Machine" proclaims the headline of the review of our show in the Marseilles newspaper. A great concept, ad slogan or song title.
§ How about props for one or two of the songs in the show; i.e. Plastic for "Plastic" a see-through flat sheet of Plexiglas, maybe with transparent people silhouettes?
§ Thank you notes to the venues.
§ Get press, videos, pictures and recordings from all the gigs.
§ Pick one song from the live DVD as a video.
§ Try to get television airtime for the DVD and documentary: BET, TV One, African Television Network, etc.
§ A new beginning or ending for the documentary segment to make it a doc film?
§ Use the DVD's for multimedia displays and projections at all gigs where possible.

Vibe to use as the intro to the documentary: Art meets science near the same place where music is magic. The musician can be a minor character who plays a major role as change agent in the development of culture. The journey to become an impactful musician is similar to that of becoming a doctor, a teacher, a griot, a statesman, an ambassador, a wizard or a mystic. A musician can be part all these things. The way begins with study of the craft, history and culture. It continues with the development of greater self-awareness through introspection and meditation and the journeyman can be aided by guidance from a teacher or mentor. The candidate is steeled and completed through experience, work, travel, observation, experimentation and repeatedly renewing the entire process. A musician must travel, reach out, accumulate unique experiences and information and re-synthesize it all into a whole; then a share it all with others to educate, effect change and positively influence the culture and the people - using music as and to convey the message.

Plunky video shots to use: In Cuban receiving a Santeria blessing; in Cuba playing with Folkloyuma; in Brazil visiting the Christo Redentor statue, then soaring in a helicopter; performing with the choir at First Baptist Church; teaching children; on stage; at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris; playing NY Times Square; walking along the beach…

On the plane back to the USA.
On Sunday we took the high-speed train from Montpellier back to Paris. We checked back into the Mecure Hotel again for our last night in the City of Light. From the bathroom window, Muzi's and my room had a great view of the Eiffel Tower with Parisian rooftops and buildings in the foreground. Muzi wants to come back in the future and reserve that room, #722.

Later we went out to dinner at a restaurant called Thanks Charlie and had a great meal - my best ever in Paris. After that I went to Samy’s office/studio to try and change our plane seats online; but to no avail. I went back to the hotel to pack around 1:00 AM. Samy gave me a big suitcase with wheels to replace the big one of mine that has been the bane of the equipment moving all week because it was super heavy with no wheels. I made arrangements for two vans to pick us up at 6:45 AM to take us to the airport. I took some more shots of the Eiffel Tower from the bathroom window and finally got to bed around 2:00 AM.

The wake up call came at 5:30 AM. I woke the others and we got downstairs just in time to meet the vans. We loaded up all our stuff for one last time in Paris and headed out into the dark, wet streets of Paris to the airport. We arrived early, 7:30 AM and our flight was not until 10:50 AM. Continental Airlines ticket windows didn’t open until 8:00 AM. We were fourth in line. I was able to change Muzi’s and my seats to a window and an aisle. We went through the security checkpoints without incident, except for the fact that Asante had a ball peen hammer in his carry-on bag. They searched him thoroughly both coming and now leaving. He went back to baggage check-in and put the hammer in his drum case.

We ate a light breakfast and then had to wait an extra hour before boarding at 11:00 AM and taking off at around noon. The flight was smooth and not at all uncomfortable.

After this tour I have become a doctor of musical divinity, a Ph.D., Dr. Plunkenstein. I have earned my degrees through the school of living, performing and dreaming music and dues paying. The school of mystic musings. The school of sacrifice and meditation and Hatha yoga and positive partying. I have bestowed the degree upon myself. Though I am “just a f*#king musician” as I was once told by an angry club owner, I am also a producer, a critic, and empathizer and a counselor; and, I can justify my existence and my luxurious life by giving and sharing my energy and my spirit to audiences who will listen and to all those who seek me out or cross my path.

This tour has “bought” me another six months or so… Before it, I wondered if each gig might be my last and if it were pure folly to continue to pursue this career in music. I am a lot like George W. Bush in being tenacious to a fault, committed to staying the course at all costs, believing in the rightness of the calling and the cause. Those of our ilk take pride in our steadfastness and the fact that we could be martyrs. I hope and pray that I can attain and maintain balance and openness. That I can be a satellite dish receiving information and inspiration from the universe and then re-broadcasting it to my neighborhood and other parts of the known world…

I am amazed at how events can so dramatically influence attitude; even with so much study and training for self-control and actualization. I am amazed that small things and trends can get me down or make me pessimistic about the future, especially when I have so many years’ experience with receiving so many miracles! When will I get to the point that I have enough faith not to worry? Maybe I enjoy creatively working out worst-case scenarios that never come to pass?

This tour was a miracle! Another in a long, awe-inspiring line of just in the nick of time, life-saving miracles. It almost didn’t happen at all. Then it was going to be postponed, again! But against all odds, it did come to pass, right on time to inspire me to keep on keeping on. As if God nodded his head to say, “Yes you can and you should stay on the path!”

I hope the others in the group, my fellow musician travelers, have also benefited. I know we all have bills waiting to be paid; and families that have allowed us to take the time away from the day to day to go for the gold and the goal. Beyond the money made, and the in spite of having to physically lug things around, I know my band mates enjoyed themselves, enjoyed making new audiences happy, and enjoyed expanding horizons.

I have had a group now for over 35 years. I have gotten to the point that I am kind of an institution through which a number of younger musicians get training and experience and then move on ever upward. I am like Roy Ayers, Lonnie Liston Smith, Pharaoh Sanders, Art Blakey, Gill Scott-Heron or at least I am trying to follow in their footsteps. I want to do some major touring, play bigger venues and have my show grow in size to be like George Clinton & P-Funk, James Brown, Sunny Ade, Fela Kuti, the Wailers, Maze, Earth Wind & Fire, Prince and Kool & the Gang. Is there enough talent and time? Time will tell.

Back at home. The plane trip back was long and tiring but not really that bad at all for me. Tonya had cramps; Corey was wedged in a middle seat on the long trans-Atlantic flight; Muzi had to prepare himself mentally to go to work the next day and Asante still had an over an hour’s drive after we finally got to Richmond. But even with long waits and delays and an 8-hour flight plus a connecting flight, the trip back was cool. Corey said, “Let’s go again next week!”

We’ll see…

Journey to Produce Music in Cuba
By J. Plunky Branch



I decided to take the opportunity to travel to Cuba to conduct research in my professional field, Africa and African-American Music History. I spent several weeks making contacts, gathering information and developing plans to go the island and document the music there as it exists today and as it relates to the history of Black music in the Americas. I would take my digital recording studio equipment, video camera, other gadgets and my son, Jamiah along with me for an 11-day excursion, research, production and performing junket that would be both memorable and rewarding. Here is my journal kept on my laptop during the trip. I share the information and observations with you in the hopes that you will benefit from my experiences, be piqued by my insights and enjoy the adventure…





Tuesday, 4/10/01- 3:10am: On the train to New York.
Unbelievable beginning to a remarkable experience. We left Richmond yesterday morning at the end of a two-week whirlwind of activity consisting of preparations for this trip to Cuba while continuing my ongoing activities of recording in my studio, doing gigs in schools and keeping up my personal relationships. Going to Cuba was not something that has always been on my life’s itinerary. Friends of mine had been suggesting and inviting me to accompany them or to go and perform in an annual jazz festival or to be supportive of various organized activities aimed at loosening the 40-year-old U.S. embargo. I had considered going to Cuba, but my schedule, my finances and the political pressures always combined to make the trip impractical.

Now, here I am on a train going to New York, where I’m planning to change to a train to Montreal, Canada, where I will spend most of one night and then take a plane to Havana tomorrow morning. I am traveling with my 19-year-old son, Jamiah, who has never been out of the country and never been on a plane. I suspect that this trip will change his life’s view and be indelibly etched into his memory bank.

In fact, we had to leave Richmond at 11:00 AM yesterday in order to come to DC to pick up his passport which we had to expedite by coming up to DC on last Friday. So, we spent an active and leisurely afternoon in DC after going to the passport office, then driving out into Rockville, MD to pick up some Sony Beta Cam video tapes and then killing time in Georgetown. While waiting for Jamiah to do some shopping I bought a little book on traveling to Cuba and it looks like a wonderful, maybe magical, place to go and do research into the music of Africa in the Americas. It also looks like a great place to vacation.


Tuesday, 4/10, 11:20 AM: On the train out of Albany New York
Though I thought that once we were on the train out of New York, we would just have a straight shot to Montreal, we, in fact, had to change trains. Moving our considerable load of baggage is proving to be a demanding production unto itself. We have six parcels to transport: one fat brief case which includes the laptop; one shoulder-strapped saxophone case holding both the alto and the soprano saxes; one flight case for the Roland VS 1680 digital portable recording studio; a box of Sony Beta Cam video tapes; one over-stuffed, over-weight clothes bag; and one oversized flight case containing microphones, wires, video camera, hard drives, batteries, tapes and all things technical. We have so much stuff that at every juncture I have to wonder if A.) Jamiah and I will be able to handle it all; and, B.) The authorities will let us board with it all. But so far so good.

In my mind, the preparations and initiation of this excursion has been viewed as an endless series of minor hurdles that have to be leapt and minor challenges that have to be met head-on or gotten around in some way or another. Early on in the process it was just the hurdle of getting to the point that I wanted to go. A very important challenge had to do with reconciling the political situation revolving around Cuba and the implications of working within the U.S. government restrictions on travel to the island. While I am a child of the sixties and a rebel at heart, it is another matter to take risk with resources and your time when you are 53 years old and have a family and business associates and music mates who all depend on your expertise and your being on hand to hold it all together.

Then there was the myriad of things that had to be done to allow Jamiah to go with me. Jamiah is on probation for a misdemeanor offense, so we had to get his probation officer to agree to allow Jamiah to leave the country. By the time we got over that hurdle, there was just enough time to expedite his passport application, but only by going to the passport office in Washington, DC. Yes, Jamiah would be going with me. His going will be a giant step forward in his training in business, in his development as a man and in his knowing the world as it exists. Jamiah’s going with me to Cuba would also be important to me as a father trying to pass something on to his son. In addition to him being a videographer, a budding hip-hop beat-master and percussionist, Jamiah is important on this trip because I certainly could not be carrying all this stuff to Cuba without his being my chief baggage handler and roadie.

It is just past noon and we are barreling northward; through Saratoga Springs, NY, across fields and forests of melting snow; north toward the border with Canada. I don’t know what to expect regarding customs and immigration into Canada but I have considered getting into Canada with all that we are transporting to be one the few remaining hurdles to jump. When we do get into Canada with all this stuff, then we’ll have to get a hotel; get from the hotel to the airport at 4:45 AM tomorrow morning,, and then the last hurdle: getting on the plane to Havana.

Last night before leaving Washington, DC I took Jamiah to the train station at 1:10 AM. The plan was for me to leave him and all the baggage at the train station while I drove out to the edge of town to leave the car at an old friend’s house, then take a cab or Metro back to the train station to make the 3:00AM train. Before leaving Jamiah at the station I thought about asking one of the taxi drivers there to follow me out to my friend’s and bring me back to the station, but then I thought that that might be expensive, paying two fares. So I noted the phone numbers on a couple of the cabs there and figured that I’d call for a cab to meet me out there on the edge of town.

Well, out on the edge of town, I called the numbers and the best I could do was to be on hold for 15 minutes before being told that it would be a 30-40 minute wait for them to get me a cab. After parking the car and waiting 30 minutes, I called back to the cab dispatcher and after waiting on hold for 12 minutes I was told that they still hadn’t located any of their drivers who were out in my region.

So I decided that I would do better driving around to find a cab myself, or in the worst case scenario, driving back downtown to the train station and paying whatever the cost to park for two weeks near the station. I started driving back downtown and spent a frustrating 15 minutes looking for a cab that wasn’t off duty. Beginning to get a little worried, I decided to head back out toward my friend’s house. As I’m speeding up I-295, I spot a taxi about to come on the highway. I speed up even more and flag him down. (It was more like I blocked his entry onto the highway.)
The cabby agreed to follow me to my friend’s and take me to the train station.

On the way back downtown to the train station, I learn that the cab driver has invested $60,000 in studio equipment for his son. And his son is looking for a saxophonist to do some recording on several projects that he is working on. I gave the driver one of my CD’s and my card to have his son contact me when I return, but I was more grateful for the lift to the station than the synchronicity of the music production hook-up.

I made the train and now I’m on my third train, passing through snowy mountains and lakes in upstate New York or Vermont. I have enjoyed a lunch of pizza, turkey Caesar salad, white wine spritzer and a large chocolate chip cookie, and all is right with the world. Jamiah has no trouble sleeping and sometimes I wish I had that knack.

Thursday, 4/12- 8:AM in my apartment room in Havana:
It has been an eventful 36 hours since I sat at this laptop to notate what’s going on. We did get into Canada without a hitch. The Canadian customs agents boarded the train, checked documents, asked questions, but checked no baggage that I saw, and after an hour, the train moved on. When we got to Montreal, we took a cab out to a Best Western Motel right across from the airport. And though Jamiah wanted to go out and do something in Montreal, because it was Tuesday night and not much was happening in the city and because I was just a little tired from all the travel and preparations, we stayed in the room and ordered Chinese food.

I went to bed around 10:30 PM but awoke hourly, being concerned about over-sleeping, even though I had asked for a wake-up call at 3:40AM. I got up at 3:30, showered and we took the shuttle bus to the airport, arriving there at 4:20 to pick up our tickets. The travel agent didn’t show up until 5:30, but we got the tickets and boarded the plane without hassle.

It was a beautiful day for Jamiah’s first plane ride: sunny and bright with just a few clouds to offer perspective and depth of field. After takeoff, he slept most of the way there. Our first glimpses of Havana from the air revealed that the city sprawls, empties into the sea and has the flatland topography of the typical coastal urban area.

We landed, went through customs and immigration with only a slight delay with a question raised about the box of Sony Beta Cam tapes. But when I said that I was a musician here to record, they immediately apologized and let us go into the main terminal and into Cuba.

Skipper was not there to meet us! Well, we were early. We had to wait about on hour for him to show up, but in his defense, he had been told that the plane would arrive at 11:45. We took a car and a cab into and across Havana to our apartment. The city had the look and feel of the tropical third world but with a cleanliness and bustle and energy that is refreshing. The people are a good-looking rainbow of shades.

Our apartment is at the edge of a part of town and is across the street from the water and a monument. It is clean, nicely appointed, with two bedrooms and a maid. It will also cost twice as much as I had budgeted. We also hire a car and driver for the duration of the stay and I shell out half the money I have with me and I will wait to speak with Skipper about what I have and how it will be apportioned until am to be reimbursed.

After dropping off our luggage, we head to the film institute to meet the director and film crew for Skipper’s film, “Why.” The film Institute training school is a government agency, which teaches students the art of filmmaking. The students will make propaganda and regular programs for Cuban television and films for distribution to other Latin American countries. (When we arrived I had a scare when my Canon GL-1 camera “ate” the first tape we put in it and then would not load subsequent tapes that we tried. But it turned out that the camera had accumulated some condensation from the flight and the humidity here in Havana.) We had lunch across the street from the film institute and discussed the film project with the director and assistant director.

After lunch we were joined by trombonist Craig Harris, one of the musicians in Cuba to do a recording with David Murray for a French Canadian record label. We all went with Craig to have his lunch at the Casa de la Musica, which was directly across the park from the film institute. Craig had arrived in Havana three days earlier and had already gotten a feel for the place and he had already been meeting some of the Cuban musicians who were going to participate in David Murray’s session. And Craig had already been out to hear some of the tremendous music that goes on in this city.

We went back to the film institute where we watched some video about Bata drumming and the Santiera religion and we talked about the amazing quality and quantity of Cuban music and musicians. Craig is an engaging and smile-inducing conversationalist and we had an enjoyable afternoon hanging out.

At 5:00 PM we went back across the park to the Casa de la Musica for a club/concert by one of the most popular local bands playing salsa at it’s hottest. People started buying tickets at 4:00PM for the 5 o’clock show. When arrived at 5:15 the place was already crowded. The show opened with a Shango dancer who did fire eating, sword dancing and lifting a table with a girl seated on it with his teeth. Then the band ripped it up for two hours non-stop. Hot salsa, hot young bodies gyrating, in a hot, hot hot happening! And Skipper says this kind of thing goes on everyday around that time at places all over the country. Hot music in the afternoon. Then later, hot music in the night at these same clubs. Hot music and hot hips gyrating in African circles, fast, slow, up and down, round and round; mesmerizing…


Thursday, 4/12 - 9:00PM - Back at our Apartment
It was a full day but an up and down day. An interesting day in that we got some interesting things done but at the same time a day of some frustration for Skipper because he wanted things to move along more directly and expeditiously. We got up and showered and got out of our place by 9:30AM. We rode around with Skipper and Carlos, our driver, to a couple of places trying to get things moving by prodding government officials along so that they would see our commitment to getting the music and ultimately the film produced. Skipper was also trying to impress upon everyone that the American Musicians are here and here only for a limited period of time, so that now was the time when the recordings have to be made.

According to Skipper there is a Cuban mentality that holds the belief that all meaningful things have to proceed in an orderly and prescribed way and that way must pass through and be administered by the party bureaucrats. Bureaucrats by nature are not innovators or boat rockers and they guard their own turf and sense of importance. They tend to defer to other bureaucrats, particularly those of higher stature.

We were supposed to meet with a music producer who would be assigned to work with me and get me anything and anyone we would need in order to get my recordings done. We never did see that person today.

We did go see Salome, a Santiera priestess and local block representative in her neighborhood, which is deep in one of the deep barrios in Havana. We had to look for her place but we did find it, a small, one bedroom second story walk up into folklorica. Her living room was a non-descript, dingy ghetto place that could be anywhere in the Third World. Very sparsely furnished with a sofa, wooden chair and table and not much else. The whole apartment and terrace were as poor as any I have ever been in, but there was no revulsion and even a certain invitingness about the place.

Salome is a very large woman; the type you describe by spreading your arms wide apart. She spoke very little English and Skipper, who knew her, communicated as best he could, that we wanted to see her shrine to the Santiera spirits; that I wanted some information about her religion; and that we wanted a blessing concerning the project. She ushered us into her bedroom and showed us her shrine which was like a closet filled with a cornucopia of artifacts, whatnots, knickknacks, beads, necklaces, figurines, feathers, hairs and whatevers… She spoke to us in Spanish about Yemaya, Shango, Obatala & Ogun. She said a prayer over Skipper and then one blessing Jamiah and me. Jamiah videotaped the proceedings.

We then moved out on the terrace where she showed us an animal skin nailed to a board, an egg cracked on a hand written note, and other items which had once been living but now were sacrifices to the Saints. Skipper spoke with her about arranging for us to come and record some musicians and part of a religious ceremony. A neighbor who spoke English was summoned so the negotiations and arrangements could be understood. She said that she would try to arrange a party or event where three Bata drummers and a singer would come and play and we would record them. This will happen on Monday if the musicians are available. Then on next Wednesday we can come to a religious ceremony and record all the things that go on outside the ceremony, but not the most sacred, secret portions that go on inside.

It should be very interesting when we do these things. Setting up digital recording equipment at a party within the confines of Salom’s tiny el barrios apartment will be technically challenging and it will represent an incongruence of modern technology meeting ancient folklore. And it could be artistically and musically unbelievably rewarding.

The rest of the afternoon was spent trying to make connections with people and discussing the theoretics of what we are trying to do. We took our meals at Skipper’s apartment. He has a small place in the hood and he has a woman who takes care of his place and cooks for him. She fixed black beans and salads for lunch and later she fixed chicken for Jamiah.

At 5:00 PM we went back to the Casa de la Musica to hear another hot salsa band and to witness more of the hot dancing. The crowd today was different from yesterday, a little older and slightly more traditional somehow in their taste, but no less exuberant in their response to the music and the setting. The Casa de la Musica is a night club space by any other name. It has a great sound system, a large stage with a raised platform at the rear for the horn section, and the club boasts adequate professional stage lights and mirror balls for atmosphere throughout. It is a really nice place and would function anywhere in the world. Here in Cuba it is one of the places that makes the national phenomenon of music as an exhilarating release, music as recreational highlight of the day, music as emotional high, a reality here. It’s like the whole city has a thank-God-it’s-Friday party every day.

And oh the women! Oh the bodies! And oh the shaking that goes on! Salsa Africanized at the hip! Rhythmic and counter-rhythmic sensuality in motion. The music, the dance, the energy - it’s what changes day into evening in Havana.

Saturday morning, 4/14 - 9:30 AM - In bed at the Apartment
Yesterday was another experience in Havana. In the end it was an eye opening, almost mind blowing set of realizations that may have drastically changed my perspective of music in Cuba and what it can mean for the people here but also the potential power of this music to be a force in dynamic changes that may be underway in the world of music. Certainly as of this morning I am changed. My notions of what I do and will do with music and in music have been altered. Plunky’s music, band, productions, careers and record company possibilities and goals may never be the same. And maybe this is why I have been led to come here.

I almost can’t remember how yesterday started… Oh yes, we got an 8:00 AM wake-up call from Skipper. Jamiah and I did a little bit of exercising and had juice, fruit and coffee prepared by our maid. Then we got Carlos, the driver that Skipper hired for the week and whose apartment we have rented, drove us over the Skipper’s place where we had a long meeting with Dennis, a local musician whose band we had seen at the Casa de la Musica the evening before. Dennis has agreed to work on the music for Skipper’s film and we were meeting with Dennis to discuss the specific arrangements for us to do some recording with him this week. Also at Skipper’s was Marika, a young European music student from Holland who is a fan of Dennis who we met the evening before after Dennis’ gig. Marika, who will serve as a translator for us, is blond, not hard to look at, adventuresome and is well traveled for her 26 years.

The meeting with Dennis is very productive. He has already written and arranged some music for the film and he is eager to work with us. We decide that we will record his band at a gig next Tuesday and, possibly again at another gig at the Casa de la Musica next Thursday. I suggest that we will record him doing some solo guitar and singing of the songs that he has composed for the film so that we will have some of the songs in more than one setting and mood for the film score and for the CD.

Over lunch we discuss many things, including finding other hip-hop, folkloric, salsa and rumba musicians to work with. Dennis and Marika will be very helpful with this because they really know the music scene in Havana. We also discuss some of the details of setting up to record in the clubs and other places. And we discussed the business and politics of we are doing. Craig Harris came over with a couple of young guys and a good lunch was enjoyed by all. Food is expensive and a real concern for the working class people in Cuba and sharing food is a real friendship builder here.

We decide that we should all go over to my place so that Dennis can see my recording equipment. On the way to my place I decide to have Denis go get his guitar so that I could do some recording right then. We do just that, setting up the Roland VS1680 and we ended up recording three beautiful songs with Dennis singing and accompanying himself on acoustic guitar. I played some soprano sax on a couple of tracks and I think that Dennis was impressed with the music and the quality of the recording we made. The apartment is all marble, stone and plaster, so the acoustics have a nice, natural reverb; and although we had to contend with traffic passing by outside, we were able to record some beautiful and poignant music.

After the recording session we piled six of us (minus Jamiah) into Carlos’ small car to take Dennis home for his band’s rehearsal. We went to el barrios and found the band all set up in a yard surrounded on three sides by the walls of two-story tenements. The whole group was in place: five horns, two keyboards, drummer, three percussionists, bass and soundman plus assorted roadies, friends and observers. The band consists of young players with good chops and obviously schooled in music. I listen to three songs and I am impressed with the intricacies of the horn arrangements, the attention to detail, the tightness of the rhythms and the professionalism found in this ghetto setting. I am amazed at the musicianship, the seriousness of the pursuit of the groove and the importance of music in Cuba.

Just as Skipper and I are about to leave the rehearsal, Dennis indicates that he wants me to sit in with the band on tenor sax. So I am given the sax player’s horn and we jam hard on the changes for “Autumn Leaves” in salsa and swing. We had a ball and everyone was all smiles as we left.

We were in the same neighborhood as the Salome the Santeria priestess and Skipper had to stop by there to discuss the arrangements for the “party” on Monday when we will record the Santiera musicians. Going up the pitch-black stairway up to her apartment is like ascending up into another world. But it is in no way foreboding. She is so very friendly and inviting. The arrangements are confirmed for 6:00 PM Monday, three drummers and a singer, an hour and half, food rum, people and we get to record it.

Later that night I went to hear Jose Luiz Cortez and his band at the Casa de la Musica. Fantastic! Stupendous! Marvelous! One of the best bands I have ever seen! Hot, spicy, energetic, super musicianship, super chops, super tight! I am just knocked out by the combination of musicianship and energy! Tightness and grooviness. These guys were terrible!

The cover charge was $15 as compared to $5, or even $2 that is sometimes the case. This band was worth the difference. Every musician was world class. Each one was a virtuoso of classical or jazz proportions, yet they played together in the context of this partying, grooving atmosphere. I am blown away.

I could live here! Between the music, the bodies, the energy, the climate. In a world where governments would exist only to provide for the distribution of goods and services equitably, for the general welfare of it’s own people and not have to be concerned with defense, I think Havana would be paradise for me. African and American. Music with rhythms and energy - moving the people. Tropical weather with perpetual breezes. People dancing at the close of the day and again at the close of the night. Who needs cable TV!

I woke up this morning thinking of not trying to compete as a performing musician, but if I were to continue performing, then I should have a bigger band, with more musicians; and more rhythms and more energy. I have always loved expending maximum energy on stage, giving and receiving high energy to the crowd, the audience, and the people. I see that this energy is what some people are asking for in my music: the high energy that has been there since my beginnings and that has recently been a little sublimated by the smoothness of corporate US radio and the influence of musicians in my band who have day jobs and complain about how long my sets are.

I woke up thinking about recording and producing the music here in Cuba. It is a hot commodity on the world music scene, and rightfully so. There are many issues to be dealt with, politically, socially and musically, but there is great potential in the timing and Skipper’s solid Cuban contacts.

I woke up thinking about music here being a tremendous force for social change. Cuba may be the most musical place on the planet! It is certainly among the best places for hot music anywhere. It has an abundance of talent and its society has continued an African tradition of music being accorded a significant place in the culture. And Cuba’s modern history has conspired to allow music to be a stress reliever, a source of national pride, an ingrained part of the social dynamic and social life, and an economic generator. Cuban music may be one of its chief exports and one of its great ambassadorial resources. Cuban music may be one of my great life changers.

Easter Sunday morning, 10:AM - Mi Casa
Skipper called to see if we’re awake and to see if I went out last night. I did go back to the Casa de la Musica to hear Manolito’s band, another one of the best salsa bands in Cuba. They were as good as advertised, with strong rhythms, really interesting orchestral arrangements and a unique instrumentation, with a string section consisting of a cello and two violins added to the usual compliment of horn section, two keyboards, four percussionists and four lead singers.

I went to the club alone and ran into Marika, who was there dancing and hanging out with the musicians. She said that she had collected the names of several rappers and musicians who were interested in our project. I also met Ronald, who had picked up Michael Kenny, another one of Skipper’s friends, from the airport. We talked about Cuba, the music, the project, and at the end of the evening Ronald gave me a lift home.

Earlier in the day yesterday we learned that we would not be able to do the party and record the Santiera musicians at Salome’s place, after all, because the drummers were going to do a gig in Martinique. I was disappointed because I was really looking forward to recording and being part of that happening. But Skipper said he had another possibility, so we had Carlos drive us to Guanabacoa, a deep Afro-Cuban ghetto, where he had a friend. Jamiah and Siul, our new, very fluent translator was with us and we all enjoyed our drive across Havana to the other side of the docks, to a section of the city that had rough, barely paved roads, horses, pigs, and the appearance of a shanty town.

When we got to the compound of his friend, Skipper was greeted warmly by all, from the elders to the smallest children. We arranged to have a small party in order to record some music there that very evening. We left there to go looking for an extension cord and three-pronged adapter plug and to go past David Murray’s place to see if he and Craig would want to come hang out in the ghetto and see the happenings. Then we went back to my place to gather up the recording and video equipment and headed back out to the little recording session, a 30-minute drive away.

When we got there, we set up the recording studio in the yard, which was enclosed by the walls of the small apartments in the compound. It was almost a miniature rural setting that included a pig oinking, a pigeon coop, two small dogs, one daschun and one mongrel with it’s left eye hanging out, assorted family members and children in a small yard that had a small creek running through the back. Jamiah and I placed five microphones in strategic places, got the video camera loaded and we were ready to roll. Skipper broke out the rum and soon our little recording session party was underway. We had two old conga drums, claves, a cowbell and five or six men doing unpolished chanting. Later a young boy brought his trumpet and another came in with a snare drum and a rusty cymbal, which he set up on an overturned bicycle frame.

The music was basic rumba. The rhythms had their moments of magic, but the singing was very unpolished and loose. I think that there was a lot of hesitation and uneasiness caused by the presence of all the equipment, which is more than understandable. There is what my friend, Kevin Teasley, calls “red light syndrome,” where musicians of all levels of expertise go through some amounts of stress and tightening of the nerves when the recording light goes on and the engineer says, “tapes rolling!”

Carlos made another trip across town and brought back David and five other people in his entourage including two European women, one of whom is a photographer from Geneva traveling with him. They all came in and added an incongruent international and high tech flavor to the tiny informal yard party in the ghetto. A couple of times I joined in the music on my soprano sax and a good time was had by all. After the recording session ended, we disassembled the equipment. Tables and chairs were set up and we all ate dinner and drank some homemade rum. Music on the little stereo included Kool & the Gang, Mariah Carey and Earth Wind & Fire; and after the meal when the salsa played, there was even some dancing and beginning lessons in doing the salsa.

David Murray even asked me to do a cameo appearance on his recording session coming up next week. I am honored. He says that he would be a fool not to take advantage of my services since I’m here. I am a bit concerned because there would then be two parallel heavy schedules to fulfill and my priority has to be doing the recordings for Skipper’s project. I am not sure that I need any more pressures at this point, but still working with David and the super musicians that he is assembling for his sessions would be really something! Skipper talked about it in his morning phone call and he thinks that if my energy can handle it, then I should go for it. He thinks it’s a tremendous opportunity and that I’ll just have to rest when I get back home.



Sunday night, 10:00 PM in my room.
This morning I stayed in until 12 noon when we dashed over the Skipper’s place to pick him up to go to a cultural festivity on a special street in a downtown neighborhood. When we got there we found a block turned into a work of art by a renowned artist, Salvadore. His paintings covered every wall like graffiti and his sculptures were everywhere along the tiny street. He had a shrine to the saint Ogun and an indoor gallery of his works as well. He has donated his public works on this block to the people and on different days there are programs for children or art classes and various cultural activities. On Sundays there is a rumba festival and percussion and dancing groups come there to perform free for the people.

When we arrived, there were throngs of people jammed into the center of the street, which was really about the width of a wide alley. There was a covered shed under which the drummers and singers and dancers performed. The event was a neighborhood and an international affair with people from Havana intermingled with people who were obviously tourist from anywhere. People were watching and listening to a rumba group drumming and chanting and the crowd was closer than shoulder to shoulder. What should have been aisles were jammed with bodies trying to closer or to move through. Cameras, tape and video recorders were capturing much of the goings-on, but I am not sure there was anyway to capture even a majority of what was there in that alleyway: polyrhythmic conga drums and shekeres with heavy chanting, people dancing or swaying or listening or looking at art and each other, a kaleidescope of colors painted on everything, more people standing on the sculptures, on benches, on balconies of rainbowed tenement buildings, all mixed together in the heat of the hottest day yet here in Havana. We videoed, took digital pictures and recorded audio on minidisk and still most of the stuff passed on out into the universe uncaptured and free to all eternity.

We sent Carlos, the driver back to the apartment to pick up my horns so that I could play with the next group scheduled to perform. It was Rumba Morenga, an all women’s rumba group. They sang and played the drums, shakers, claves and bells and they excited the crowd with their energy. I did play my soprano with them, but I have to agree with Jamiah who thought it was not one of my better performances. The women sang with the micro-tones of African chants and I could not get in tune with them. But once again the crowd seemed to enjoy my playing and we grooved together in the moments that were ours. Sometimes the event and the facts and effects of the moment are more important than the resulting particulars and artifacts.

After we left, we saw Hamiet Bluiett sitting on a porch. Amazing! He was in from New York to do the David Murray session and he was waiting for his ride to the rehearsal. We stopped the car and talked to him and his wife and said we would see him later. When Skipper wanted to rest I made the tactical error of going back to my place and then to his place to eat rather than going to Dennis’ group rehearsal and/or to David Murray’s big band rehearsal. I was disappointed and a little depressed after missing those. I really should have gone to the big band session with all the big name musicians. It was my opportunity to scope out what was going to be deal with that and my week coming up is looking more like I won’t have a lot of time to be with that crew as much as I might like, so today’s time should not have been missed. I should have gone on to the rehearsals myself with or without Skipper or anyone else. I blew it and I hope that I can make that up to myself.

I went to shoot some video scenes of me playing at a couple of monuments and by the sea in our neighborhood; then to shoot some pool with Jamiah and Carlos; and then I came here to write this. Jamiah went back over to Skipper’s to check out more food and some young chicks. I’m staying in tonight.

I hope that this trip is like freshman college courses for Jamiah. This “semester” with me in Cuba he is taking: political science, video journalism, world economics and musical anthropology. I think that he sees it as just an interesting vacation, sometimes resenting that he has to video tape the proceedings rather than just checking out the sights and trying to get into something. Jamiah is so interested in being cool that he doesn’t want to have to be burdened with the camera bag or my horn case. He’d rather hang out with Carlos than attend cultural events and he’d rather play with the little kids than to sit in on business meetings. But I am sure that he is learning a lot and that he’ll remember and benefit from this trip for years to come.

Monday, evening - 8:15 PM Back at my place.
Today I got up early (because I went to bed early last night) and did my yoga on the cold marble floor. We had an early meeting with the Vice-president of the Music Association and though we got there early, we had to wait an hour or so before we actually got in to meet with him. Skipper, David Murray, Craig Harris, Siul, the translator and I met with the Vice-President and his assistant and discussed Skipper’s project and how the film, the music and the musicians might be used as a weapon against the U.S. blockage and for better cultural relations between the two countries. We talked about what the institution could do for us this week, i.e. securing a studio or room to be used as a studio for recording and helping us contact musicians to be recorded this week. But we also talked about the prospects for long term relationships and projects that would create ongoing work.

David Murray suggested that one thing that would have great impact would be working with instrument manufacturers to provide instruments and repair services; and the Vice-President was excited by that prospect. He said that there are 44 groups (marching bands, orchestras, concert groups, etc) in the Havana area and instruments are scarce and those that are available have “been here since Columbus.” He talked about other projects that have been initiated in the past. One was called Music Bridges, in which composers from the two countries were paired together to create joint collaborative works. The project was successful and some of the compositions were innovative and interesting, but when the project was finished there was no mechanism in place for any continuation of interaction.

We concluded by agreeing that this proposed long-term, relationship-building program was worthwhile and should be pursued. We said that the next step was to put a proposal together so that the Vice-President could carry it forward for approval by the appropriate ministry.

After that meeting I went back to pick up my horns and Jamiah to go to David Murray’s big band rehearsal for his recording sessions to start on tomorrow. Jamiah and I were among the first to arrive. The studio was old but well equipped. The sessions would be recorded on two-inch analogue tape. The recording room is a large enough space to record the 18-piece big band and it is acoustically deadened so that it should be a really good recording. The musicians are some of the best in Havana. All of them have great chops and are great sight-readers.

David has been working on the compositions and the arrangements for quite a while and he has worked with two well-known Cuba composers for a week to incorporate the rhythms and feelings of Cuban music into his works. This big band sounds really good playing the charts. I did get to play soprano on one piece and my lack of recent experience reading music charts was really apparent to me. I got through the chart but not like the other cats. They sight read it better than I would have played it after a week’s practice. I enjoyed being at the rehearsal and was impressed with the whole production, from top to bottom. I think the recording should be very successful.

Skipper and I spent some of the evening taking about things. The project, the budget, family and friendship histories were all topics on the agenda. We talked about my relationship with Jamiah and about our own relationships with our fathers and male friends. We reminisced about the past and projected some future possibilities. And I realize that we are still learning life’s lessons, from our successes and our mistakes.

It also dawned on me that releasing Cuban music recordings might fit quite nicely on my own record label, especially since I recently acquired Black Fire Records and now have a catalogue of 25 albums. Some new Cuban artists and releases might be right on time!

Tuesday Morning - 7:30 AM in bed at mi casa.
Yesterday Jamiah said he was homesick. And I can dig it. Like Dorothy said, “There’s no place like home!” As long as you are busy going from one thing to the next and you don’t have time to think about it, wanting to be home is less an issue. Oh yeah, you think about the people you love and those you work with. You mentally visit projects and habits you’d be doing if you were back in Kansas or Virginia or New York, but it doesn’t turn into the pangs of pain until you have too many quiet moments strung together and your thoughts drift into the twilight zone of visualizing what you’d rather be doing; and you remember where you’d rather be doing it. Home is wherever you’d really rather be right now and where you’d rather be for the long term and, as George Carlin would say, home is where you leave your stuff.

I don’t know if Cuba would ever be my home. Though one night here, at the Casa de la Musica when I was in the heat of the Cortez band’s set, and the music and the hips were pumping, I had the thought, “This is where I want to be, maybe forever!” But it’s easy to want to be in the heat of a good, hot moment. Easy to forget about politics and loved ones who are somewhere else, until the quiet moments of reflection turn into prayers and the prayers turn into visions of heaven and peace. And those things all ways are centered where you have your love - home.

Wednesday morning in my bed at mi casa.
Yesterday was a day that we came here to have. After I did my yoga for the morning, I got Jamiah up and we went with Carlos to pick up Skipper to run a couple of errands and then we were ready to go to the film director’s house located in a small seaside town 20 miles outside Havana. The drive was interesting in that I was our first highway trip since we got here.

The coastal town was sparsely populated with beach goers and small shops, and houses of various descriptions. The beach was the most dominant feature, with its azure water, palm trees, blue sky and wonderful Caribbean flavored sights and sounds added to the general landscape. This beach town was the kind of place that you would describe as idyllic.

After going out to a wonderful little pizza restaurant that boasts a real Italian-style, brick pizza oven and fresh vegetables grown right there on the premises, we went to the beach for a swim. Jamiah, Skipper and I in the clear, warm waters of the Caribbean Ocean. Palm trees, bikinis, quaint shoreline houses and relaxing dreams of this being the life.

We drove back to Havana and after dropping off Skipper and Jamiah and picking up my recording equipment, I went down to the Café Cantanta where Dennis & Swing would be performing at 11:00 PM. Although I was worried that I would be late, I had a short wait outside the club before I and Dennis’ band could get in to set up for sound check. Once inside, I worked with the house sound engineer and got my recording gear set up and ready in about an hour. Then I went back home to shower, rest for half an hour, dress, pick up Jamiah and leave for the gig.

On the way back to the club I stopped by the studio where David Murray’s big band was recording to assure that David, Craig, and Hamiet were going to come to the club and jam after their recording session ended around midnight. This night was what we came to Cuba to do: capture some of the magic of the musicians from Cuba interacting with musicians from the U.S. and I have been a little apprehensive about it all day. I just hoped that all would go well technically and artistically. And it did!

In fact, the gig went exceptionally well. The club is located the basement of the national theater and it is quite nice, with an adequate stage, a dance floor, and really good sound and light systems. There was a tight first set with Dennis’ band and half way through it David, Craig and Hamiet came in from their recording session.

Then after the break Denis conducted his band and directed a jam session with all of the American horn players and Cuban musicians taking flight in an extended salsa-jazz version of “Autumn Leaves.” We played it inside and out: David’s big toned tenor sax, Bluiett’s even bigger baritone sound, Craig’s scatting trombone and my little soprano sax all soaring, dipping, swooping, screaming and singing together and then into a series of extended solos. It was quite a descargas, a mega-jam, a 30-minute free wheeling whirlwind of musical energy! And we got it all recorded in digital quality sound and video! It was a winner. It was a slam dunk night. And everybody had a great time. It was Black fire in Cuba!

Wednesday Afternoon - 2:30 PM
I’m in my room for a moment having gotten up early to speak to Skipper, who called to talk about how hot the music and the happening was last night. We did get a room in the Karl Marx Theater for the rest of the week to use as our studio space. Now we’ll have to contact musicians to come through and record. We don’t have Carlos the driver and his car this morning so I don’t know how much we’ll get done today.

I did light yoga and listened to the recordings from last night. As I suspected the Dennis’ band’s first set was tighter and more “even” and made for a better recording than did the jamming second set, but all in all it was pretty decent. I took a cab to Hotel Cohiba to use the Internet for an hour. The Internet connection is painfully slow but I am thankful to have access to my email at all.

It is cloudy, quite breezy and chilly today, in contrast to the warm sunny days we’ve been having since we got here. Suddenly, Skipper just showed up at my door and said we’re taking the equipment to the Karl Marx theater to set up to record, so off we go.

Wednesday night, 10:00 PM
Back home to rest a bit. We did go to set up in the theater. When we arrived, Rumba Morenga, the all female group who performed on Sunday at the artist’s street festival, was already there waiting for us. The Karl Marx Theater is undergoing renovation, so we entered through the first floor lobby which a construction zone. The room we will be using is a medium-sized, smooth stone hall with a wooden stage. It is dusty and in the process of being renovated too. The security man and the electrician are helpful in getting the small things that I need and after a short while I am ready to begin recording the women.

Most of theater’s audio-visual equipment is in use in a production in the main concert hall, so they only have one microphone stand and one microphone for me. I use chairs for microphone stands and large paintings as baffles to try and get some separation between the percussion and the vocals. The women are very effective in performing their songs and they are excited to listen back to the recordings after each take. We get a pretty good sound for the recording and I experiment with different techniques, effects and microphone placements. We were able to get five or six good songs recorded, including one percussion instrumental, five songs of percussion with vocals and one song with percussion and two tracks of me playing saxophones.

Marika came and said that she had contacted some of the rappers and they would be coming as well. A little while later, six rappers did show up and they listened to the last part of the women rumba group’s session. Skipper spoke with the rappers about his project and its purposes and then I spoke to them about the recording process and artistic considerations and possibilities. They decided that they wanted to record with us.

We did get to record one rap song by a two-man group. They had music tracks on CD’s that they brought with them so I was able to record the tracks directly into the VS1680 and they did their raps flawlessly, straight through, without a hitch, twice, non-stop. It went well. The other group didn’t have their tracks CD with them, so we called it a day, packed up and left.

Jamiah, Michael Kenny, Siul, the translator and Skipper went to Skipper’s for dinner. Then Jamiah and I came back here to rest a bit. I am supposed to meet Marika at Zorro y Cuevo jazz café to meet the owner and to meet some other musicians for the recording project. This is also the club at which another group invited us to jam with them on tomorrow night, so I will get to check out the place as well. Ronald called and said that he would come by and pick me up, so it looks like I’m good to go. Just time for a 20-minute meditation/rest.



Thursday morning - 8:30 AM
Skipper called to start my day. I am tired from being out late last night and tired facing another long day recording today. Ronald did take me down to the Zorro y Cuevo jazz café and we met Marika at the door. After some moments of talking to the club manager and his not understanding Marika’s information about the project, we were admitted. The club owner was thinking that we were coming to try to film in the club. He said he had not been able to understand Marika speaking on the phone in English and Spanish, so he was a little confused. But he knew Craig Harris had been to the club to jam, so once he got it straight that I was one of the musicians who had been invited to jam tomorrow night, then everything was cool.

The Zorro el Cuevo club is a small jazz place. Its size lends itself to more intimacy and closer involvement with the music. Last night the band was led by an older musician who used to be in the group, Irekere. The music was very engaging and quite varied. The instrumentation included the leader and a young cat on percussion, which included bata drums; plus three horns, drums, bass, keyboards and electric guitar. They played a number of styles and flowed from salsa to jazz to blues, to funk, to traditional folklorica, sometimes segueing between several genres in one arrangement. The young percussionist was great! After the set Marika introduced me to him (his name is Emiel Lazo) and we talked to him about coming to the theater to record on tomorrow or Friday.

Also I spoke with the keyboardist who invited me to sit in with his group tomorrow night at Zorro el Cuevo and he said that he would come by the theater to check out the recording session too. Ronald introduced me to Ellen, a friend of Skipper’s who works for Pastors for Peace. Ellen was with U. S. Congressman Wynn from Prince Georges County Maryland. I sat down with them and had a drink and a brief conversation with them. Ellen is into jazz and a long time fan of the music. The congressman is here in Cuba on a brief fact finding mission.

I am amazed at how many people are on the streets downtown late on a weeknight. So many clubs and restaurants open, so much music, so much nightlife. And Ronald confirms that it is always this way and I wonder if not having cable TV and so many other home entertainment options is one of the reasons that live music and hanging out is so popular in Havana?

One thing is for sure, the rhythms of the drum are a big factor in the music here. I have to see if I can get a thumbnail sketch of the history of the music in Cuba. I will ask the musicians.

Now to shower and head over to the Karl Marx Theater to record all day. There is a percussion festival that starts at 5:00 PM and then, David Murray’s session going on from 4:00 PM to midnight, and then the jam at Zorro el Cuevo. So much music, so little time!

Thursday Night/Friday morning, 2:23 AM, mi casa again.
“If musicians were kings, there would be no borders.” That’s my quote for today.

I did go to the Karl Marx Theater at 10:00 AM; right on schedule. When I got there the women of Rumba Morena, the group we recorded yesterday, were already there, waiting for me. I left Jamiah in bed because once again he hung out until the wee hours, so I had to set up all by myself. Well, the electrician and the security man for the theater did help some, and so did the ladies. I spent the first hour letting the women listen to what they had recorded the day before, while I made dubs onto a minidisk. Then we shot some video of the women dancing to one of the pieces we had recorded.

Marika came and so did Emiel Lazo, the young conga drummer that I saw with the band at Zorro y Cuevo last night. I immediately set up to record him because the solo I saw him do at the club was so mean, I knew that anything I could get of his playing on a recording would be a great piece of music for the film track. And indeed it was! Emiel recorded an eight-minute conga solo that was too terrible! And he is 17 years old! After that, we recorded him playing congas backing up the women doing a chant and we also recorded a piece with him and me on soprano sax.

While we were doing that some of the rappers came in. The two-man rap group I recorded yesterday came in with the mother of one of them. I finished up working on what I was doing with the conga drummer. While the rappers were waiting for me to get with them, I was thinking that the mother had come to check out what we doing with her son and maybe to make inquiries about the business we were conducting with her boy. Oh but no: it turns out that her son had told her about the project and she, the mother, had written a rap about the embargo last night and they had come hoping to record it today!

So the next thing we did was set up to record them doing that rap song. The process was that we used a track from a CD for groove and tempo and they rapped using that as their backup music. We intend to replace that with music that Jamiah and others will produce back in the states. After I recorded the rappers, I recorded two tracks of the young conga drummer onto the song and when I get back home and put some other music with it I think it will be a hot rap song about the blockade.

“What’s your name/ It’s blockade/ You kill children everyday/ That’s bullshit, Man/ Not my way!“

We recorded another rapper doing a piece about the revolution and by that time, it was approaching 6:00 PM so we packed up to leave. It was a very interesting day of recording with the Rumba Moreno women interacting with Emiel, the 17-year-old conga virtuoso and the rappers. I also video taped an interview with the women and the conga drummer about the history of the music and rhythms in Cuba. And I even got footage of Emiel Lazo demonstrating the basic rumba rhythms on congas. It was a full day of producing in our theater hall; very gratifying artistically and also because I had the sense that we are accomplishing our mission.

After going to Skipper’s to eat dinner, Jamiah and I took a cab back here to rest. Ronald called and said that he was coming over to introduce me to an older musician, Alfredo, a percussionist who has been performing professionally with his family group, Papines, for 40 years. Their group is a four-piece percussion ensemble and they travel all over the world. Tonight they performed at a festival of Cuban percussion going on in Havana this week. My conversation with Alfredo was very stimulating and refreshing. He has performed with many great musicians over the years and his brother performed with Nat King Cole when he came to record in Cuba. Talking to Alfredo was a brief history lesson that I wish I had video taped. It was Alfredo who said, “If musicians were kings, there would be no borders.”

After Alfredo left, Ronald drove me to the Zorro y Cueva jazz café where I have been invited to jam with the group Bambaleo, led by keyboardist Lazaro Valdes. We picked up Marika on the way to the club and she wanted to go by and pick up Dennis. When we got to the club it was abuzz with musicians and patrons. A group playing straight-ahead jazz performed first and later Bambaleo went on. Lazaro Valdes is an innovative keyboardist and his group plays high-energy fusion. I did get to sit in on one number and although I didn’t think my playing was so great, people including the club owner seemed quite impressed. I gave the club owner one of my CD’s and he said that he’d play it on his weekly jazz show on the radio here in Havana.

At 2:00AM when we left the club, downtown Havana was still active. Michael Kenny wanted to go to the Casa de la Musica but I had Ronald drop me off at mi casa. It is past 3:00 AM as I finish making these notes on my laptop and go to bed. I will get about five hours sleep and get up to do my last full day’s work today, Friday.

Keeping this journal is a form of discipline. I am not so sure that it is not also a form of vanity to think that everything that I do is so great it should be documented on tape and in writing. But nevertheless, other musicians and people in general might benefit from learning of these experiences. And even though this late night note taking takes time, energy and discipline, it may be easier to do it right now than to wait and try to do it when I get back home, because there, I will have so much work to do, catching up the my affairs there plus organizing and producing what I have amassed here and doing the ongoing gigging and record business that I must do to earn a living. So onward, upward, got to keep on keeping on. Unto to whom much is given, much is required; and I have been given so very much….

Friday night on my bed early - 11:30 PM
Today was the last full day of work for the week. Thank God it was Friday! And it was our last full day in Havana. I got up did a miniature yoga session and went to the Hotel Corhiba to retrieve my email. Then I came back here to the apartment and took a taxi to the Karl Marx Theater with my recording equipment and my saxophones. I was moving very lethargically this morning. My energy was low and my body just would not move out of first gear. I wondered if I might be sick, but it turned out to be nothing move than the residual effect of a couple of drinks and too much cigarette smoke and too much work and staying up late and not eating at the proper times to get the energy flowing this morning.

Skipper arrived after I set up but none of the rappers who were supposed to start at 11:00 AM got there before 12 noon, so Skipper and I had a chance to talk. We agreed that it seems like there is the potential of some really great things happening here, musically, politically, commercially and humanitarianly. But there is a tremendous amount of work to be done if that potential is to be realized. I didn’t think about that this morning, but right now, it may be too much work for me: grants to be written, business plans to develop, correspondence to write, CD’s to be mixed, trips to and from Cuba, legal wrangling, marketing to be done, etc. But it is exciting as well.

The rappers came in and we listened and made dubs of some of what was recorded yesterday. Telma, a female poet came in and Skipper said that she was a strong rapper, so I eagerly pressed her to do a rap for us. The only sound track she had to rap over was something that already had her rapping on it, so I recorded her rapping to that for tempo and then had her do it again so that I had two tracks of her doubling herself. As with most of the other raps we have been recording, the intention is to take the raps back to the States and put other beats and music to the raps. But Telma’s rap was something special. It was a poem/rap that was actually a kind of prayer to the Orisha’s about her life, her love, her struggles and pain.

Then I asked if she could do the poem again set to a rumba beat and she said that she would try it. I cued up the rumba chant that the female group Rumba Morenga had done with Emiel Lazo yesterday. When Telma heard the track she broke out into a broad smile and said she couldn’t do it. But with a little coaxing she did and it turned out to be so bad! It was mad wild! Because here was a girl doing a poem-prayer to the Orishas over a rumba beat and females chanting to the same Orishas. Too cold! Next I had Telma improvised a derivative poem over a track of Emiel on congas and my soprano sax and that came out great too!

Then we recorded another male rapper, Alexia, doing a poem about revolution. I thought his delivery was sometimes slightly off time but I also don’t speak Spanish. I thought that his tracks that he brought in was a little distorted; but we are going to put new music to most of these raps anyway, so that was not a big thing.

When we were finishing up the rap things the two young saxophone players who were at the Zorro y Cuevo Jazz Café last night came in. But by 1:30 PM they were still the only musicians who had come, though we were expecting several others. We considered taking a break for lunch and coming back in an hour to see if any other instrumentalists would show up. Then I thought that I had better record something with just us three horns and if no one else showed up then I just call it quits. So Skipper took the rappers and the ladies from Rumba Morenga, who were there again hanging out, to his house for food. Marika and the horn players stayed.

We spent about a half-hour working out some free wheeling musical ideas for saxophone trio. The two young guys were good jazz students, with commendable experience and really nice tones on their axes. They looked liked they were not sure if I wasn’t a bit off my rocker with some of the things I was having them try; but in the end they began to hear and get a feel for what we would be doing. Jamiah came in, having walked from the apartment, so he could assist by starting and stopping the recording device.

We recorded three pieces. First we did an impressionistic piece consisting of the three saxes improvising over a set of chord changes that I charged the alto sax player to come up with. Next we did a slow blues that started out over blues chord changes and slowly evolved to a free state. And last we did a “salsa” piece with the tenor, alto and soprano saxes each holding a rhythmic part. This last piece was most interesting.

As we were listening back to the tracks, the other people got back from lunch at Skipper’s. I thought about calling it a day, but I heard the tenor saxophonist humming a bass line to the salsa sax piece while it was playing back so I asked him to let me record his voice bass for the track. It was fun sounding, so I got the three ladies from Rumba Morenga to do a three-part voice percussion track. While they were doing their thing, Emiel, the terrible young conga player came in, so I asked him to do a conga part with his voice on another track. Then I added a track by the rapper who did the revolution rap to the mix. And lastly I got poetess Telma to do her thing, which was the final touch.

It was salsa made from saxes and voices. As each layer had been added, the sound track sounded more and more like a Cuban paella or a gumbo and each new performance was greeted by smiles and applause by all the young people there. It was a lot of fun and actually pretty incredible both in terms of how it all came together and how it sounded.

Skipper came in and I let him hear it and he was knocked out by what we had done. He said he thought Jimmy Gray (founder of Black fire Records who died last year) was somewhere up there smiling down on us. Black Fire!

Skipper then assembled everyone and gave a wonderful little speech about the project and what we had accomplished in the three days we worked there. He also talked about being “cultural warriors” and thanked everyone for being supportive and giving so much of themselves. I spoke to the group, thanking them for their work, their creativity and praised their youthful spirits. I told them that I hoped that they had learned from the experience and that I hoped they would be inspired by history and also by the idea that together we artists can create new things and a new world.

We then adjourned and took taxis to Skipper’s house for food and a house party. We ate, drank and made merry! Skipper’s housekeeper, Maria, managed to get everyone fed. Rum flowed. Young horn players danced with Rumba Morenga ladies. Mike looked on and admired the sensuality of the dancers. And Siul, the translator, had fallen in love with the lead singer of Rumba Morenga and the two of them cooed and hugged and danced and kissed their way into the evening. That wa

Plunky & Oneness – Impressive In Their Paris Debut

Paris – Even before the concert began there was electricity in the air. Monday, November 29, 2004 will long be remembered by members of Plunky & Oneness (of Juju) and their French fans as the date of the band’s triumphant debut in Paris. The venue for the band’s first Parisian concert was the New Morning, a place that has a history of presenting great jazz artists from Ella Fitzgerald and Dee Bridgewater to Chick Corea, Maceo Parker, Pharaoh Sanders, Archie Shepp and too many others to name them all. And according to the promoters, the Monday night concert by Plunky & Oneness (of Juju) was up to the club’s high standards.

There was a rush to get choice seats and stage-edge positions when the first 100 hundred patrons who had lined up outside were allowed inside the club 90 minutes before the opening song would be played. When the band did take the stage, a loud roar of approval was let loose as the by-then packed house got a glimpse of colorfully costumed band members with faces painted like African masks. After bandleader J. Plunky Branch joined the ensemble, intoned his opening statements and played an invocation on tenor sax, he launched the band into a 6/8 polyrhythm with his famous words, “These are African rhythms, passed down to us by the ancients spirits…” From that point on the magic of juju was in the house.

For the next two and a half hours the band and audience were joined in spirit celebrating the power of rhythm, energy and improvisation to create joy, peace and inspiration. The music was classic. The sound and lights were ideal. And the band performed wonderfully, reveling in the exhortations of the adoring crowd.

Plunky said, “I always thought it would be special to play in Paris with my band. It took me years to get to do it, but I always thought it would be great when it happened and I wasn’t disappointed.”

The band was as tight a tick. All night, fabulously funky drummer Corey Burch flailed away in perfect sync with Nigerian percussionist Chief Udoh Essyet. Original and longtime Oneness of Juju bassist Philip Muzi Branch anchored the ensemble and created the shifts from jazz to p-funk, sometimes while singing. Keyboardist Kevin Teasley added tonal colors and took several amazingly nimble solos. But it was the soulful voices that moved the listeners to higher heights. Divas Jacqueline “Lady Eka-Ete” Lewis and keyboardist Tonya Lazenby-Jackson sang alternately like jazz stylists, gospel singers and Funkateers, always invoking the blues and evoking oohs and aahs from the French music connoisseurs.

As director of the energies, bandmaster Plunky was a commanding presence and always fully in control. His saxophones soared, bringing back memories of John Coltrane. His words poked and prodded the intellect. And Plunky was a modern day funk conductor, in the mold of his idols: Fela Kuti, George Clinton and Prince.

The repertoire for the evening traced the history of Plunky & Oneness of Juju in song. Beginning with the 1974 composition “Nia” and proceeding through the 1976 “Space Jungle Funk” the stage was set for beloved vocalist Lady Eka-Ete to sing her classic, “River Luvrite,” a song that has been reissued on several compilations since its release some 28 years ago. Her rendition of “Follow Me” was followed by stirring a capella sax solo, which served as an intro to an intricate arrangement of Gershwin’s “Summertime.” Each break or transition would be punctuated by loud screams of approval and thunderous applause; and the volume of the audience’s responses would only increase as the night wore on.

From the middle of the first of two 75-minute sets on, things got funkier and funkier. The party got more exuberant. The energy reached its zenith when Plunky & Oneness (of Juju) finally played their classic song, “African Rhythms,” and Lady Eka-Ete sang the lyrics: “African rhythms make you clap your hands, African rhythms, they make you dance!”

Later Plunky would say, “One of the highlights of my performing career occurred last Monday, at the New Morning club in Paris with me and my band chanting, “Let the rhythms take you to the truth…” and the audience of 500 French people hollering back, “Mother Africa!” What a joyous musical high!”

At the end, even after two encores the audience was screaming for more. But mercifully Plunky released the crowd from the band’s spell ‘round midnight and sent them out into the Parisian air floating on memories of a fantastic evening and anticipating Plunky & Oneness of Juju’s return to the New Morning.

The whole thing was filmed for French television and a future DVD release. So hopefully the experience can be re-lived soon. In the meantime, the group’s compilation double CD, African Rhythms Oneness of Juju 1970-1982, has been reissued by Black Fire Records and distributed all over Europe by Night and Day Distributors of Paris.

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But things didn’t look so great two days before that, when at the Richmond airport we learned that our connecting flight to Philadelphia was delayed and we would not be flying to Paris on that evening. Going back home to wait until the next day to leave was a disappointment that proved to be a blessing because we were able to get more rest from performing at our Bon Voyage party on Friday night and we used Sunday afternoon to better prepare and plan for the show in Paris on Monday.

Yes, it was a bit trying to have to reschedule all my travel recovery time and Sunday promotion activities and shift into the mindset of arriving on the same day as the performance. But in the end it all worked out just fine.

The gig in Paris was a triumph! Such an energetic and appreciative packed house. So much love. I was in my world. And on top of it.

After the gig we stayed in Paris for two extra days just to do touristy things: a boatride on the Seine river, walks along the Champs Elysee, eating in a French café, riding the Metro (subway), etc. I could live in Paris. In fact, I think I will at some point in time. But for now I can hardly wait to return. We are making plans for a tour in late spring. It would be wonderful.

Security issues at the airports are a drag. On the way back home we almost missed our connecting flight out of Philly. We had to run to make it and then we sat on the plane for almost an hour waiting to take off. But by the grace of God we made it home safely, thankful for the blessings and for experiences that keep us growing and inspiring us to strive to be better.