Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad launch new Jazz Is Dead label
Kevin Whitlock
Monday, June 15, 2020
First release will be a collaboration with Roy Ayers
DJ-producer Ali Shaheed Muhammad (A Tribe Called Quest) and R&B and hip-hop composer-producer Adrian Younge have launched a new label, Jazz Is Dead, and its first major release – a sampler was released in April – is a new album from legendary vibraphonist Roy Ayers, his first studio recording for 18 years.
The eight-track album, Roy Ayers: Jazz Is Dead 2 (JID 002) is released on 19 June and is available on vinyl, CD and as a download or stream; written and recorded collaboratively by Younge, Shaheed Muhammad and Ayers between 2018 and 2020, and recorded at Younge’s Linear Labs studio in Los Angeles, it’s claimed that the record ‘sounds both like an unearthed and unreleased album from Ayers’ classic period in the 1970s as well as something new and unexpected.
Joining Ayers, Younge and Shaheed Muhammad on the album are drummer Greg Paul, vocalists Loren Oden, Joy Gilliam, Saudia Yasmein, Elgin Clark and Anitra Castleberry, as well as trombonist Phil Ranelin and clarinettist/saxophonist Wendell Harrison of the renowned spiritual jazz label Tribe Records.
Listen to the first single on the video below