Santa Cruz is a nice little town,and a great place to get your funk on. The Original P (Ray Davis, Fuzzy Haskins, Grady Thomas, and Calvin Simon) played a marathon of old and new funk. At about 9:30 the band hit the stage led by guitarists Billy Mims and Geno Thomas (son of Grady). Drummer Ben Powers Jr., bassist Derrick Davis, and keyboardists Doug Knight-Smith and Peter Pisarczyk round out the group. Three deliciously talented ladies, China, Emerald, and Jackie sang background vocals and shook it all night long. It was truly a delight to hear these four soul veterans together. Harmonies do not get any sweeter than this. Among the many highlights was (I Just Wanna) Testify the Parliaments' first hit. They even played most of the songs off their new Westbound CD What Dat Shakin. They were joined on stage by Sir Nose himself, Carlos McMurray, as well as the original Sir Nose Larry Heckstall. I wasn't expecting them to play for 3 hours, but it was 12:30 by the time the house lights came on. We were surprised but not offended that they played Cosmic Slop and Atomic Dog. The only paper I found to write the set list was an ass gasket.
Fly on...
Click here for part two:
the Original P at Jazz On the Lake, Benbow, CA

Night of the Thumpasaurus People Standing On the Verge of Getting It On

Pumpin' It Up

Up For the Down Stroke

Tear the Roof Off the Sucker

(I Just Wanna) Testify

Make My Funk the P-Funk