Author Archives: Zo!

The Foreign Exchange at Detroit’s Chene Park – 09.13.12

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Phonte, Me, Deborah Bond, Kush El-Amin & Sy Smith backstage after rockin’ Chene Park… Photo courtesy of Drake Phifer

Going back home to perform always seems to disturb my already dysfunctional “sleep-pattern”… I can never get enough rest the night before a Detroit performance – whether it’s a solo show or one with The Foreign Exchange. It’s actually very similar to preparing for a huge game…at home – YET it’s even more special than that because there’s a “we’ve missed you” factor on both sides that can be added into the equation now since I’m not living in the area anymore. As a matter of fact, the only sleep I participated in before this show occurred on the one hour-ten minute flight from Baltimore to Detroit. I was OUT and do not remember taking off at all.. But, I DO remember being awakened by that ridiculously hard ass landing executed by our pilot. I’m talking the type of landing that has been known to make you look extra crazy in public as your sudden waking up from a deep sleep while fighting the air tends to be accompanied by various random, yet well-placed expletives …..I’m not saying this happened to ME on this particular flight, but I’ve heard that’s how it goes down sometimes and you know, uhh… well…… ANYWAY, upon our arrival to DTW Airport, we were to be picked up and taken to the hotel located right along the Detroit Riverwalk. Kush El-Amin (bassist), Deborah Bond (vocalist) and I all walked off of the plane safely and randomly ran into Tim Scott Jr. (drummer) in the baggage claim area. We then caught up to our driver a few minutes later after letting the organizers know that we had arrived into town. The driver was cool as all hell and seemed to be a music head. He also began to hit us with a couple of hilarious quotables and stories… including the one explaining why he wasn’t allowed back on our hotel’s property. We were all in the van like, *crickets*…..  But the brotha got us everywhere we needed to be on time… We just had a bit of a walk ahead of us when we were dropped off on the far side of that hotel damn near by the Jim Crow entrance.

Behind our hotel… The Detroit Riverwalk

After introducing Kush and Deborah to one of my most frequented sammich spots when I lived in MI, *sings* “Tubbyyyy’s Submariiiiiines,” the crew hit up soundcheck at our scheduled time and as I walked up to the stage I could immediately tell that it was about to be a reunion for me… The first person I ran into was Monica Blaire (featured on “MakeLuv2Me”) and right behind her was vocalist, L’Renee whom I hadn’t seen since I moved to Maryland at the beginning of 2006. Then up walked Dwele, who I’ve known since 2003 and would sometimes even jam out with him in Slum Village’s old stomping grounds, Barak Studios in Southfield, MI. He and I got to catch up a bit during his soundcheck… meanwhile, I realized that I knew a few people in his band including drummer Eric “Rain Man” Gaston, keyboardist Brandon “Showtime” Bland, background singer J. Tait, and saxophonist LaDarrel “Saxappeal” Johnson who has played alongside Sy Smith and I twice, at our Detroit (February ’12) and New York City (May ’12) shows. To say that I felt right back at home would be a huge understatement… Now when you’re around all of that talent, not only is there a strong sense of camaraderie but also a feeling of friendly competition as well, which as a former baseball player is something that I will probably never shy away from. It’s natural because you always want to sound your best in front of your peers. With that being said, we sounded our best for about 15 minutes because we were forced into knocking out one of the shortest soundchecks in life (Arrested Development, whose flight was severely delayed had arrived and was on the side of the stage waiting to check after us and the doors were due to open soon after). After our 15 minutes of fame during soundcheck, we made our way back to the hotel for about an hour of down time before it was time to head on back to Chene Park and hit the stage for real this time around.

As we rolled back to the venue in preparation for the night’s performance…let’s just say I was a tad bit beyond ready. Momma Zo! had already sent me a text saying that she, Pops Zo!, my sister and her boyfriend were already there and seated. Meanwhile, I was backstage in full out clown mode in order to distract myself from the fact that I was anxious as hell to get out there and murder this +FE set. My adrenaline was on 12 AND I had the nerve to be sipping on a can of Red Bull. Yeah, I know…But I told y’all, show preparation very much parallels getting ready for a big game. Aaaaand, then the time finally came for us to walk out on stage… I arrived at my keyboard rig and started to get everything set up… I then began hearing people start to call my name from the crowd…

“WE LOVE YOU ZO!!!”

Monica Blaire was there hosting the show along with Suga Rae stopped and said,

“Oh… Do we have some Zo fans in here?”

*crowd cheers*

Crazy…

Adrenaline now on 14.

It was finally time to start up and with only 40 minutes to show our people a helluva time, we knew we had to be on level 10 fresh outta the gate……. And that’s exactly what happened. From the jump, the music felt really good, the crowd was with us the entire time, my hands felt loose on the keys, and the added bonus….. I received a standing ovation during our individual introductions, which just put the show over the top for me. Some of y’all have heard me talk some about hometown love and how unbelievable of a feeling it is to get it… This episode was no different. And the fact that my parents and sister were in the crowd both times that it has happened?… Maaaan, come on nah!!

After leaving the stage ablaze by playing what I thought was one of our best sets this year, I decided to try and head out into the crowd so that I could see my family and check out Dwele and Arrested Development’s shows. Man, I got into the crowd and was greeted by friends, fans, and even a few folks I went to high school with whom I had not seen since high school (’96 if ya nosy ass needed to know). Hell, those folks still know me as a baseball player! I found my family in the crowd via “text GPS” a/k/a “Where y’all at?! / We’re right here!!” guidance. My sister and Momma Zo! were rockin’ the crispy ciel blue Zo! T-shirts while Pops came with the suit and tie combo, per usual. ‘Twas all hugs and pictures as I was soon joined by Sy and Deborah not too long afterward. We proceeded to chop it up with my family and enjoy the remainder of the show…. But uhhh, one of the highlights and my personal favorite moments of the entire night was watching +FE’s Director of Operations, Aimee Flint hit the “Baba Oje dance” (skip to 3:36) in the stands with us at the end of Arrested Development’s “People Everyday”… And y’all know exactly what I’m talkin’ about too – the dance he does at the end of said video to accompany his chanting.  She had the shit down PAT!!! We were loving it so much, we couldn’t do anything but join her…

Ok now… The post-show meal came in the form of one of my favorite Downtown Detroit spots…. Bucharest Grill. Phonte and Tim Scott Jr. became instant believers after I successfully put on to their famous chicken shawarmas. C’LAWD!!!!!! Those two brovahs damn near cleaned their plates by the time I had returned back to our table from the bar with drainks! The Bucharest meal accompanied by a strong rum & coke was an excellent ending to another near perfect day and performance by The Foreign Exchange. I’m always looking forward to the next one… Detroit, we love y’all and we’ll see you again in 2013…!!!

PHOTOS from +FE’s Performance at Chene Park

New Show Dates: Zo! + Sy Smith and The Foreign Exchange (DET, Memphis, StL, Indy, LA, SF, Phoenix)

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Zo! + Sy Smith will be performing together in…

Sept. 30th, 2012: Indianapolis, IN @ New Orleans On The Avenue – 4pm (Buy Tickets)

Zo! will be on keys for The Foreign Exchange in…

Oct. 19th, 2012: Los Angeles, CA @ Key Club – 9pm (Buy Tickets)

Oct. 20th, 2012: San Francisco, CA @ Mezzanine – 9pm (Buy Tickets)

Oct. 23rd, 2012: Phoenix, AZ @ Monarch Theatre – 8pm (Buy Tickets)

Quick Story… Y’all Know I Have Plenty: Playing at Fred Smoot’s Wedding Reception…

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Music always has a way of landing me in some interesting and sometimes comedic situations. This one took place in September of 2009… My man Asheru knew a kat who had a direct link to a couple of the Washington Redskins players and wanted to know if he could put a band together to play at cornerback Fred Smoot’s wedding reception – No problem. Ash ended up putting a couple of calls in to members of the ELs crew, including myself on keys, Omar Hunter on bass and Chris “Biscuit” Bynum on drums. We all rolled down to Falls Church, VA to meet up at Fred Smoot’s house and knock the gig out. I arrived to the house first, loaded my equipment in through the garage and headed down into the basement where a long table was set up for guests to eat along with the catered food and drinks all set up along the wall in preparation for the reception itself. Omar, Biscuit, and Asheru rolled in not too long after I did and set their equipment up in the space next to my board. Now, before I move along any further, let’s think about this… It was already random as hell to have received the call to play at Fred Smoot’s wedding reception in the FIRST place so I had no idea what to expect. My impression of him like many other sports fans who would tune in to SportsCenter fairly regularly in the morning, was that he was a pretty solid cornerback who ran his mouth a little bit – yet he always seemed like he was having fun with it. I mean, shit… nowadays, it’s almost like, what athlete doesn’t run their mouth anymore? But then again, those same kats who are all extra and over the top on the field, usually up being the most  down-to-earth and “real” kats off of it. I was pretty interested to see if this held true for Smoot as well. Regardless, we were gonna make this joint fun because the gig was so… I don’t know…. vague and different.

We took our time setting up our equipment because the wedding (which was to take place upstairs on the main floor) had not begun yet. From the looks of things, it wasn’t close to start time either….. Or so we thought. As we were slowly plugging cords into amps and power strips while cracking jokes and figuring out the reception’s food situation, a young lady whom I assumed was the wedding coordinator came downstairs. She walked straight up to me and asked, “Excuse me… But can you play “Here Comes the Bride”, or something as the bride walks down the aisle?”

Although I was totally unprepared for that request being as though we were there to play at the RECEPTION, I was cool about it and responded, “Yeah, I can do that… Let me figure it back out for a couple of minutes to work the kinks out before I actually play it.”

Coordinator: “Oh no… She’s walking down the aisle right NOW.”

Me: *crickets*………… “OH.”

I sat down at the keyboard, turned the volume up so that those attending the wedding ceremony upstairs could hear me and proceeded to play… I’m sorry, I mean work through a slow version of “Here Comes the Bride” all while O and Biscuit were watching me….. and laughing, of course. It’s a pretty simple song, but I had the “heavy concentration face” on as I didn’t want to earn a permanent place in the Smoot Wedding memory annals as the piano player who couldn’t bring the bride down the aisle worth a shit.

I actually got through the bride’s introduction unscathed and we just kinda waited around quietly for the actual wedding ceremony to wrap up. Once it did, everyone in attendance began to filter downstairs to the basement where the reception was being held. Folks took pictures, shared small talk and we were all finally able to get up and get a plate of food. I looked around and saw a few Redskin players that I recognized and there was another kat in attendance whose face looked familiar as well, but I knew he didn’t play football. We discovered it was vocalist, Dave Hollister. Dope! We also found out that Fred wanted him to do a song with us… Well shit, even better… Let’s run it!

But.

The song that Brotha Smoot wanted Dave Hollister to sing with us…….. At his wedding…….. was….

BlackStreet’s “Before I Let You Go.”

*mo crickets*

“Now uhhh, ok uhhh..seee uhhhh…. Lemmeh tehya som’n!!” © Charles Barkley

Pretty much any other time, this song choice would make sense. I mean, outside of “No Diggity” and “Don’t Leave Me”, “Before I Let You Go” is still one of BlackStreet’s best known jams… PLUS, Dave sang the lead on the original recording, so shit…. There it is, the perfect song choice!

*sigh*…Nah man.

I can still hear Biscuit’s response when I told he and Omar what they wanted us to play. He said, “Dogg, at a WEDDING??!” None of us wanted to hit the audience with the “break up song” 30 minutes after Mr. & Mrs. Smoot exchanged vows! I mean, ok…. let me put it to you like this. Let’s take,  Earth, Wind & Fire’s “After The Love Is Gone” for instance. As pretty sounding as that song is, I think it’s safe to say that you’ll never hear that shit as a couple’s “first dance at the wedding” choice. But hey… If folks wanna begin a clean slate of matrimony with, “Baby I’ve been thinkin’, there’s something’s goin’ wrong ‘cuz you’ve got an attitude, and you’re not in the mood…. like ya used to”, be my guest. Who am I to argue with what the groom wants played?! Maybe the joint had a deeper meaning than we all thought… I didn’t know, nor did I care to find out. So we talked it over with Dave in regards to how we would present the song format-wise, Omar and I quickly figured out the chords, changes, etc… And we pulled the song off. Now, if I remember correctly, people responded to it pretty well. I was actually bracing myself to get a puzzled response similar to the one Randy Watson received at the “Miss Black Awareness Pageant”. But all jokes aside, Fred Smoot was a good dude, definitely a lot more laid-back and humble than he used to portray himself in the media. After playing for a couple of hours, we ended up leaving that gig with some satisfied wedding attendees, full stomachs, our checks, and more helluva stories for the library…

Maaan, The First Time I Heard: “Climax” Slum Village

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I have PLENTY of musical Dilla memories, but the one that probably sticks out the most is when I first heard Slum Village’s “Climax” from their album, Fantastic Vol. 2. So, let’s rewind back to the summer of 2000… My 12-year baseball career had just come to an end and I only had two classes remaining in order to graduate from Western Kentucky University. I was back home in Michigan for part of the summer and buying SV’s Fantastic Vol. 2 album was at the TOP of my to-do list at the time. I’m sure I probably looked through the latest issue of The Source magazine for an official release date, marked it down and made sure that when that Tuesday arrived, I was at the nearest music store, front and center at the cash register with a copy in my hand ready to purchase…

Already a huge SV fan off of tracks like “I Don’t Know”, “2U4U”, “Fantastic”, “The Look Of Love” and “Players” (later on, I’ll have to share that story as well), I was MORE THAN ready for a full-length album of theirs to be released. The date finally came… Tuesday, June 13, 2000. It was nice outside because I can remember driving over to Sam Goody with all of my windows down. Now, let’s also keep in mind that I had a couple of 12″ subs in the trunk of my car as well (I had them put in because of yet ANOTHER DIlla-produced track… A Tribe Called Quest’s “Find A Way”). I arrived at the spot, ran in, found and purchased the Slum CD, got back into the car and tore away the wrapping with my trusty “EZ-CD opener” they used to give us at the beginning of each college year and popped the album in the player. After the intro, “Conant Gardens” hit me over the head with a stand out bass riff that was perfectly complimented by those signature hard ass Jay Dee drums that SNAPPED, followed by “I Don’t Know” and “Jealousy”…… and then after a brief phone skit starring Jay Dee and a young lady, the phone convo broke away very quickly right into into Dilla saying,

“You ain’t gotta play hard to get….. I know you….”

The beat dropped in with this eerie, yet pretty atmospheric filtered out chords while the first clap hit on the “know”…..By this time I was already completely captivated by the first half of the beat… And then it happened….. I wasn’t ready for it at all. The first two notes of that thick bassline pushed through my subwoofers and my mind was absolutely blown and all I could manage to get out was, “YOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” …And JUST when I didn’t think it couldn’t get any better after Dilla’s verse…… The hook came in. Tina Marie Glover a/k/a Airasoul came in with….

“I want you right heeeeere in my worrrrrld……

…..beeeein’ witchu all alone, is like a dreeeam COME true, true, true….”

But that wasn’t the wild shit…. The WILD shit was, underneath her vocals they scratched in the “Space Intro” joint by Steve Miller Band, which at the time I had recently picked that same SMB album up in a dollar bin at a store in Nashville. I heard that piece and I LOST it, literally. With all of those contributing factors coming together at once, I tell NO lie… I almost ran myself off of the road……. IN MY OWN NEIGHBORHOOD. I wasn’t paying attention to anything but the elements that made up this excellence of a song and almost ended up in somebody’s ditch….Thank you, SV for damn near raising my car insurance in 2000.

Who would have known that I would be in the Barak Studios working with these kats less than three years later. They don’t know this story either… lol

Slum Village – “Climax” (Video)

“Maaan, the first time I heard…” is a series of blog entires I’ll be putting together where, you guessed it… I recall the first time I placed my ears on specific songs or albums. This should be fun as well as a test in how effective this daily dose of gingko biloba is that I ingest with my ‘bruffus’…

One For the Road: Zo! + Sy Smith in Washington D.C. (June 13, 2012)

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Sy Smith + Zo! at Blues Alley – 06.13.12
Photo by Lauren Persons

Ever since we booked these two shows to play at Washington D.C.’s Blues Alley back in mid-April, I guess it’s pretty safe to say that I automatically got hyped up about the date. As a matter of fact, I think the last time I was THAT amped up for a show was in February when Sy and I played Privé Deux back home in Detroit… And the time before that? Well… when I was in Detroit on Mother’s Day 2011 with The Foreign Exchange, the show where my home gave me damn near a two-minute long ovation that had a brovah holding his eyes wide open and blinking to keep from dropping tears on stage… Yeah THAT one. You kinda see the pattern here? There’s just something undeniable about playing a touring or a major show in your hometown and/or your place of current residence. It is already certain that the energy will be at a higher level for your performance, so naturally, I almost have to monitor my adrenaline rushes and keep them under close surveillance as I used to have to for big games during my baseball playing days. I even hit Sy up not too long after the show was booked… “Maaaaan, I think I’ma have to suit it up for this one.” And speaking of that, allow me to let you in on a little something in case you didn’t know… Grown folks JUMP at the chance to dress up for some shit. The reason? We are rarely presented with a proper “dress up” occasion. And I’m not talking about some silly ass “color scheme” party where you’re limited to one or two colors to choose from. The next thing you know you’re posing in front of airbrushed backgrounds of champagne bottles for a picture that you’re rushing to post onto your “too much info offering” Facebook page. I’m talking about an all-out “damn, I’ve NEVER seen you look THAT good before!!” event. For example, ask a grown ass man the last time he wore a suit (outside of church and work) and I guarantee he’ll be able to tell you the exact date AND occasion. With all of that being said, when I pulled out my black suit to press and get ready for the show, I pulled a food receipt from my pocket from none other than… Blues Alley. The only other time I had ever been was to play keys for a New Year’s Prince tribute that YahZarah was doing to bring in 2011. So uhhh, I guess it had been a long time since my grown ass had been suited up too. We used to do it regularly when touring with The Foreign Exchange while promoting their album Leave It All Behind. We all looked great on stage, but carrying all of those clothes around on the road got to be a PROBLEM. Baggage fees and overpacking remained our arch enemies on the Leave It All Behind tour… Let’s just say we found close allies in T-shirts and jeans.

Zach Cutler, Biscuit Bynum, Sy Smith & I set to rehearse – 06.12.12

Anyway, as I recover from going way off track… Musician-wise, Sy and I already knew who we wanted to use on the show. We had to have Zach Cutler on that guitar and Chris “Biscuit” Bynum on drums. Zach is a super-talented, technically skilled kat who is a rhythm master that will find that pocket and play in it all night. PLUS, he knows our set like the back of his hand being as though this was his third show with us (he joined us in both NYC and Houston last month). Biscuit is pretty much the drummer who is highest in demand ’round D.C. I met him while playing a gig together back in April of 2006 and have hit him up for more than a few gigs since then, including that Leave It All Behind tour I mentioned previously. Once the two of them locked the date in, we knew that we only needed to rehearse together one good time and the remainder would be good to go… and that’s exactly what happened. We all got together, knocked out a tight rehearsal in my studio and got it together for showtime the following day.

Soundcheck at Blues Alley was at 4:30p… I was so hyped up, I was aiming to be at the spot at 4pm just so I could get there, load in, find a decent parking space (like most, I DESPISE parking in and around Georgetown) and properly prepare for our show. To begin with, I ALMOST walked out of the house without my freshly pressed black suit and shirts (one for the 8pm show and one for the 10pm). Next, the fact that it is always an adventure driving to the Georgetown area just added to the fun. My GPS got cussed out thoroughly for 1.) Leading me to a closed road, and 2.) Attempting to direct me down a one-way street… the WRONG way. My road rage was in the red by the time I pulled in to Blues Alley… But all existing anger took a backseat when I drove directly under this…….

Photo by Lauren Persons

*takes a deep breath*

*looks up at the sign again*

*smiles*

Well, they left off the “!”, but I’ll take it… At least they didn’t spell my name with a damn “e” at the end. Seeing that marquee put me right back on track on what I was there to be focused on… Putting on two helluva shows. I walked into the venue and saw that Sy had already been in there… Hell, she was probably just as pumped up as I was. As I set everything of mine up, Zach walked in. Our soundman, Melvin Prince wasn’t too far behind him. Sy came in not too long afterward and quickly set up her rig…….. while Biscuit, to no one’s surprise turned out to be the last man of the crew through the Blues Alley door. We hit a solid check and I walked up the block to 31st St. with Zach and Bis to get some kabob-e joojeh a/k/a chicken kabobs before the show. I wasn’t worried about any pre-show  ‘itis” symptoms showing up as I was entirely too wound up. Sy and I were told by Frank Sheffield (the show’s booker and organizer) that the 8pm room was pretty much sold out. Upon hearing that news, I FELT like going downstairs and hopping on the mic with an enthusiastic, “I AM VERY HAPPY TO BE HERE!!” © Prince Akeem.   …….But after evaluating that option a bit further, I decided against it and continued to get dressed for the first show.

The 8pm show began with Sy and I being led through the occupied tables of people in the dimly lit room via flashlight. We were introduced and jumped right into “Nights Over Egypt”. Normally, with a sit-down crowd you really don’t know what to expect, but this group of folks were VERY responsive and into what was happening on stage. There was one group right in front of me who I acknowledged during the show because they had no problem letting us know where they stood on things…

Sy: “I’m living in LA now”… Table up front: *SCREAM!! CHEER!!!!*

Sy: “Y’all know Zo is outta Detroit…”  …Table up front: *SCREAM!! CHEER!!!!*

Me: “Weren’t y’all just yelling for LA? Maaan, y’all cheer for EVERYTHING!!”

They cheered for everything AND they knew every word to damn near every song we played too and THAT was dope. I can’t describe how great it feels to see folks come out to the shows who love being a part of what you love to do. Hats off to the “Table up front.” The second show was no different… Of course we were a bit more loose not only on the mic, but performance-wise as well and our 10pm crowd took to it extremely well. Overall, folks came out to have fun, party, and laugh with us – Even when we managed to crack a few jokes on some of their favorite artists. The fact that Blues Alley provided that baby grand on stage for us to utilize just made things even more interesting during out set. I took first crack at it during our performance of “Driving” and “Greater Than the Sun.” When it was Sy’s turn to tickle the baby grand ivories, I hopped on the bass guitar for her song “Stand Alone.” Most folks don’t even know that I play the bass… Well shit, there are still plenty who think I sing. So those types of “switch ups” are necessary sometimes on stage so that your people can literally see what you can do – plus, it’s always a nice change of pace within the set.

The love we received after both performances was unbelievable. The fact that we were praised by our elders who were in the crowd was a flattering experience and always is when it does happen. Both of us had family in the audience who ALL left with the widest of proud grins on their faces, which made the performances even that much more special. Sy AND I left the venue on much more of a high than when we both arrived for sound check. Shall I dare say that these two shows surpassed our Atlanta show as our best yet? ….Why yes I shall.

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