There’s nothing like his 1970s vibraphone-led wanderings like “Mystic Voyage” or “The Third Eye,” and his singing voice never comes to the forefront of the arrangements. And while Ayers’ playing is still smooth and lucious after all these years, his instrumentation is often buried low in the mix. But since fuzzy guitars, low frequency drums, and heavy basslines have long been a staple of Younge’s productions, it’s his fingerprints we see all over Roy Ayers JID 002. Ayers is credited as co-writing every song and playing his famous vibraphone on seven of the eight cuts, so we can assume he had some agency over the final product. But by fixing a number to his name, Younge and Muhammad frame the piece as very much their venture.
The first question that must be asked is why such an ugly naming system? At 79, Ayers hardly ever records anymore-this is being promoted as his first studio album in 18 years-so any new music attributed to him should be a capital-E event. Yet, it rarely feels like the true jazz legend is operating on the front line. Roy Ayers JID 002 is perhaps the most consequential edition of the endeavor. Released in March, Jazz is Dead 001 acted as an introduction to the project by gathering one song from each future installment, including collaborations with such dignitaries as Marcos Valle, Azymuth, and Brian Jackson.
Now, there’s the Jazz is Dead series, which sees Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad (partners on 2018’s The Midnight Hour) team-up with musicians they admire to record LPs at Younge’s Linear Labs studio in Los Angeles. Whether he is offering a sinister take on Philly soul for The Delfonics' William Hart, serving splatter flick grooves to Ghostface Killah, or even making music with his own soul band, Venice Dawn, the producer and instrumentalist promotes his own mythology as a vanguard of old school grooves by adding the words “Adrian Younge presents…” to the records he helms. Adrian Younge never wants you to forget he’s the man behind the music.
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