“Ok, so what are we going to call ourselves?” Bonnie asked the fellas. For the last half-hour, they had been trying to figure out a name for their band. The band was made up of Bonnie on the keyboards, and lead vocals. Teddie was on the bass, and Isaac was on lead guitar. They had been practicing for the last few months, and they had gotten pretty good. They had a drummer, but he ended up not coming back to school this term, so they were trying to find someone else to take his place.
It was hard trying to a find a location, and a time to practice, with classes and everything else that went along with college life, but they managed. Every Saturday afternoon in a little building they called the shack, because it wasn’t much bigger than that.
“How about Southside?” Teddie asked. “Southside. Southside what?” Isaac asked. “Southside of campus?” “I don’t know. I just think it sounds good.” Teddie said. “Now ladies and gentlemen.” He started in his best Don Cornelius impression. “Here’s a groove that make you wanna move, from the group, Southside.” Bonnie rolled her eyes, and Isaac just shook his head.
The three of them had know each other for about a year now. They were all in their sophomore year, and they all sang in the school gospel choir. In fact, Bonnie was the pianist for the choir.
“I know. We can call ourselves the Groove Makers.” Isaac said. They all agreed that it wasn’t quite what they were looking for, but it was getting closer.
They mostly played popular music, and a little gospel. They had even written a couple of songs themselves, that they were anxious to play for people. They had agreed though, that they couldn’t start performing until they found a drummer.
“I know.” Bonnie said. “How about, The Groove Masters, instead of Makers. That sounds good, doesn’t it?” Both Isaac and Teddie agreed that the name sounded good, but it still needed just a little bit more. It was missing something.
Bonnie and Isaac were both from St. Louis. Well, Isaac was from the city. Bonnie was from the county. Normandy. People from St. Louis always seemed to make that distinction. Were you from the city, or the county? Teddie was from Hammond, Indiana, which was between Chicago, and Gary. He always made it clear that he was not from Chicago, and he was not from Gary. He was from Hammond.
Bonnie was majoring in computer science. She wasn’t quite sure what she wanted to do when she graduated, but she had a couple of years to figure it out. She was a little nervous about that field though. Her girlfriend, Karen, who had graduated the previous year had told her that programming, at least to her, was so boring that she was considering going back to school to get into a different field.
Isaac was undecided, so far, as to what he wanted to major in. He didn’t want to go into business. He was sort of a technical person who could fix just about any type of equipment. His parents thought that maybe he should consider engineering. Just because he was so good at designing ways to solve little technical issues.
Teddie was a Criminal Justice major. He wanted to be a probation officer. That’s what he always wanted to do, even when he was little. He had an older cousin who had gone to prison, and when he got out, it seemed like he always had to see his probation officer about something. Teddie, at that time, wasn’t quite sure what a probation officer was, but after his cousin explained what a probation officer did, Teddie decided that’s what he wanted to do.
“Bonnie and the Groover Masters. That sounds good. ” Teddie chimed up. “Oh heck no!” Bonnie said. “We’re not calling us that. No way!” She never liked her name, Bonnie. She thought it sounded so old fashioned, and she sure didn’t want it to be used in the group’s name. No one at home ever called her Bonnie. They all called her by her middle name, Layla. Here, at school, she was tired of trying to get people to call her Layla. For some reason, everyone liked calling her Bonnie, or Lil Bonnie. Ugh!
“Why does anyone’s name have to be out front?” she asked. Teddie told her that it was because she was the lead singer, and the name needed something more than just the Groove Masters. “Well, at least use my middle name.” She said. “That would sound a lot better.” “Well, what is it?” Teddie asked. “It’s Layla!” Bonnie said. “Ok. Layla and the Groover Masters. Cool. Cool.” Teddie said as he nodded his head. “Naw!” Isaac interjected. Shaking his. “It should be, Lil Layla & The Groove Masters. You have to put that Lil in there.”
Everyone agreed. Lil Layla & The Groove Masters was it.