Making a Difference Through Music in West Los Angeles

Ordell Cordova aka DJ Noj was participating in another Mozaic Creations event this time at the Good Hurt Club on Venice Blvd in good ol' West Los Angeles, California. He needed someone to man the merchandise table at the show.

I showed up at the appointed time of 8 pm and staked out my area as merchant (on Venice). There was a very nice pair of guitar players that were melodious and groovy at the same time that go by the name Night and Day. Being a Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. birthday celebration the fact that the guitar players were black and white was apropos.

Then followed a slew of amateur poets and singers expressing their feelings about the holiday for the open mike portion of the evening. The highlight being a powerful poem from An'Nisa, a favorite poet friend of mine, and, of course, Noj was spinning in between to keep things bumping. Other Mozaic Creations luminaries Nicky on electric guitar and J.Biz rapping on the mike kept the energy high through the various stage changes. And Tish the Dish kept things hopping in the VIP lounge with food and drinks for an extra cover charge.

The place was filling up somewhat as the night went on.

Then there was a band called New Kingdom with keyboards, bass, drums and vocals that was high energy and enlivening. I tapped my foot from where I sat and bopped my head.

And then came Blackbird.

Drummer, bass, vocals.

Or maybe I should call it brainwave, heartbeat and soul scream because that would closer approximate the grandeur and unbreakable timing of this trio. The singer jumped off the stage and danced around on the floor taking turns screaming and singing and intentionally initiating feedback by holding the mike too close to the speakers as if he was playing a high note theramin. He knew instinctively where the air turned hottest just before it hurt the ears. He fell down, twisted on the ground, screamed so hard he almost shat himself, he admitted to the dancing crowd. Then the bass player took his guitar off, laid it on the stage, smacked the strings with one hand and used the strap to drag across them with the other never losing the beat, never losing the heat!