Category Archives: Blog Entries

Unveiling of the “Zotif” Keyboard…

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Well folks, after you have played a few shows here and there, done some touring with the same brand of equipment and gotten no love from the endorsement side of things after trying repeatedly to contact a Yamaha company that shall remain nameless (oops)… There comes a time for a little something that I like to call “SELF endorsement”…

Endorsing one’s self doesn’t have to involve anything huge like opening a store or starting your own television channel…hell, you don’t even have to involve your ego. Most of the time it simply serves as a brief reminder to folks, corporate and otherwise that, “Hey, us bottom of the barrel musicians who travel the world using nothing but your products are working hard too!” *insert laugh here* With that being said, I’d like to introduce you to a product that was newly delivered to my studio earlier this evening… The “Zotif” Keyboard!

Looks like you may have seen this board before huh? I know, I know… Well, it actually functions verrrry similarly to the Yamaha Motif keyboard, BUT this one is crazy because it actually advertises my logo and new website. *waves index finger and quotes Eddie Murphy’s elder Jewish character from ‘Coming To America’* “Ahhhckkhaaaa!!!!!” I feel extremely privileged because they don’t manufacture too many of these, so I wouldn’t even waste my time on eBay or Craig’s List looking for one. I have heard the numbers from the manufacturer and they’re actually keeping it in the single digits, so I’ll be a nice guy and I’ll let you steal some views of mine… You may see me on stage at an +FE or a Zo! + Sy Smith show with a Zotif sometime soon – Then again now that I think about it some more, you just never know WHEN it may surface…

*end sarcasm*

ZoTif

The ultra rare “Zotif” keyboard…

Zotif Instagram Link

Welcome To the Newly Launched… Zo3hree5ive.com

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zologoblue-sticker

Finally, finally, FINALLY….

Out with musicalarchitect.com and in with Zo3hree5ive.com….

This is it… This is now my official artist website. So any information on upcoming shows, my musical catalog, back stories, NEW stories, booking inquiries, videos, any of my releases, merchandise, and any other miscellaneous information you can think of can be found right here.

The store is now up and running so feel free to catch up on any back catalog of mine that you may be missing. There is even a place to contact me and ask a question or two if you’d like and for my Twitter and Facebook folks, both of my pages can be found on the right side.

Make sure to join the mailing list so that you are updated and kept completely in the loop… Outside of that, i’m looking forward to keeping things interesting here for y’all on this site that is finally 100% operated and conducted by me (yes, there is an elaborate story behind why this is such a big deal….. i’ll write about it later on)…

Enjoy!

Teachers / Educators = EXTREMELY Underappreciated …Thus underpaid.

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I posted this last year while I was still teaching in the classroom:

As a HS Music Teacher, I am (in this particular order):

A bouncer, a positive Black male influence, a master in the art of PATIENCE, a bodyguard, a comfortable constant, a debate expert, a bullshit detector, a listening ear and possible advice giver, an attention caterer, a therapist, a musician, a counselor, a professional wrestler, a temporary daddy replacement, a police officer, and a teacher…

Teachers.. We need you and salute you.

Studio Campfire Stories: “Ablyss…” …(just over) Ten-Year Anniversary Of My First Album

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When I look back on 2001, the first thing that comes to mind is, “DAMN! That was eleven years ago?!” But when I really dig into it and all that occurred that year, I can summarize it by simply stating that it was a year of transition and adjustment. I had just graduated in December of 2000 with a degree in Studio Art (Graphic Design) from Western Kentucky University and was on the hunt for a job in my field – a job hunt that actually continued THROUGH 2001. So I decided to enroll back in school at WKU to start working on an MBA Degree… BUT since I was a Graphic Design major and had little to no business-related courses at all, I had to spend 2001 taking “pre-requisite” courses to even be put on the correct path for an MBA… How fun. Once again looking back on things, hindsight tells me that a course called “Life after college” should probably be required DURING college, because clearly I had NO clue in regards to what the hell I was doing at the time once I got outta there. Baseball, the sport that paid fully for my college education and the sport that I had been playing since age nine ended for me in the summer of 2000 and I was still adjusting to a life without it. After moving to my first off-campus apartment during that same time, I was able to spread out a bit – there was a huge difference from the good ole 10X10 dorm rooms folks lived in while on-campus. This was important because it meant that I was able to find sufficient room for my keyboard and amp. Back then, I was armed with only a Yamaha EX5 (which I still have in the studio) and used its sequencer to program joints I did at the time. I later installed a version of Cubase onto my Mac and used it to record and edit everything via this Tascam mixer I picked up… It’s crazy typing this out and realizing that these pieces of equipment represent my first bit of a studio and start as a serious musician. The thing is, even then I wasn’t aware how serious it was or may become – SO much has changed since then. If you were to ask me back then what I was doing musically, I would have told you that I was “making beats” rather than “writing compositions.” I was content with just a 2, 4, or 8-bar loop…. Alright, that’s another beat, *press save*… and let’s move on to the next one. By doing this, I was able to fly through music, show it off to friends who would come through the apartment, see their reactions and be motivated to make more of it. Have you ever heard of the kats who brag about making 10-20+ beats in a day? I wanted to be that guy… Make a ton of music that sounded good because I knew I had the work ethic to keep it going (I have since learned that quantity has NOTHING on the quality of your music). In 2001, most of my friends didn’t even know that I played an instrument, much less knew that I understood how to put any type of music together… So hearing tracks from ME? Lorenzo the baseball player? … It was rather odd to some of them. I can remember a group of friends coming through one night, and while they were there I went to load some joints up. At that point, I had about 15-20 beats or so completed and saved to a 3.5″ floppy disk………. and the disk decided it was going to go BAD. I kept attempting to load these joints up but to no avail… and to say the absolute least… I. Was. PISSED. All of that work = Gone forever… There were three things that I learned that night: 1. Back everything up, 2. BACK. EVERY. DAMN. THING. YOU. DO. UP. and 3. It is extremely difficult to capture the original feeling of your music by recreating it on the spot. I ignored the shit ouf of my guests the rest of that night and sat down at the keyboard mad as hell to make the music all over again, from memory. I didn’t want to talk with anyone, I wasn’t in the mood to crack any jokes… I was in “recovery mode”. As crazy as it sounds… THIS episode was actually the beginning of my very first album, Ablyss. I honestly do not remember how many of those 15-20+ tracks I ended up redoing that night from memory, but I do remember that being the incident that jumpstarted my mausicmaking. Pretty hilarious how things work out…

There are TWO cassette tapes of beats that exist prior to the Ablyss recording. I still have copies of them both and there are a couple more that I sent off to friends that may be floating around somewhere… But that’s IT. I have another cassette tape with a ton of remakes I did in high school between 1992 and 1996 and there is ONE copy of that. But the work I started doing for Ablyss was a bit different, it even felt different as I was creating it. I was motivated to create something to burn to a CD for the first time and have it serve as an “introduction” to my transition from baseball player to music maker – A difficult task? Absolutely. Impossible? Nah, I didn’t think so. Ok, now… Once I have enough joints to fill up an 80 minute CDr, how in the hell do I transfer this music from my sequencer to a disc?! I didn’t even know how to do that at the time. After asking around at a local music spot, it was suggested that I pick this up… a Tascam US-428 mixer that would control an early version of Cubase (recording software) already installed on my year old Mac desktop computer. When I opened the box to the brand new mixer and connected it to my computer, I just remembered thinking, “…The hell am I supposed to do NOW?” I would mess with the software, get frustrated and go back to it later to try again. This happened a couple of times before I finally got it to work for me. I was able to connect my keyboard directly into the mixer, record into Cubase, convert the music into a .wav file and burn it onto a CD by using iTunes. Talk about being excited to make some music… Of course, the recording and editing process was much different for me then too – Everything was trial and error. I recorded into Cubase as a two-track (a left and right stereo recording), which means that all of the ‘drops’ I inserted into the music were done in one take and manually by muting that particular track on the keyboard’s sequencer as the song played. I know, I know… I’ll be the first to admit that I didn’t know what I was doing. BUT, I started to see an album begin to come together and that’s what mattered to me the most. At the end of this process, the album contained beats that I assigned numbers to rather than names (“Beat #23” for example), a couple of remakes including Prince’s “My Love Is Forever” from his For You album, and two “bonus tracks” that  I did in Atlanta with a good friend of mine and fellow WKU alum, DJ/Producer Jon Doe from the group Prophetix.

Once the final song was recorded and I had burned the very first CD full of my own material… I took it to my truck (then equipped with 2 12″ subwoofers in the trunk) popped it in the CD player and rode around Bowling Green, KY for more than two hours BLASTING the finished product all the way through TWICE starting at 3am. I have tried before to come up with a few words to fully explain how good it felt to hear my own music in the car that first time, but I simply cannot. Let’s just say I was floating on cloud nine for a couple of hours. After riding around past 5am and burning up some good ole $1.45/gallon gas, I wound up at the Wal-Mart across the street from my apartment… Why? Well, I was so excited about this new creation that I wanted to SHARE it with folks ASAP. So I bought a couple of packs of padded envelopes, went back home to do some quick cover art, printed it on regular paper and then started burning more CDs. I gathered up addresses of the people I was close to and started writing… There ended up being a total of 20 packages sent out the following day. I’m not sure if anyone still HAS an original copy of the album I sent out, but that would be real dope…

Ablyss is the only album that I still have available for purchase now that was created and completed in my college apartment. As an artist, you are always emotionally attached to your works but that first one is special. I mean, I can remember exactly what I was doing and what was going on around me while creating most of the joints on this album. For example, “Beat #20” was done while I was on the phone… and I can still remember who I was talking with. I just feel extremely blessed because the fact that I’m even sharing a story about my first album years later means that I have made it further than even I had initially envisioned. What an excellent feeling. …And I still can’t believe this all officially began 11 years ago.

Purchase Ablyss and all other Zo! releases here

Zo! + Sy Smith: “4 Shows – 4 Cities – 4 Days Tour” (2/9 – 2/12)

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Chicago Arrival, 02.09.12 ...Photo by Zo!

Day: ONE – City: CHICAGO

Sy Smith and I had been looking forward to this mini-run for a minute. The plan was simple…Fly into Chicago, rent a car and drive to each city in order to play a show each night. We knew we would be tired and a bit worn down, but that’s all a part of the experience. With all of that in mind, the afternoon of Thursday, February 9th, I flew to Chicago from Baltimore and Sy flew in from LA along with her right-hand man and personal assistant, Chadd Hardy. I ended up getting to my hotel early and checking in, so I had about an hour or so to unwind. Sy and Chadd went directly from the baggage claim at O’Hare Airport to WHPK‘s (88.5 FM radio station near U. of Chicago – Medical District where I met them at about 2:30p for a quick radio interview. After a successful interview and a couple of hours that seemed to fly by, we made our way to The Shrine and met up with the musicians: guitarist, Tim Jones and drummer Quin for soundcheck. I was already SUPER hyped up to get the tour started when I was informed that the show had received over 400 RSVP’s for the night… that news put me over the top. Not bad for our fifth show utilizing this particular format… We finally hit the stage to an energetic and wonderfully receptive crowd of familiar faces and folks who were flat out ready to nod their heads, dance, and party with us. The show was an all-out success and a helluva kick-off for both Sy and I AND our people in Chicago who got to check us out for free…

Day: TWO – City: DETROIT

The following morning, we hopped on I94 East all the way to our next scheduled show in Detroit… The four-hour drive came with a reward at the end in the form of my mother’s cooking. She laid out some baked chicken, mashed potatoes, beans, rolls, salad, and some damn sweet potato pie (Sy asked me the night before if Moms would have any for us, so she baked one… Maaaaaan, I LOVE her). For those who have been on tour, y’all FULLY understand what it means to have a nice home-cooked meal during one of your stops after eating at venues, fast food spots, the hotel, etc. The three of us sat at the dinner table looking happier than broke ass college students going home to sit down for a fulfilling Thanksgiving dinner. Between the food and the travel, you know we were hit with a HEAVY dose of “‘Itis”. Since he drove from Chicago to Detroit, Chadd laid it down for a long nap so he could be ready to help drive again when we decided to leave for Nashville early in the morning the next day. After relaxing for about an hour or so, Sy and I drove down to Privé Deux for soundcheck, where things were running behind schedule. We quickly set everything up and ran a rehearsal with drummer, Brandon Williams, guitarist Kenny Rocket, and saxophonist LaDarrel “Saxappeal” Johnson who just happened to hit me up on the drive TO Detroit to see if he could sit in… What an understatement. These three kats went IN on our music. I had a conversation with Brandon a couple of nights before the show and his energy on the phone even gave me an additional lift for the show – as if I wasn’t already on cloud nine about playing a show back home as it was. We wrapped soundcheck up and proceeded to open the door to see that about two inches of snow had fallen on the ground………. Oh word?! REALLY?!… This had to happen TODAY?! We drove back home cussing the snowfall OUT damn near the entire way. We arrived at my parents’ house and 2-wheel drive + a thin layer of ice underneath the snow covering prevented us from getting UP the driveway. Sy and I trooped up to the house in the grass (where there’s traction) and got ready for our show. We didn’t know that when we got back out to the car, there would be about 2-3 additional inches of snow piled on top of it accompanied by strong winds to help “guide” us on our way back to the venue. When we pulled up to Privé Deux and walked in, to my surprise there was a NICE crowd inside. The reason I say this is because I had numerous people tell me that they weren’t going to the show because of “Dilla Day” that was taking place the same night at The Fillmore… Perfect timing, right? Despite the weather conditions and a huge event planned for our legendary, Jay Dee, folks still came out to see us and that meant a lot. We walked to the green room and damn if there wasn’s a chicken shawarma wrap with my name on it from one of my favorite spots downtown… Bucharest Grill. Just as soon as I tore into that, we got up  and slid through the crowd, got to the stage and pretty much just walked on. The crew was already set up and ready to go. So, as Sy and I got ourselves together, the host was up on stage talking and I noticed that she was only mentioning Sy…. Hmmm, that’s weird. The introduction was fairly long and detailed, then I realized and thought to myself… “She’s not gonna introduce me in front of my hometown crowd……. Oh. Ok, bet.” She told me later that she thought we were two separate acts – I told her that it wasn’t a problem… Sy introduced me properly and we got the show started. I can’t lie, when the show began, I was a bit tense (always the case when I go home to play). I saw a ton of familiar faces, picked my family out of the crowd and finally started to loosen up after the first couple of songs. One of the craziest parts of the performance was going into “Greater Than the Sun,” I could see the majority of the crowd rockin’ with me as I was playing the piano intro to the song… Then as the music dropped, they were goin’ OFF. I saw my family in the back smiling, clapping and nodding hard as hell to the music, it was almost like I could literally see the pride in their faces. I never want to get caught up in “admiring” my work at all, but that was a great personal moment for me. It’s not often that you get to see family’s reaction to OTHER people’s reaction to your art. That’s big time… Then, after we literally shut the spot DOWN with “Flight Of the Blackbyrd”, I was able to walk around and greet everyone. I had kats in the crowd from high school that I hadn’t seen in over 15 years who learned about the show via Facebook, folks I used to work with, old family friends that came out to support – It was an amazing feeling to see that type of support at home. And if we didn’t have a long ass drive to Nashville coming up a couple hours AFTER our performance, I would have stayed around and had a drink with some of those good, supportive folks. But after trekking back through the snow covered roads back to my parents’ house, we had to pack our things up and hit the road south to Nashville…

Me on Keys at Jazz & Jokes in Nashville ...Photo by Shamicka Bush

Day: THREE – City: NASHVILLE

We hit the road for Nashville at about 5am and I said that I would drive the first leg (or as far as I could go because I hadn’t slept yet) simply because I have driving experience in heavy snow. Our brotha Chadd who is from LA hadn’t witnessed snowfall until his arrival to Detroit. So, I ended up driving us out of Michigan an hour south to Toledo until I just couldn’t take it anymore, we had to switch drivers. Chadd took the wheel and I passed out for about 2-3 hours in the passenger seat. When I woke up we were just passing through Cincinnati and finally, there was no snow on the ground. We stopped at a gas station and I took over again at the wheel and got us to Tennessee where we pulled up to Sy’s mother’s house. So basically we went from MY parents’ house to Sy’s… LAWD. And dammit, as soon as we got there, Momma Sy was laying out lunch/dinner on the table for us. And what was for dessert?! You guessed it… Another sweet poe-tay-toe pie!!! I couldn’t resist, I had a nice piece and it was damn delicious. After running through my plate of food, I suddenly found myself in the same place as the previous day – tired from traveling AND eating. So, I took a nap for about an hour, woke up to take a shower real quick so we could head 45 mins east to soundcheck. We arrived at Jazz & Jokes in downtown Nashville and met up with our drummer for the night, Ronnie Yates who was not only a dope musician, but a helluva good dude in general. I swear, if people could understand the value of being easy to work with…… Anyway, we knocked soundcheck out fairly quickly and got ready to walk upstairs to the dressing room and I happened to check my phone to see about five text messages asking me if I had heard anything about Whitney Houston passing…. Wait, WHAT?!!!? I immediately informed Sy when I found out because I knew that she had worked and performed with her previously and understandably, she needed some time to herself after hearing the news. At that point, I just wanted to start the show because most of the time, the best way for musicians to get through a tough time is to do what we do best – play music. The way the venue had it set up was we were to play two 30-45 minute sets with comedian Rion Evans opening for us with a 30 minute set. Sounds pretty simple, yet I wasn’t sure what to expect at ALL. With the news of Whitney’s passing plus the sheer uncertainty of the gig itself, we just tried to keep things light in the green room before the show. Both of us understood the circumstances surrounding the shows and as professionals we knew it was our job to transform ALL energy into positive for these performances. With that being said, the first set was EXCELLENT. Rion Evans had that  sold out crowd cracking up and for them to have been sitting down at tables, their energy level for us was extremely high, I was loving it. They gave us a NICE standing ovation after our performance, which was touching that night, to say the least… This led to them calling for an encore to which we obliged. And I’ll tell you this, for that encore I saw Sy Smith give one of the most heartfelt tributes that I think I’ve ever witnessed in my entire life… For someone to have learned about Whitney’s passing only a couple hours before opening up and telling these great stories about performing with this legend and ICON to describing what she was like as a person and then singing like her (mannerisms and all), it was RIGHT on time. It just goes to show how much of a professional Sy is. The performance damn near made me want to sit in the crowd and see it in full for myself. It was a great way to end that first set and that crowd truly deserved to be a part of that once in a lifetime performance. After completing the second set, we hit the road back to Momma Sy’s house where we toasted up a couple of drinks and passed out for the night in order to recharge for a closing performance in St. Louis the next day.

The St. Louis Arch - View from my hotel's lobby...02.12.12 Photo by Zo!

Day: FOUR – City: ST. LOUIS

The four-hour drive to St. Louis wasn’t that bad at all. We arrived to the city at about 3:15p or so and had all of about an hour and a half to get ready for soundcheck at a place that quickly became one of my favorite spots to perform, Lola. Once we got there and met up with our band of STL musicians, guitarist Scott McGreer and drummer Grover Stewart, the rest at this point was smooth sailing. We ran the set from top to bottom with them and discussed all of the changes and got ready to head back to the hotel and get ready for the show. We arrived back to Lola to a nice crowd of folks, some of who I even remembered by face from our November show with The Foreign Exchange at 2720 Cherokee. This show went without a hitch… I was loving the Bossa Nova feel Grover put on “All Is Well With Love” that allowed me to solo on the joint for a good 5+ minutes… It felt THAT good on stage. The audience was with us the entire time and requested an encore… We rocked “Crazy You” and Sy went in one more time during her tribute to Whitney Houston, I swear it was like she was channeling her in a few places. The show ended with me coming from behind the keyboard and hugging an emotional Sy to make sure she was good and holding it together after truly leaving everything she had on the stage. We stepped down to a group of people who were extremely appreciative of our performance and appearance in their city. I love St. Louis’ enthusiasm! Both times I have been there to perform, one of the best parts to me has been speaking with the people after the show – definitely a music city and I can’t wait to go back a THIRD time to play.

The following day, I got to spend some time at St. Louis’ Westview Middle School helping to conduct a music workshop with a group of about 40-50 8th graders with fellow musician Lamar Harris and emcee Thelonius Kryptonite. Now this was a DOPE experience. First of all, it was great to see so many kids not only interested in music, but interested in expanding their knowledge in regards to different ways of making a living in music (outside of rapping, singing, and producing). Secondly, these kids were talented. A 61-key Roland Fantom keyboard was provided on stage for ME to play, but I decided to change it up a little bit and ask if one of the kids wanted to play something. Sure enough, one young lady came up and laid down a nice rendition of John Legend’s “Ordinary People”. Another young lady came up and tore the place up by singing while her vocal teacher accompanied her on the keyboard. Then I called another three students on stage to rhyme and they all did a great job. The greatest part about them performing for their classmates was the THUNDEROUS applause and support everyone gave one another… Students encouraging each other that enthusiastically? This was huge in my opinion. Of course, they asked if I would play them something and I sat down and played “If I Ain’t Got You” by Alicia Keys while the crowd of kids sang it… All through the song I was just hoping that I still remembered HOW to play it!! Lastly, it felt great and almost foreign to walk into a school and have them appreciate you for your artistry and what you bring to the table. Talk about feeling thankful… Wow. After the workshop, I was able to speak individually with some of the kids who had specific questions or who just wanted to say, “hello”. I was then given a tour of the two-level school by two young brothers Cameron and…. Cameron. The two of them walked me through the school and weren’t shy at all about giving me a thorough rundown on ALL of the school’s happenings. Hopefully, I’m able to speak at more schools much more often when I am out on the road being as though I am very passionate about getting good music to our younger folks. They deserve to be exposed to it JUST like we were growing up…

Me with Cameron and Cameron after my tour of Westview Middle School in St. Louis... 02.13.12

Thank you to everyone in Chicago, Detroit, Nashville and St. Louis who came out to sing, dance, and simply support Sy Smith and I during our run. We appreciate you and hope to see you all again real soon…

Zo! + Sy Smith in LA – 01.19.12 …In Pictures

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Much love to everyone who came out to our show in LA… We had a BLAST.

Touching Lives via Music NEVER Gets Old…

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I was just sent this picture from a young lady in Rio de Janeiro of a brand new tattoo that she got that reads “Don’t ever underestimate the power of your mind…” – a quote inspired by “Greatest Weapon Of All Time” from the SunStorm album. The lyrics were written and sung by my a great friend of mine, “tourmate” and sister, Sy Smith… I’m kinda at a loss for words here… but this is real dope – AND on top of all that, the tat looks good!! According to her, “It’s a very special song… Like a way of life…” 

Wow… Talk about motivational.

Like I have said before… Sometimes we as artists are reminded why it is important to continue doing what we do. This picture and story is one concrete reminder… Made my day, completely.

Zo!’s Top Five Moments of 2011 – #1 Going Home and Receiving A Long Ovation at The Foreign Exchange Show in Detroit

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May 8, 2011, Mother’s Day…

The +FE crew and I were set to take the short 2-hour and some change drive to Detroit from Cleveland to play our 4th show of the scheduled seven-show tour of Midwest cities. I was up and ready to go this particular morning as we were creeping up on the show date that I was most anticipating. Going back home to perform is always motivational to me because I’m able to catch everyone up on what I have been up to musically  – The same people who saw me making music out of my bedroom in my parents’ house in what I used to call “Crowded Room Studios,” as there was more music and equipment in that spot than space to move around. To be able to bring new levels of success home to folks who have supported you from day one is truly a blessing… So needless to say, I was a bit anxious for this one. As soon as I found out the show was confirmed, I started to text a couple folks here and there and sent a few DMs via Twitter just to make sure that kats were blocking that date off far in advance because at that time folks kept asking, “When are y’all gonna come to The D?”  …The thing was, May of 2011 wasn’t our first time playing in Detroit. The first +FE show at home was over two years ago in June of 2009 and I remember being hyped up for that one too, but this time was much different. First off, the buzz around the show was crazy and the people who were creating it seemed to be super excited. Secondly, there had been four +FE Music releases since that last show: City Lights 2: Shibuya (Sept. ’09), …just visiting too (Nov. ’09),  SunStorm (Jul. ’10) and Authenticity (Oct. ’10). One thing was starting to become crystal clear to us… Detroit was ready, I just didn’t realize how ready.

I’ll put it like this, I was so amped up about the Detroit show that thinking back on it, I barely even remember the actual drive from Cleveland… I remember stopping once for gas after Toledo, but that’s about it. The next thing I remember is checking in to our hotel and asking, “Ayo, who’s coming to the house before soundcheck?” Our bassist, Kush El-Amin and drummer Tim Scott Jr. said that they would roll so we dropped our stuff off in our rooms and proceeded to head out to my parents’ house. As soon as we walked in, I as I normally do when I get home, went straight for the refrigerator to grab a water and a Faygo Redpop to take with me. But to my surprise, Moms had baked a damn sweet poe-tay-toe pie for our arrival… Yep, I said Poe. Tay. TOE. So, uhhh… the three of us had some pie. ….And uhhh…. y’all thought I was greedy as hell? The brotha T. Scott had two pieces.

After we left my parents’ house, I took the fellas to The Bread Basket for a Rueben and some Better Made chips…  For the record, I am currently salivating just looking at the picture below.

After taking our food to go, we only had enough time to head back to the hotel and pick up the rest of the crew for soundcheck at the Magic Stick. Upon arriving to the venue, I started feeling anxious… At that point I just wanted the show to BEGIN. I hadn’t gone home to play in a year and a half, hadn’t been home with +FE in two… everyone was sounding all extra excited about the show – I was truly on edge……… A GOOD edge. Plus, the entire crew knew how big this show was for me… With all that said, I still wasn’t aware exactly how big.

We headed back to the hotel in order to change and get everything ready to go right back to the venue for the show. I was surprising cool, but I could feel my heart rate noticeably increase before taking the stage. Everybody in the crew was looking at me like, “You ready? Are you ready?” I was ready as hell… Normally, the time that we have backstage usually drags along anyway. But for the hometown show, time seemed to be moving at 120 seconds per minute. …..When we finally took the stage, I was the first to walk out to a sea of Detroit faces. I thought to myself, “This crowd is KILLIN the last one… They’re ready.” We proceded to start the show and the crowd was with us the entire time. During the set, I saw a ton of familiar faces, which made me feel even more at home… But still once again, I wasn’t ready.

Now… for those of you who have ever attended an +FE show, you know that there is a portion set aside during each show where Phonte introduces the entire crew individually… The order is normally: band members, vocalists, and last, of course is Nicolay. Well… for the first time in our touring history, the introduction order was different and to say that it caught me way off guard would be an understatement. Phonte went through and introduced everyone and I noticed that he skipped me… I was thinking, “Ok, he’ll probably do it after Jeanne and Sy.” Welp! After introducing Jeanne Jolly and Sy Smith…. He introduced Nicolay. *blank stare* I wonder if anyone has pictures of my face during that time, I’d like to see them because in my head it was, “Oh shit! WTF?… I’m going LAST at the CRIB? This is crazy….!” The next thing I knew, Phonte told us to cut the music and proceeded to go into my introduction. I’m sure I was standing there looking silly and lost as hell leading up to….

“Give it up for your own… Lorenzo Ferguson a/k/a Zo! y’all!”

The place just got LOUD…….. and I couldn’t do a damn thing but stand there and cheese.  In normal situations, people cheer, yell out, etc. and I’ll show love back by waving, bowing or something to make sure that they know I appreciate them. This time was a little different… Detroit got loud…. Matter of fact, Detroit got loud and HELD it. I was smiling… waving………smiling some more………. waving……  That’s when I first realized, “Oh damn, they’re not stopping!” I was completely in the moment at this point, plus my parents and younger sister were in the audience as well so this just became a helluva moment for me. I didn’t know what to do anymore or how to react – I just started looking around with the “This can’t be real” face on and man, it felt GREAT – SO great that I THEN thought to myself, “Oh ok, I see…. these negroes are tryna make me cry now.” And damn if I didn’t feel a lump in my throat – Man, this ain’t good. I just kept thinking, “Naaaah man, I’m not going… I’m not going. Breeeeeathe.” Of course, the more I thought that…. The louder they seemed to get and the bigger that lump got. THEN, I turned to my left to look at the crew, you know, just to kind of get their take on things and they were no help at all as Sy and Jeanne both had their hands on their mouths in the “Awwwww” position looking like THEY were about to cry. SHIT!! It was settled… I definitely wasn’t looking over at the crew for ANYmore support. The crowd thought they had me though!! – Because after awhile, instinctively I took my cap and covered my face with it while turning around. *sigh* This did nothing but fuel it and made them cheer even louder. Their loud ovation went on for a solid couple of minutes. I know I may seem to be making light of it, but it was by far one of the most unbelievable moments of my music career up to that point. Of course I’ve already had a few of my people jokingly say, “Aw man, you were about to cry, you were about to get emotional?” Maaaaaan listen… You work this hard for this long, keep it up after moving away from home and then return to that type of hometown love… If your throat doesn’t lump up from a reception like that, you may need to check and see if you have a pulse. I have never gotten an ovation like that before or since… That was a moment that left me truly humbled and I will never forget it.

Zo!’s Top Five Moments of 2011 – #2 My First Trips Overseas b/w The Release of ‘…just visiting three’

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Performing in Amsterdam • Photo by Sarah Jane Van Beek

I quickly went from having never traveled to Europe… to traveling to Europe three times in the first three months of the year. In January, I went overseas with The Foreign Exchange for our first European Tour as a collective, which covered London, Amsterdam, Paris, Köln, and back to London for a second show. While the tour was extremely tiring and my feet hung off of the ends of ALL of the beds in the hotels, I was very grateful to see the outpouring of love we received in each city. These kats were hyped up to see us and their energy was taken in and transferred right back to them via our shows. We were also fortunate enough to get together with the talented and VERY quick learning drummer UK Laurie Lowe who held us down on stage the entire time we were over there. BIG up…!! I know I’m leaving out a ton of details, so please don’t hesitate to click on each city above to read my write-ups on each date…

In February, I went back over to Paris with DC based, Grammy-nominated artist Kokayi at the Maison des Arts festival playing alongside Jean Grae and Pharoahe Monch… Talk about FUN. We arrived in Paris a day early, so we were able to walk around the city and take our time to really take everything in. This is generally uncommon during multi-city touring where you usually arrive to a city, check-in, soundcheck, get ready fo the show, play the show and get ready to do it all over again the next day. I experienced some excellent food, beer mixed with tequila, as well as a pigeon that decided he needed to initiate me by letting himself loose on my hat and coat. Great… The show itself was crazy… Especially when I was able to see kids start to breakdance on the sides of the thatre. I was looking like, “Wooooooooow, for real?!” Fun, fun times…

I think the most memorable time overseas was the last time I went, in March with Sy Smith – these were actually the FIRST of our “Duo” shows. We had two shows scheduled in Paris at Bizz’Art and London’s famed Jazz Café. But our schedule was pretty interesting. Despite playing the Paris show first, we flew in to London’s Heathrow airport the morning of Thursday, March 3rd where we were picked up by one of the vocalists and taken to our hotel. We had the rest of the day to explore London, or rest before rehearsal began that night with the band. The next morning (the 4th) we took the train to Paris and was greeted by our promoter upon arrival who then walked us to our hotel to check in and gave us a brief tour of the city as well as the venue we were going to be performing in the next night. We had some wine, did an interview, rested up and enjoyed a helluva dinner at a spot across the street from our hotel. The actual day of the show, March 5th… We met up with the Paris band at the venue who we could already hear rehearing our material as we walked in. That crew of musicians was on POINT. I actually remember thinking to myself when I heard the second keyboard player, “Damn, he might know my shit better than ME!” That Paris show was NUTS. Bizz’Art was filled up, the people were into the show from start to finish and showed their appreciation afterward by forming a line to the merch table where we were seated that seemed to never end. I was extremely grateful.

The following morning (Sunday the 6th), we took the train back to London to check back into our hotel and prepare for our first performance at the Jazz Café. After a quick soundcheck and a couple of interviews, we got started that night and had a BALL. Although we didn’t get on stage until late, the London crowd had a lot of energy for us. I can still remember a few kats on the sides of me who were actually “studying” what I was playing… I could tell this, because I would hear them comment or say, “Whooooo!!!” after I would hit a certain series of notes or chords. Now THAT was kinda crazy as I hadn’t experienced that before. We ended the show with an “acoustic” encore, just Sy singing and me on the keys, which gave us the idea to make our going out on the road as a team more permanent – Combined with the love we received in both London and Paris, the Zo! + Sy Smith show became solidified. Now the question is… When can we go BACk overseas?!

                                                                                                       

I’m gonna let ch’all in on a little well-known secret among us artists… Releasing new music NEVER gets old. One of the reasons is because we are always being asked, “So what’s next?” “What are you working on currently?” I had a couple of people ask me “When’s your next album coming out?” just three days after I released SunStorm in 2010. To have your current music, your “baby” see the light of day and watching people react to it in realtime via Twitter, FB, etc. is one helluva reward in itself. This time around, I was able to SEE people’s first time reactions to the new music in the form of a series of …just visiting three listening parties. The first one was the night of its release at a very intimate setting in Washington D.C. at a spot called Tap & Parlour. Right at midnight, while the album was being released online, I got up on the mic to introduce the new material to everyone in attendance and DJ 2-Tone Jones spun it straight through. To see people react to …just visiting three’s song selection, yelling out “SOOOOMEBOOOODY TEEEEELL MEEEEEEE” during the hook for “Everything She Wants” and yelling out “OHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!” when “Playing Your Game, Baby” started…. and ANOTHER “OOOOHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!” when Anthony David proceeded to start singing and take ownership of the song. I was sitting in the spot with my laptop open reading reactions to the album and experiencing them all at the same time. That feeling was absolutely priceless… I can’t wait to do it again in 2012.

Zo!’s Top Five Moments of 2011 – #3 Rock Creek Academy in D.C. Closes Down = Full-Time Musicianship…

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Friday, August 5th began early for me as I was picked up from my hotel room in Houston at about 4:45am to catch an early flight back home after wrapping up another successful listening party for my then new release, …just visiting three. For those of you who know me personally, along with others who happen to follow me on Twitter or Facebook know that I taught Music at a Special Education Charter school in Washington D.C. (Rock Creek Academy) to high school kids for five years. Well, August 5th is significant because it marked the last day of summer school at RCA, which also meant that our staff had the entire following week off before it was back to the start of yet another fall semester. I would ALWAYS take the summers off, just so I could regain my sanity and have some time to myself in regards to being productive in the studio without having to worry about my day job. Despite not working in the summer, I was still able to remain connected to the happenings in the school because I still received work emails on my phone. That morning, we all received an email from the CEO of the school that read like this:

After reading the email, I saw nothing out of the ordinary. Normally when we would get this same type of email at the end of each semester or summer session, it would serve almost as our “enjoy your time NOW… because in a week, it’s back to the plantation!” warning. Even with seeing and reading this email, I was so determined to keep the school out of my mind until it was actually that time to go back in there to work – I think any teacher can relate to that. At the time I was focused on my upcoming trip to Atlanta that I had scheduled for another …just visiting three album listening party at Moods Music that Sunday, the 7th. Soon after returning home from Atlanta on Monday, August 8th, received a text from a friend of mine who was formally employed at Rock Creek Academy with me…

“You hear about RCA?”

I responded… “No, what happened?” …but I already pretty much knew what she was about to respond with. When folks text you out of the blue asking if you’ve “heard about” someone or something, it is rare that a positive update will follow. She then proceeded to tell me that the school had shut down and that there should be a letter in the mail formally confirming this. I got up and walked outside to check the mailbox. Sure enough there was a large white envelope from Rock Creek Academy, Inc. that contained one letter of recommendation, a letter instructing us on how to keep our health benefits, and a two-page letter informing us that our signed, upcoming 10-month teaching contracts were “terminated” effective immediately due to the permanent closure of the school. Although the news came as no surprise to many of us (even though we were “assured” throughout the spring semester of 2011 that we had nothing to worry about as the school would remain open in the future), it was kind of a shock when it actually happened. What wasn’t a shock though was the fact that the two-page letter was dated Friday, August 5th… The same day the CEO sent out the “not-so-out-of-the-ordinary” email above thus confirming in print what we all already suspected… He knew. How far in advance did he know the school was shutting down? There’s no telling, but I think he was aware of it way in advance. Personally, I have always thought that was shady as shit… Regardless of what it was, what I SAW was the door to “Full-Time Musicianship” fly wide open, which was excellent… There was also a HUGE change taking place, which set the stage for a rather intense mental battle to take place… The battle started off as a back and forth debate…

“But you’re making a huge impact in some of these kids’ lives” vs. “You’re also making an impact in people’s lives who listen to your music”

“You are salaried at the school” vs. “Music isn’t salaried, but you can definitely work to make it very consistent”

The debate slowly started becoming a bit one-sided…

“Your being an artist was not at all respected by the school at all… Until it was time to show you and your students off” vs. “Your art is respected by your listeners and supporters”

“While you ARE salaried, the school has it set up to where they are not paying you for two consecutive missed days whether you have leave hours or not” vs. “You can go out on the road whenever you need to – No permission needed, no leave slips”

These were all factors that I was weighing when deciding whether or not to go back into the classroom as a music teacher. The thing is, I am very passionate about passing music down to the younger generation of kids – whether it comes in the form of music theory and education or just simply letting them hear my favorite Earth, Wind & Fire record to expose them to what I think is “good music.” I think that it is our duty as music lovers to expose these children early to some good undeniable music. It’s always silly to me when I hear people complaining about what our kids listen to, yet they have never once schooled a kid on anything music-related. Let these kids hear some stuff and pass some history along with the song and they just may surprise you by taking to it. I eventually decided to continue passing along my knowledge of music in the form of private piano lessons, which actually started at the top of this month… Despite not working in a formal classroom setting, music education never stops.

The one thing that I’ve learned since becoming a musician full-time is if you want to know how people truly feel about you, go into business for yourself and start doing what you love as a profession. Maaaaaan, that shit is TELLING!! The few things that I have learned about myself have been interesting as well. For example, I realized that once I get focused on productivity and being consistent whether in the studio, the gym, or on-stage, I have an extremely low tolerance for folks with constant negative energy. I wasn’t fully aware of that until recently and I have certainly had to adjust accordingly. On the other hand, my family and close friends have been nothing BUT supportive in my recently enhanced musical journey and to them I would like to say, “Thank you” and “I love you” for it because honestly, it is part of what drives me during some of those “low” days. Overall, the school’s immediate closure has certainly opened up brand new opportunities as well as a brand new purpose and motivation behind my music career that has resulted in a greater amount of shows and studio time and subsequently a lesser amount of sleep. I am extremely anxious to let you all hear what I have been working on since the closing of Rock Creek Academy and thank YOU for continuing to support what I love to do and that’s create and release quality music.