Politics, BullShit & The Tinfoil Tirades: Mid-Week Music Spotlight

$11\21\06 "Mid-Week Music Spotlight - Roy Ayers!"$

I normally do this on Sunday's before I go watch the football games but for some reason lately I haven't because I haven't felt like it and also because they have been acting like real whores over at youtube...I told you about them cancelling my DustyNutz account...Well they went waaaay beyond that they also banned my ip...Anyway, I sent them a letter...It was nice, surprisingly and they responded with the normal blabbage they do about copyrights eventhough the videos had been uploaded for months before comedy central started acting like a bigger bunch of whores and went through youtube snatching down clips...OR could it be that it's Google and the big youtube merger...Regardless, the account was cancelled! I got another account and I told you guys about that too...Well the other day I go to upload my video clip I was so proud of smashing Bush about his Katrina Response and as soon as I hit upload I get a message about my account is suspended! I just knew I was going to hit the big time and be on Leno talking about it and sh*t but Noooooo...Needless to say I have lost a lot of respect for youtube...I'm still gonna use their bandwidth and the videos they have up if it suits my needs but that is about it!

It has also definitely taken on a whole different vibe at youtube since it has been so commercial-ized, corporat-ized and politic-ized lately like everything else the Hate Machine is putting it's slimy tentacles on...Tentacles remind me of testicles (on) which of course reminds me of teabag and brings me to this: WE The People are getting Tyrannically Teabagged by the Neo-Cons (The Corporate-Christo- Islama- Zino-Fascist Liars)! I guess your thinking what the hell does any of that have to do with Roy Ayers? Read on and you shall see....

Biography

by Richard S. Ginell

Once one of the most visible and winning jazz vibraphonists of the 1960s, then an R&B bandleader in the 1970s and '80s, Roy Ayers' reputation s now that of one of the prophets of acid jazz, a man decades ahead of his time. A tune like 1972's "Move to Groove" by the Roy Ayers Ubiquity has a crackling backbeat that serves as the prototype for the shuffling hip-hop groove that became, shall we say, ubiquitous on acid jazz records; and his relaxed 1976 song "Everybody Loves the Sunshine" has been frequently sampled. Yet Ayers' own playing has always been rooted in hard bop: crisp, lyrical, rhythmically resilient. His own reaction to being canonized by the hip-hop crowd as the "Icon Man" is tempered with the detachment of a survivor in a rough business. "I'm having fun laughing with it," he has said. "I don't mind what they call me, that's what people do in this industry." ... Read More...

" ...Roy Ayers' reputation s now that of one of the prophets of acid jazz, a man decades ahead of his time..." I want to concentrate on this part of Roy Ayers...Every now and then I clean off my desk and I get my DVD's together and they are either labeled Movies Music or
Software and I sort them all out...Well I decide to pop in a DVD with no label and it's just a bunch of songs...Roy Ayer's songs and a light came on...Hey you haven't done a spotlight in a while why not do Roy Ayers and talk about how much ahead of his time he really was...

I used to see Roy in Washington DC at Ft Dupont Park just about every summer I can remember...And I didn't realize it then but Roy was definitely special...Later on as I evolved and learned to appreciate music and started listening to the words I learned a lot of things about me through Roy Ayers music...He talked about things that affect and effects us all within the songs...One of my favorite tracks is a song called "2000 Black" that he wrote in the 70's telling us to think about the future...And we never heard him...At the end of the track there is a chant that goes ..."change the vibe of your mind, save the human race..." Roy saw coming this back then...Roy Ayers was also at the peak of his creativity...It was a chance meeting with Vibraphonist Lionel Hampton that got Roy to switch from piano to vibraphone...The rest is history! Roy released almost 20 albums in ten years! Most of the albums achieved critical acclaim a couple also had a lot of commercial sucess as well...Here is a list of tracks of note from that time...2000 Black, We Live in Brooylyn Baby, A Tear To A Smile, Evolution, Everybody Loves The Sunshine, Searching, Running Away and the remake of Sam Cooke's - You Send Me that Roy definitely made his own...It still takes me a minute to remember how Sam did it after I hear Roy's version...There were also a few stinkers in there as well mainly due to the "blax-ploitation" films going on at the time not to mention the "pro-black" vibe! Remember that skit that Keenan Wayan and Kim used to do where they played Reecy and Cephus and they did the record commercials? Well there are some songs that sound like that but for the most part it was a good time for Roy!

During the 80's he was recording and making music and producing for other artists as the 90 ushered in the jazz hip-hop fusion, he would guest star on cd's such as Guru's fisrt Jazzmatazz or with Donald Byrd...His last release Mahogany Vibe was a collection of remixed tracks with different guest starts one of note was "One Day" featuring Raheem DeVaughan and also a new Go-Go track in tribute to the many shows he did in Ft Dupont park in Washington DC...Roy can still be found touring all over the country...He is a regular at a place called Ronnie Scotts in London...Check out some more on Roy Ayers at his website CLICK HERE! and there is always ALLMUSIC! So enjoy the next couple of videos...

Roy Ayers - Everybody Loves The Sunshine