Results for "Roy Ayers"

Charles Tolliver: Connect

by Chris May
July 17, 2020

Put out more flags. Connect, the first release from trumpeter Charles Tolliver in over a decade, is a monster. From the Saturday-night goodtime opener “Blue Soul" through to the intense, Spanish tinged, serpentine closer “Suspicion," the album finds Tolliver still at the top of his game in a recording career which began in the mid 1960s. ...

Atlantic Records: More Giant Steps: An Alternative Top 20 Albums

by Chris May
July 13, 2020

Ahmet and Nesuhi Ertegun's Atlantic Records differs in one key respect from Prestige, Riverside, Impulse!, Strata-East and Flying Dutchman, the most prominent labels covered so far in this Building A Jazz Library series. Those labels' discographies consist almost exclusively of jazz. Atlantic had parallel interests in soul and rhythm-and-blues and, later, rock. This had consequences, as ...

It Might Be You in the Dark - Celebrating Dave Grusin and Big Bill Broonzy

by Mary Foster Conklin
July 6, 2020

The end of June broadcast included a new single from trombonist and vocalist Aubrey Logan with Hagelslag, plus new releases from the Vanessa Perica Orchestra, with birthday shoutouts to vocalists Madeline Eastman, Tierney Sutton and Gillian Margot, composer and pianist Dave Grusin, harpist Brandee Younger and bluesman Big Bill Broonzy. Playlist Rachel Z “Artemisia" ...

Song for My Father in Late June - Celebrating Fathers Day and Summer Solstice

by Mary Foster Conklin
June 29, 2020

The Fathers Day/Summer Solstice/Juneteenth broadcast included new releases from drummer Gayelynn McKinney, vocalists Linda Lavin and Sue Anne Gershenzon, Adrian Younge, Ali Shaheed Muhammad and Roy Ayers, with birthday shoutouts to Cy Coleman, Sammy Cahn, Jaimie Branch, Alicia Olatuja, Migiwa Miyajima, leader of the Miggy Augmented Orchestra, Lolly Allen and Jenny Scheinman. Thanks for listening and ...

Warren Wolf: Reincarnated

by Aaron Paschal
May 6, 2020

Warren Wolf is a Baltimore-born vibraphonist and a member of the SFJAZZ Collective. Reincarnation (2020), his fourth album as leader on Mack Avenue Records, sees Wolf dive into an entirely different side of his musical personality. We got together via ZOOM to talk about his musical influences, how he's staying creative during the COVID pandemic and ...

Chip Wickham: Blue To Red

by Bruce Lindsay
April 29, 2020

It's not always easy to feel uplifted and optimistic these days, when reasons to be downhearted seem to overwhelm the reasons to be cheerful. When an album's title refers to a planet's descent from life-giving blue to the deadness of red (Mars, in this context, but British flautist Chris Wickham fears that Earth may be heading ...

Brooklyn Funk Essentials: Stay Good

by Chris M. Slawecki
February 19, 2020

Back in the day, jazz bands like Roy Ayers' Ubiquity and soul bands like the Ohio Players played more than jazz and soul. Jazz and soul were their main ingredient, but only one ingredient among others stirred in from R&B, funk, pop, Latin and other music. You might have heard them on different radio stations, but ...

Dave Stryker Quartet At Middle C Jazz

by Mark Sullivan
February 18, 2020

Dave Stryker Quartet Middle C Jazz Charlotte, NC February 14, 2020 Guitarist Dave Stryker began by introducing his band mates: tenor saxophonist Stephen Riley, organist Jared Gold (a constant companion for several years) and drummer Jeremy Bean Clemons. Much of the music would come from the recent album Eight Track III ...

Back in the Day, Around the World

by Chris M. Slawecki
February 11, 2020

Brooklyn Funk Essentials Stay Good Dorado Records 2019 Back in the day, jazz bands like Roy Ayers' Ubiquity and soul bands like the Ohio Players played more than jazz and soul. Jazz and soul were their main ingredient, but only one ingredient among others stirred in ...

Roy Ayers

Born: September 10, 1940

Roy Ayers was during the 1960s one of the most prominentand leading jazz vibraphone players in America. During the1970s and 80s he came to change his focus and becameone of the leading figures in R&B and jazz/funk. The 1990shas once again brought him into a new direction and he isnow regarded being one of the greatest innovators of theacid jazz movement. His music has often been described asbeing years ahead of it's time.

Ayers was born on September 10, 1940, in Los Angeles,California. Thanks to the influence of his mother, a pianoteacher, and his father, a trombone player, Ayers was amusical child. His introduction to the vibraphone came at theage of six, when his parents took him to a Lionel Hamptonconcert. After the show, Hampton handed Ayers a pair ofmallets, sealing the youngster's musical destiny with thatsimple gesture. It was not until he was 17 years old thatAyers finally got a chance to play the vibraphone, which heclaims had been his favorite instrument all along.