Tag Archives: Chicago

2012 in Pictures

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"...Give is up for Lorenzo Ferguson a/k/a Zo!, ya'll!!" © Phonte in LA • Photo by Kris Perry (Oct. 2012)

“…Give it up for Lorenzo Ferguson a/k/a Zo!, y’all!!” © Phonte in LA • Photo by Kris Perry (Oct. 2012)

2012 has been another helluva year. I got to do some traveling and play shows in LA, NYC, DC, Chicago, Detroit, Nashville, St. Louis, Bethesda, MD, Greensboro, NC, Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Columbia MD, Boston, Virginia Beach, Raleigh, Vienna, VA, Memphis, Indianapolis, San Francisco, and Phoenix …..and Durham, NC for this coming New Year’s Eve. I completed my first year as a full-time musician after the school I taught music at closed last year – I was then able to continue teaching by conducting individual piano lessons and workshop to groups of young ones. I began endorsing Moog Music, received another standing ovation during a performance back home in Detroit, and got the bulk of the recording finished for my newest album ManMade. Sy Smith and I did some touring this year playing big solo shows at DC’s Blues Alley and NYC’s Blue Note and received big performance props from Sheila E while I was back on the road with The Foreign Exchange who wrapped up performances for an album we have been touring for two years, Authenticity. I hit my ten-year anniversary of releasing music as well. Outside of all that, it was a fairly quiet twelve months……….

…Looking forward to 2013. Enjoy the photos!!

Damn Wishbone! b/w A Tribe Called PPP

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Before our departure from Chicago, I set up a breakfast meeting with one of my old college teammates and my homegirl. I had my mouf all set for some CJ’s Eatery being as though they had come through so tough last month with the absolutely ridiculous catfish breakfast platter. BUT, we got word that they didn’t do brunch on Friday. No problem, let’s hit up Wishbone! I’ve been there a couple of times for breakfast, and they do their thing (my breakfast history @ Wishbone: Shrimp & Grits and the Banana Pancakes –LAWD). So we met up at about 10:45a and put the orders in at a little before 11a… of course if I’m listing times, you already know where I’m going with this. 11:30 came and went, 11:40…11:50?!!?!

Come on now… We had our drinks and no real explanation on why we had no food. The place was packed up, yes..BUT people around us were getting their food. I think the joint just got lost and they were covering it up – poorly. So in order for me to avoid missing my ride back to O’Hare, we had to leave and walk up the street to Starbucks so I could pick up a breakfast sammich. By this time, it was 12-something and I was HOWNGREE… I didn’t give a rat’s ass what I ate at that point. I thought that sammich and orange juice was the greatest meal of all-time… Wishbone FAILED miserably, almost an hour went by with no food, and no real explanation why. Damn, what happened? Then fast forward to the airport… It’s myself, Jeed, Train and Syd all checking in and going through security. The nasty-minded older female security folk were giving me an earfull basically saying they were gonna go through ALL of my stuff, frisk me, and make me play my bass guitar for them before they let me through. Wonderful…

We got through that madness and walked over to Johnny Rockets for a bite to eat before heading to our gates. Now mind you, I had on my Tribe Called Quest t-shirt as the four of us stepped up to order our food. The girl who took Coultrain’s order was just grinning… ear to damn ear. Then she kept saying, “I know I’m not crazy… I know I’m not crazy.” It was strange, but kats finished placing the orders, got our seats and waited for the food… 

We all looked at each other trying to figure out what the issue was and why ole girl was at the register having a moment. Train was like, “I’m pretty sure she thought I was somebody I’m not.” But the million dollar question still remained… WHO? So when Jeed went back up to get his food, he came back laughing. It turned out that because of my T-shirt, she thought we were A Tribe Called Quest HILARIOUS. So we spent about 5 minutes at the table tryna figure out which one of us was who… She had to have been real young, po’ child. At least she had A Tribe Called Quest in her mind as an option to choose from.. *shrugs*

Pre-Christmas Chicago Trip…12.22.07

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Maaan, when I tell y’all I had fun in Chicago this past Saturday… I MEAN it. My boy Damont got me from Midway at about noon and it was uphill from there…. 

We hit up Wishbone on Washington for some Shrimp and Grits, then hit up Dr. Wax to catch up with the brotha Duane Powell before the benefit show. By then, it was time to go to soundcheck where I met up with Eric Roberson, Cherisse Scott, Tiaybe, The Primeridians, and finally met YahZarah face-to-face after doing a joint with her back in April for the new Foreign Exchange album…..man what a talented group of kats. Then arrives my group of brothers from home, The Gorilla Funk Mob ready to rock. ….and can you say let’s meet up and play on no rehearsal? The DuSable Museum was a nice spot to play too, although I couldn’t see the crowd that well at all from the stage, but I certainly heard y’all and felt the support after the show w/those who approached me in the lobby with positive words. We played a 45 minute set of stuff from Freelance and one joint from Passion & Definition (“Open Invitation”). It was good to perform w/my kats Tate, G-Rock & Mikus…..ALWAYS having fun shedding out. The thing was……the Dr. Wax Benefit show was just the beginning. We headed over to the after party spot to see what was goin on. We got in to that joint and… …..well…… the joint was pretty… uhh, wack.

So kats gathered outside and all the sudden Cherisse busts out with, “I’ll cook….”

Then YahZarah says, “Yeah, I’ll make some peach cobbler and salmon cakes…!”

Wait a minute……what in the hell?  Y’all just rocked your sets at the show and now y’all are about to cook?!? Maaaaan, it felt like college or som’n. So damn if we all didn’t chip in about $10 a piece so that they could go grocery shopping @ about 1:30am to cook for kats…….In the meantime, me and went back to he and his fiancée’s spot for a drink, then came back out to the REAL after party.

We got there and the brotha Shawn Wallace who played keys for the house band that night made us a drink and it was a straight laugh-a-thon from that point on. Macaroni and cheese was already sitting out in a tin looking so lovely…..so I decided to devour about 3 scoops worth. Next came the salmon cakes….ahyessir. I did end up going back for seconds. How about some Southern style potatoes by Cherisse? Goodness…. And to top it all off……the peach cobbler w/some vanilla ice cream, which ended up getting taken care of at about 5am. Man, man, MAN….Chicago sure knows how to treat a brotha……….

Pictures: (Top to bottom) – 1. Me and Damont,  2. Me and Eric Roberson, 3. Duane Powell, YahZarah and me, 4. Me and YahZarah while she cooks salmon cakes, 5. Me and Damont puttin a hurting on YahZarah’s peach cobbler at 5am.