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What is Fais Do Do? Well, from what I understand, it means faking or pretending to go to bed, at least that is what the bartender told me. Translated, I would imagine it to mean a place where you can stay up instead of going to bed. And yes, staying up, having a good time and listening to music are certainly just a few of the things you can do when you venture down to the corner near Adams and Redondo Blvd. here in Los Angeles.

 

Apparently it’s a Cajun thing! When you look around at the décor inside Fais Do Do  you might think that you were smack dab in the middle of the Bayou. Inside is very dark but, onstage tonight, beaming bright with tall talent, raving beauty and exciting energy is the lovely Dawn Norfleet and her band. This group is comprised of her sibling Michael Norfleet on Piano, Rahsaan Fredricks on Electric Bass, Daniel Bejerano on Drums, Crystal Glass and Veneta Thompson on background vocals.

  Dawn Video
 
From rhythm and blues to jazz to straight up funk, Dawn and her band put all the ingredients into the rue and came up with a tasty pot of groovy contemporary music. She wrote a tune called “Good Fred Oil”. Now, if you remember back to the days of the shinny afro, you have to get a kick out of that title. It was a product that you put on your hair, probably flammable, that made you shimmer and shine while the oil ruined the top of the collar of whatever shirt you were wearing. Not ever having a shinny afro myself, (afro yes, shimmer and shine no), I indeed did get a big smile at the name of this tune. There were no standards in the set of all original music but, some aspiring pieces none the less. 

Daniel Bejarano Video

Dawn was inspired to write a composition for Taisha Miller, a girl who, at the tender young age of nineteen years old, was gunned down by the police. A mental vision that depicts an image all too familiar to many in some neighborhoods and no vision at all to those in others. Left with feelings and emotions surrounding the incident, Dawn told that story though her song and the memory of Taisha Miller will not go away unforgotten.  

Dawn is multi-talented instrumentalist. Soaring though the octaves with her voice and on flute, she switched places with her keyboard playing brother Michael and got down on piano as well. Her harmonies have such interesting arrangements. While steeped in the R & B formula of the 70’s, she pulls that sound into the 21^st century in a style that is uniquely her own. Dawn Norfleet is “Free to Be Who She Wants to Be” and there is certainly no argument about that!

 

LeRoy Downs