. . . but before I get to that, first things first . . .

A girlfriend and I came down to Curacao to attend the North Sea Jazz Festival. There were lots of awesome acts that I was really looking forward to seeing. The highlights of course were Sting on Friday and Stevie Wonder on Saturday night.

We stayed at the Hyatt Regency Resort, which was absolutely stunning and the staff were uber friendly and on point anticipating our every need.

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On Thursday we attended an event at the host hotel in Willemsted. While there I ran into some guys whom I've met before in passing, trumpeter Terence Blanchard and saxophonist Branford Marsalis (whom I've always had a crush on and now I'm completely in love with )

The guy on the left plays trumpet in Pancho Sanchez' Latin band (whom Terence, on the right, performed with) the girl is first guy's girlfriend. We hung out with them a lot over the weekend. Very cool people.

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We kicked it with them at the bar til 4 am. I also met a new baby daddy, Branford's bass player (so I guess I'm adding another musician to the roster )

Branford's bassist on left and drummer on right (an AMAZING drummer who's ONLY 20 years old whom Branford discovered in his high school band)

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While there we ran into some of the guys from Earth, Wind and Fire

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[Edited 9/6/11 7:02am]

On Friday, the first day of the festival, my boys hooked a gurl up with backstage wristbands, so I got to chill with the artists before they went on stage.

Here's my idol Panamanian salsa king Ruben Blades oh yeah that's Sting he's talking to

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Here are my boys doing they THANG on stage! (I have tons of video but it will take a year and half to upload to Youtube )

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Here's some random foine ass cop

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I got a chance to see some of Sharon Jones show

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But I had to hightail it to another stage to catch sting. Branford performed with him. And where was SCNDLS??? ON stage left watching the show. Yeah, I said ON stage.

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And here's Sting after the show, shirtless hopping into his car

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..yeah...uhm...nice pics and sh*t...

...but wasn't I supposed to be carrying your bags to this one?

That's one fine ass cop

and so um.... yeah... Looks like you had a great time! Fine azz mens all around!

The music must have been insane!!!!! Mutha fukkkin' line up is insane!

I love how everyone is all relaxed and looking at ease to.... must have been nice place to chill...

sorry if it's a stupid question, but is that you in the centre of that first pic?

whistle said:

sorry if it's a stupid question, but is that you in the centre of that first pic?

Nope. The guy on the left plays trumpet in Pancho Sanchez' Latin band (whom Terence, on the right, performed with) the girl is first guy's girlfriend. We hung out with them a lot over the weekend. Very cool people. I posted that pic cuz Terence was being silly. BTW I will not be posting any pics of myself on this thread.

Nope... she's camera shy. She's worse than Calhoun Sq.

PurpleJedi said:

..yeah...uhm...nice pics and sh*t...

...but wasn't I supposed to be carrying your bags to this one?

With the luggage restrictions I didn't the need the extra help or the after I found fine ass cop and all.

But I gotcha next year, boo.

Damn SCNDLS, you are sexy as hell! Marry me???

looks like u had a great time told u curacao is beautiful. how was stevie's set i saw a couple of clips my brother kyle bolden (with the blue guitar) and stanley randolph stevie's drummer they were both there.

paintedlady said:

That's one fine ass cop

and so um.... yeah... Looks like you had a great time! Fine azz mens all around!

The music must have been insane!!!!! Mutha fukkkin' line up is insane!

Hola mami!

Girl, the music was CRA-ZAY! And being able to hangout with these genuinely nice guys, who have all, blown me up daily since meeting was the BEST part.

Surreal (is this shit REALLY happening) moment #179: Sitting in a room with Terence "freaking" Blanchard listening to Shirley Horn songs while he points out his favorite chords an' shit!

Tittypants said:

Damn SCNDLS, you are sexy as hell! Marry me???

That is NOT me.

OK... so what did you wear? And how good did those men smell?

and wow i see my man philip bailey.

SCNDLS said:

paintedlady said:

That's one fine ass cop

and so um.... yeah... Looks like you had a great time! Fine azz mens all around!

The music must have been insane!!!!! Mutha fukkkin' line up is insane!

Hola mami!

Girl, the music was CRA-ZAY! And being able to hangout with these genuinely nice guys, who have all, blown me up daily since meeting was the BEST part.

Surreal (is this shit REALLY happening) moment #179: Sitting in a room with Terence "freaking" Blanchard listening to Shirley Horn songs while he points out his favorite chords an' shit!

x's 1000

SCNDLS said:

Tittypants said:

Damn SCNDLS, you are sexy as hell! Marry me???

That is NOT me.

Who's the lady then??? She is friggin' beautiful.

NMuzakNSoul said:

looks like u had a great time told u curacao is beautiful. how was stevie's set i saw a couple of clips my brother kyle bolden (with the blue guitar) and stanley randolph stevie's drummer they were both there.

I'ma get to that. Stanley btw is on his way to Germany to play with Xtina.

Drug dealers always have the best vacations.

SCNDLS said:

NMuzakNSoul said:

looks like u had a great time told u curacao is beautiful. how was stevie's set i saw a couple of clips my brother kyle bolden (with the blue guitar) and stanley randolph stevie's drummer they were both there.

I'ma get to that. Stanley btw is on his way to Germany to play with Xtina.

looking forward. those are my brothers especially kyle and then im cool with their bassist from their own band Brandon Brown. they are all madly talented though. Only moved out to L.A a few years back and took over.

and a

[Edited 9/6/11 7:07am]

While standing backstage at the Sting show on Friday, I struck up a randon conversation with some bruthas who turned out to be some of Stevie Wonder's handlers/bandmembers. So, we told them we were coming to the next show and they offered us backstage passes (which we didn't have since Bran was leaving the next day for Brazil).

So I get there on Saturday and stand for hours at the front of the stage so I could see my man, Juan Luis Guerra, up close and personal. His show was incredible.

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Unfortunately, I missed most of Ruben Blades and Dionne Warwick's shows cuz I was too busy trynna get my friend's wristband to her.

But that's alright cuz when we showed up to Stevie's show we got to see Dionne and Philip Bailey backstage as she was led to the stage to watch the show from the wings.

vainandy said:

Drug dealers always have the best vacations.

Derrr, how else the musicians supposed to get their fix???

paintedlady said:

OK... so what did you wear? And how good did those men smell?

Chile, it was too hot to be too cute, but you know I still was.

And yes I was hugged up with e'rybody and they smelled good at the bar and before the shows but gatdamn they sweated HARD during the performances. And many of them were outside so I hugged folks reluctantly after the shows and held my breaf. Sting came off the stage taking his shit off.

[Edited 9/6/11 7:22am]

SCNDLS said:

While standing backstage at the Sting show on Friday, I struck up a randon conversation with some bruthas who turned out to be some of Stevie Wonder's handlers/bandmembers. So, we told them we were coming to the next show and they offered us backstage passes (which we didn't have since Bran was leaving the next day for Brazil).

So I get there on Saturday and stand for hours at the front of the stage so I could see my man, Juan Luis Guerra, up close and personal. His show was incredible.

[img:$uid]http://i807.photobucket.com/albums/yy360/cynda319/DSCN0705.jpg[/img:$uid]

[img:$uid]http://i807.photobucket.com/albums/yy360/cynda319/DSCN0713.jpg[/img:$uid]

Unfortunately, I missed most of Ruben Blades and Dionne Warwick's shows cuz I was too busy trynna get my friend's wristband to her.

But that's alright cuz when we showed up to Stevie's show we got to see Dionne and Philip Bailey backstage as she was led to the stage to watch the show from the wings.

Awesome. Awesome.

So my homegirl and I are chilling on some watercoolers backstage resigned to watching Stevie's show from the curb when our new pal comes to get us and leads us up the ramp to the actual stage. There are several people watching the show sitting on equipment on the side, including Stevie's 10 year old, his assistants, and Dionne Warwick. He seats us at the front of this line of folks right next to Dionne. I actually rubbed thighs with her the whole time.

Of course, I could not take ANY pics while there but the experience is forever etched in my mind. Stevie did the damn thing despite the heat. He sang Happy Birthday to You to his 10 year old son (whom they brought out to present a cake but he was not happy to go ) Stevie also dedicated the song to Beyonce.

Later in his set, he brought Dionne out to do a couple songs including That's What Friends Are For

Then he brought Philip Bailey out to do a couple EWF songs

So we watched the whole show directly next to the band while overlooking a crown of 1000s. RIDICULOUS!

After the show, I was able to get a few pics after Stevie left the stage.

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SCNDLS said:

So my homegirl and I are chilling on some watercoolers backstage resigned to watching Stevie's show from the curb when our new pal comes to get us and leads us up the ramp to the actual stage. There are several people watching the show sitting on equipment on the side, including Stevie's 10 year old, his assistants, and Dionne Warwick. He seats us at the front of this line of folks right next to Dionne. I actually rubbed thighs with her the whole time.

Of course, I could not take ANY pics while there but the experience is forever etched in my mind. Stevie did the damn thing despite the heat. He sang Happy Birthday to You to his 10 year old son (whom they brought out to present a cake but he was not happy to go ) Stevie also dedicated the song to Beyonce.

Later in his set, he brought Dionne out to do a couple songs including That's What Friends Are For

Then he brought Philip Bailey out to do a couple EWF songs

So we watched the whole show directly next to the band while overlooking a crown of 1000s. RIDICULOUS!

After the show, I was able to get a few pics after Stevie left the stage.

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Mannnnnnnnnnnnn

So lucky. I never got that CLOSE...lol Watching a Stevie show...U rubbed thighs with Dionne?

Gotta love the Yamaha Motif keys Victoria the female keyboardist is a bad mutha.

His 10 year old is Kailand, Stevie has alot of Kids...

Very cool.

So after the awesome show experience my girl and I are just shaking our heads in utter disbelief at what went down. It was a completely amazing experience that capped off an amazing weekend of amazing music and even more amazing new friends. There's absolutely NO way this night could get ANY better, right? WRONG mon frere.

So after the show, our pal tells us he put us on the list for Stevie's after-party. By this time it's 2 am and we left the hotel at 5 pm, so our wagon is draggin fa sho. But our friend BEGS us to come thru to what I'm thinking is a party for a bunch of folks at some hotel.

I shoulda known that when no one we asked had ever heard of the spot, this wasn't going to be your typical afterparty. After we finally found a cab driver who'd heard of this place, we arrived at an ultra-exclusive boutique hotel of private villas directly on the beach around 3 am. Turns out this is where Stevie stayed. The only bad thing is that it was dark so I couldn't see all of the splendor but what I could see was gorgeous.

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There was an open bar and delicious food including the best shrimp and lamb chops I've ever come across

We were chatting, drinking and taking pics with all of the band members. Here's my girl with one Stevie's back up singers.

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And then after awhile they brought Stevie out to one of the covered palapas to chill, which he did until about 6 am. My friend got up the nerve to ask his asst if we could get a pic. I normally frown on this but other people were taking pics so we figured it would be okay. My friend took hers then it was my turn. I introduced myself, he put his arm around me, we took the pic, I thanked him and as I was walking away Stevie TOTALLY Ray Charles'd me.

This is my friend with Stevie and no I'm not posting my pic.

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[Edited 9/6/11 7:55am]

NMuzakNSoul said:

SCNDLS said:

So my homegirl and I are chilling on some watercoolers backstage resigned to watching Stevie's show from the curb when our new pal comes to get us and leads us up the ramp to the actual stage. There are several people watching the show sitting on equipment on the side, including Stevie's 10 year old, his assistants, and Dionne Warwick. He seats us at the front of this line of folks right next to Dionne. I actually rubbed thighs with her the whole time.

Of course, I could not take ANY pics while there but the experience is forever etched in my mind. Stevie did the damn thing despite the heat. He sang Happy Birthday to You to his 10 year old son (whom they brought out to present a cake but he was not happy to go ) Stevie also dedicated the song to Beyonce.

Later in his set, he brought Dionne out to do a couple songs including That's What Friends Are For

Then he brought Philip Bailey out to do a couple EWF songs

So we watched the whole show directly next to the band while overlooking a crown of 1000s. RIDICULOUS!

After the show, I was able to get a few pics after Stevie left the stage.

[img:$uid]http://i807.photobucket.com/albums/yy360/cynda319/DSCN0718.jpg[/img:$uid]

[img:$uid]http://i807.photobucket.com/albums/yy360/cynda319/DSCN0716.jpg[/img:$uid]

[img:$uid]http://i807.photobucket.com/albums/yy360/cynda319/DSCN0717.jpg[/img:$uid]

Mannnnnnnnnnnnn

So lucky. I never got that CLOSE...lol Watching a Stevie show...U rubbed thighs with Dionne?

Gotta love the Yamaha Motif keys Victoria the female keyboardist is a bad mutha.

His 10 year old is Kailand, Stevie has alot of Kids...

Victoria was a complete SWEET heart! And gorgeous. She worked them heels too.

Nick, you prolly know the answer to this ? but is one of his back up singers the Asian/black chick who was supposed to perform with MJ at the O2? Cuz one of Stevie's singers looked a lot like that girl.