Well I must say.....after not being out at Paisley for the last 3
months, last night was definitely worth my trip! My friends flew into
town from Atlanta and all we talked about was going to Paisley Park
Friday night, especially after finding out that they were filming a
video.



After the doors opened around 2am we went in and each found our on "Best
Spot" to see the show. It was already in progress with Prince on
keyboards, Morris on organ/keys and Mr. John Blackwell (Patti Labelle,
George Clinton), on drums. They were into a heavy jam session and for me
to even try to put out a song list would be ubserd. (I'll leave that for
you Mayho! ) Anyway, I was digging the groove, which at one point
included a bit of "Love Bizarre", and everyone seemed to welcome the
smooth jazz/r&b style that was emanating from the stage. Rhonda Smith
came out with her bass and funked the place up for a bit. Is it me, or
is she probably the sexiest bass player out there? (Sorry Larry) She
was on stage for the first half of the show only to be replaced later on
by Larry Graham. Larry came out and did his thing, and for a moment I
thought that the smooth grooves were going to be replaced by Larry's regular line up. To my surprise they kept in the vein of the jazz they
were playing and the party went on.



The best guest of the night, in my opinion, was Najee! Now, I know I'm
not the only one out there who knows this great jazz/big band
saxophonist, but I was quite surprised at the amount of people who had no
idea who he was. Let me just tell you, he's awesome! Switching from the
saxophone to clarinet to flute, Najee was burning the room! I couldn't
help but close my eyes and move with the groove that was definitely a
welcomed change to the "typical" Paisley nights. For those of you
interested, I found a site with an article on Najee from 1993. It gives
a nice bio on him and talks about how he got where he is, being on tour
with Chaka Khan which led to him being "discovered" at a New York gig
with Me'Lisa Morgan. Start here, http://www.rosalyn.com/najee.html, but
then do a search on him to see he's latest collection of greatest hits,
Best of Najee. His performance, which included Prince picking up his
bass and chiming in, was probably one of the best shows I have ever seen
out there. But then again, I'm a Najee fan! He's versatile and
original, giving you something simple, yet elegant.

Prince decided to add some hip hop to the already funky evening
by introducing a young rapper to the stage. I did not catch his name,
but then I don't remember if Prince even said it. I didn't like that the
two raps that he performed were done over already released music,
including the current joint by "Common" in which the chorus was song by
Kip Blackshire. But the kid had a nice flow and worked the audience
which helped to win him over.



The night ended with a dance party and cameras rolling as someone
shouted, "If ya'll wanna be in the video, you betta get to dancin!" Some
current hits, like a remix of Madonna's "Music", were played with some of
Prince's tracks thrown in. One cut of his about, "Seein' you in your
birthday suit", was my favorite and I even got the camera man's attention
and performed for him for about a minute! (Hope the editors like me!)



The session was over about 5 am and as I walked out of Paisley with my
friends from Atlanta, all they were saying is, "We gotta come back
here!" I was happy they had a good time, but I was most thankful to
Prince for having such an awesome show. I don't know what the video is for, but I definitely want a copy of it if/when it is released!