Roy Ayers – “Synchronize Vibration” (Feat. Ali Shaheed Muhammad & Adrian Younge)

Roy Ayers – “Synchronize Vibration” (Feat. Ali Shaheed Muhammad & Adrian Younge)

79-year-old vibraphone king Roy Ayers is a legend in the worlds of both jazz and funk, and he’s one of rap’s most enduring sources of samples. Ayers hasn’t released a solo album since 2004’s Mahogany Vibe, but that’s set to change later this week. On Friday, Ayers will release his new LP JID002. He recorded it with two much-younger admirers: A Tribe Called Quest’s Ali Shaheed Muhammad and the film-score composer and rap/funk producer Adrian Younge.

The new album comes out of Shaheed Muhammad and Younge’s Los Angeles concert series Jazz Is Dead, and they’re releasing it on their new joint-venture record label, also called Jazz Is Dead. Shaheed Muhammad and Younge previously worked together on the score for the Netflix series Luke Cage. Earlier this year, Shaheed Muhammad and Younge released the collaborative album Jazz Is Dead 01, and they teamed with Ayers for the opening track “Hey Lover.” Ayers wrote and recorded JID200 with Shaheed Muhammad and Younge, laying the tracks at Younge’s studio in Los Angeles.

First single “Synchronize Vibration” is a warm, loose track that clearly draws inspiration from Ayers’ ’70s music. It’s got a soft, loping groove and whispery vocals from a whole group of singers. Check it out below.

In a press release, Shaheed Muhammad says:

What is Jazz in 2020? I can answer that this way: jazz artists have not only been an inspiration that has shaped my development as a musician, but their music is deeply rooted into the foundation of the Hip-Hop culture. We have risen because their head nodding beats, lush chord progressions, soul ripping melodies and bellowing basslines have given us a musical back beat to poetically flow on until the break of dawn. To me, it’s all freedom music and Jazz Is Dead is motivating a movement.

JID002 is out 6/19 on Jazz Is Dead.

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