Wow this show was LIVE! We opened up for Brian with a lot of backstage drama preceding. Prior to the curtains opening our sound was not working. We had no stage monitors so we could not hear anything on stage. That is a BIG problem! My sound man worked and worked. I am so glad that I hired him. He works at my church and “That little voice” you know, the spirit that you hear in those quite moments told me that I needed him. If I had not have had him it would have been a rough time.

But we did great! 5 mins before the curtains opened we got it working, did a quick check and were in the middle of prayer when the curtains opened up. We ran back to our instruments and started playing. We had 7 songs planned. Each song got a huge crowd response! At the end of song 6, “Fantasy” by Earth Wind and Fire, I was getting ready to introduce the band before my final song “Free” the hit single, when the curtains started to close!

So I said “Thank You Orlando” and was taking a bow when the people on the front row started yelling at me. I couldn’t hear anything because of the applause, and again the curtains were closing. So I got off stage and while we were giving each other high fives my business manager ran up to me and told me what the yelling was about: No one introduced me before the show, I didn’t announce myself during the show, I didn’t have the chance to introduce the band, so many people had NO IDEA who I was!

Can you imagine that? All that applause, and everyone was like “Wow he was phenomenal, who was he?”

A definite learning experience. Meanwhile Brian Culbertson put on the most exciting Jazz show that I have seen since David Sanborn was touring with “Chicago Song” as the new hit single. Brian was was all over the stage playing his first instrument, the trombone. Did you know that? As well as his most popular cuts on keys. His band was all over the stage with him doing dance routines along with playing some of the best Funk that I have heard since I saw Waymon Tisdale doing his medley in his show last year. If you see this show on the schedule near you, my advice to you is DROP EVERYTHING and go!

Erly