MISTRESS OF CEREMONIES

1. I'm hostin' RAW FUSION'S SUMMER FINALE!

2. I met Nickodemus 5 yearz ago but surely he can't remember. ;-P

3. I just got a major flashback.

Year - 2004. Sekoya had just finished its debut tour of all the jazz festivals in Canada and I thought what better way to go out with a BAZOOKA BUBBLE GUM BANG that Summer than to treat myself to a well deserved first bite of the BIG apple.

Oh and it ain't no apple, more like a fat juicy WATERMELON!!!

My jazz groupie-jet-settin-jewelry-designer of a sweet girlie Lola, met me at Grand Central [yeh Larry Graham was stuck in my head] Had just hopped
into a gypsy cab with my nu theatrical mate Cole from Detroit. The cab driver was a spittin' image of the little evil guy from the movie Ghost, what's that actor's name? He's in Carlito's Way. FREAKY SILLY!!!

Anywayz - Cole was meeting up with his 2 handsome gay lovers at Grand Central hence us travellin' 2geth. I gave em Sekoya's album and anotha to pass onto they're neighbor - Madonna's Daddy. Imagine him having a divine intervention over some nujazz...

From there we trekked to Dominican Republic Harlem where Lola was apt sitting. Ice Tea in Mickie Deez, multi-coloured babies, Floritas - plantain and chili, on the corner - sweet potato pie!!! DAMN OH DAMN and every night was jazz up to my skull, feet achin' thru to my neurons, and dollarz pourin' out of my pockets! Broke in 5 dayz!

The Fat Cat where ping pong and jazz collided, hangin' with Blossom Dearie at Danny's Skylight Room [one of the wittiest lyricists in jazz], Lewis Nash at The Village Vanguard [HEAVY HEAVY!], Savion Glover at B.B King's, Eartha Kitt at The Blue Note, Nuyorican Poets Cafe...

Hangin' with Lola was instant EPIC! She knew everyone! Okey her Popz just so happened to be jazz saxophonist Pat LaBarbera, best known for playin' with Elvin Jones. [I could go on forever about all the inspiring folkz I met.] So one nite she ditches me, TYPICAL, nah, to go check out Elvin's bass playa's gig. I agreed to meet her latez after checkin' Giant Step's listening party for SIMPLY GOOD MUSIC VOL 1. at APT.

I set off to find the club with my handy little map on a Tuesday nite. This keen little mamasita turned up too early, but as a result, befriended the most sweetest bartender, SPAM! [Yep his name was SPAM! His girlfriend was Tiombe Lockhart! LUV HER!] Anywayz, I told him how I was a musician tryin' to seek out my global family of underground SOULheadz. After chattin' a bit about sneaker spotz and another glass of liquid courage, he said hey why don't I just introduce ya to The Giant Step crew. Huh?

First came Bobbito! "Hey Bobbito, meet AMALIA from Vancouver." Bobbito replied, "Welcome to New York, here have some chicken!" "Hey meet Maurice Bernstein." A real solid dude, I was soOOo intimidated! I mean I knew no one, literally walked off the street and here I was asking Maurice why he moved from London to New York?

After an awkward 10 minutes or so, he pulled over a guy, "Ya know what? You should work with this cat." The curly haired kinda shy guy was Nickodemus.

Yep, here's my muze. Tried followin' it up BUT geesh I was a nobody, a wet behind the nose nerdy pantz. Oh well.

Miz Fuze thanx Lola's NEW YORK for helpin' build her hustle. From itty bitty 'Ditchmond' she roamed from Harlem to Stockholm with joy in each and every ribbit ribbit.