Live at the Sambuca!

The weekend was adventurous...

(Still working on those posts)...

And the weekdays are even more adventurous...

Monday night, a few of us went out to celebrate our book club sista's 50th birthday.

Happy Birthday Joan!!!!


We had dinner and drinks at the Sambuca Jazz Cafe in Buckhead...

There was cake!

There were ballons!

There was liquor... This here is "Net Rock" Viv's Green apple tart!

(No dranks for me. I had a glass of cranberry juice with lemon!)



As you may well guess, this is not my side of town. It is for the shintzy types. Let's just say I was fighting with book club sista Kim about the dress code. We decided that I should call and ask about the dress code. It was dressy/business casual. I have NO idea what that means.

More arguing with Kim. And personally I wanted to roll up in there in my work gear (sweats and t-shirt), and holler "Do you know who I am?"

LOL... I would never do that. I had laid out something to wear that morning, some dressy capris and a sheer leopard shirt.

(I am worse than a dude, but I clean up well, lol).

Anyway, this jazz club has live music. And that night, Maria Howell performed.



I was thinking to myself... Hmm, that name sounds familiar.

Now, if you are a TRUE fan of The Color Purple, you would recognize her as the young lady who was singing in the church choir right before Shug Avery come running into the church.

You remember that song "Speak Lord! Speak to Me."

Well, it was that chick headlining that night.

So we are all sitting at the bar, waiting for the birthday girl to get there, and Maria Howell is on stage singing down. I turned to my book club sista Ray-Ray, and said...

"Uh, you know. I bet if we started singing the Color Purple song, she'll catch a hint and start singing it."

As a matter of fact, I told Ray-Ray to reinact that scene: be Shug Avery and run all around the club all the way up to the stage. She could've pretended that the piano man was the preacher-daddy, and hugged him and she could say "Even sinners have hearts." (Whatever it was that Shug said). LOL

I could've been Celie, standing back there clapping and watching.

Ray-Ray was not down for this, as she KNOWS me well. I would've left her hanging... Would've been hollering...

"Look at that fool running around the club? What is her problem?"

LOL!!!

We continued to contemplate the whole matter. And I pretty much sat back and snapped pictures.

That is until, Ms. Howell called me out.

"You, back there," she yelled.

*LadyLee frowning and looking around*

"You, I'm talking to you. Come up here and take my picture. Let me get my pose on!"

So I ran up to the stage and snapped a picture.

Yep, she uh... likes to get her pose on. LOL

Mr. Piano Man wanted no part of the posing. He just waved and kept it moving.

Maria Howell even called up Joan and other ladies celebrating their birthdays to come up and be the "Pippettes" for "Leaving on the Midnight Train to Georgia"...

That was VERY funny, especially when she said "Ya'll need to come on and get these steps together so we won't be up here looking crazy!" LOL

Maria Howell even stopped by our table and talked to us. Of course I was snapping the camera in her face.





We were there for about 3 hours and we had a GREAT time. The atmosphere is really nice, but I must say that I was not all that crazy about the food. (Although this is the usual case with me: hard to find good veggie dishes).

Added Note: She did sing the first part of that song from The Color Purple (to which we all at our table went crazy), followed by the song "Sista". What a treat! If we could've gotten up on stage and acted as the back up choir... LOL... Yeah, that would've been something right there!

Definitely something different for me. Especially on a weekday.

So... Happy 50th birthday, Joan... and many many more!!