At
9:30pm, the first set of Andy Aaron & the Mean Machine started with the
Ramsey Lewis/Earth, Wind & Fire classic "Sun Goddess", featuring
the funky scratch guitarisms of Winston and the majestic horn lines of Andy
Aaron on trumpet, Clayton on trombone and Billy on sax! "Slippin' Into
Darkness" was next and the crowd was definitely feenin' the funky groove
of the War song...the memorable part was the good percussion soloing by Alan.
"Who is He, What is He To You" (originally by Bill Withers) was a
nice, funky bass groove, provided by bassist Luther. "I Got the
Feelin'" (of course, by James Brown) was the first song where I saw some
people (okay, two people) actually get up and dance...the super-funky groove
took over the Blue Room of Taylor's and had one music fan doing the "James
Brown"...of course, it doesn't hurt to have Lawrence Perry threw down on a
scorching drum solo at the end of the song!! Winston took over the lead vocals
and did a very good job on Larry Graham's "One in a Million". The
band jumped into Maze's "Joy and Pain", doing it a different
key...this version came off better than the original....Winston even got the
audience to chant "Joy...and Pain" and "Like sunshine...and
rain". When I left the Blue Room to head to New Jersey, I heard these guys
going into the next song, "Fire" by the Ohio Players....I left at 10:30pm.
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