the info provider for the soul survivor ISSUE 51 DEC 2013 - JAN 2014
Interviews with ROY AYERS LINDA CLIFFORD RALPH JOHNSON of EW&F NATASHA WATTS GREGORY PORTER and regular features
WHAT’S INSIDE? 4
Fitzroy talks to ROY AYERS 12 LINDA CLIFFORD talks to Fitzroy
Dear Fellow Soul Survivors
Welcome to Issue 51 wh interviews with some of ich includes a pretty wide spectrum of some of the newest, ho the most established artists alongside 16 RECORD REVIEWS ttest names on the curren Roy Ayers was so excited t soul scene. 19 THE AWARDS only been able to includ about sharing his story that we have e par t on e and it might your tissues out...there 22 RALPH JOHNSON OF is some emotional stuff be me but get these interviews! in a couple of EARTH WIND & FIRE It’s been a fairly productiv talks to Fitzroy App, holding our 3rd suc e year for us what with launching the ces 24 DARRELL’S FUNK BOX and can now announce the sful Awards event in September compiled by Fitzroy, is cal release of our new CD. It has been 26 NATASHA WATTS out on the Expansion lab led ‘Sounds Of Universal Love’ and is talks to Fitzroy bought from all the reg el. On the streets right now, it can be ular places as well as ou thesoulsurvivors.co.uk r website 28 GREGORY PORTER you love, along with a So . What a perfect prezzie for the one ul Su rvi vor membership eh?! talk to Fitzroy As we close 2013 and hea 30 EVENT REVIEWS to thank everyone who d into an exciting 2014 we would like for us, distributed arounhas advertised with us, spread the word 34 WHAT’S GOIN’ ON? supported us by way of d the country at various events and 36 SOUL RADIO do without. Thanks to membership, which we really couldn’t Darrell S, Ginger Tony, Barry King, MusicConnex Marcia Carr, pages throughout the yea and David Moran for supplying their r and YOU of course! We will always welcome new ideas, contributors, and readers so please do Thank you to all those get in touch; it is quite a distributors for jus lot of work t the two of us even though we lov who have contributed e it. Pull up a chair, cut a pie by sending in adverts, ce of Christmas cake and yourself a glass of someth maybe pour reviews, photos, ing fizzy. articles, listings and emails; we can’t do this without you. Anna (& Fit
zroy) x The Soul Survivors CUT OFF DATE FO R February/March 20 14 is 13 January
The Soul Survivors
PO Box 377, West Malling, ME6 9DQ PRINTED BY SCARBUTTS All adverts are placed in good faith and The Soul Survivors take no responsibility for any issues arising from the use of those who have advertised. All dates are correct at time of going to print - please check with venue or promoter if unsure. All rights reserved 2008 Copyright The Soul Survivors Magazine
01732 844246
For adverts, events and reviews contact Anna anna@thesoulsurvivors.co.uk or 07939 248983 facebook.com/AnnaMarshallSoulSurvivors twitter.com/SoulSurvivors1 http://uk.linkedin.com/in/annamarshall1
Record reviews and interviews contact Fitzroy fitzroy@thesoulsurvivors.co.uk or 07956 312931 Facebook: Fitzroy Facey (Da Buzzboy)
www.thesoulsurvivors.co.uk
www.facebook.com/TheSoulSurvivors www.myspace.com/thesoulsurvivorsmag
facebook.com/TheSoulSurvivors
ROY AYERS talks to Fitzroy
04 www.thesoulsurvivors.co.uk
Spiritually blessed with the vibes aged five by his adulated mentor Lionel Hampton, Roy Ayers has for 50 years shared his ubiquitous mind and thought provoking musical serenity. He has influenced generations universally to self educate and has spread his ‘vibrations’ through to many producers, musicians and songwriters to go ‘searching’ through Roy’s repertoire for creative inspiration. Here is part one of Roy’s ‘mystic voyage’ up to roughly 1977 as we became reacquainted exactly 20 years on from when I first met and dj’d for him.
Born in 1940, how in those tender early years did your mother’s piano and father’s trombone skills impact on you? My mother and father have both passed and as I grew up my folks were wonderful to me and gave me everything I wanted. The most expensive thing was a set of vibes at 17 years old that I wanted so badly because I was in love with Lionel Hampton. As well as playing his records they took me to see him in 1945 aged 5 at the Paramount Theatre in California. I remember that very well; he gave me a set of vibraphone mallets as he knew how much I loved him. That was the biggest thrill of my life. Didn’t your parents say when Lionel gave you the mallets, that he had spiritually blessed you? Yes my mom would say that he laid some spiritual vibes on me. My parents worked all day and I played my vibes all the time, even late at night - can you imagine that? Sometimes it would keep them awake in the late hours but they could see, despite whether I was in tune or not, how much it meant to me. Between the ages of 5 to your mid teens you experimented with various instruments including the piano and drums. How much of an impact did the drums have on you as I've always maintained your vibraphone is your version of a drum kit? Exactly - and that’s interesting as the piano is the same keyboard wise as the vibes. The drums are also a mallet instrument. Most vibraphonists, including Victor Feldman, play the piano, drums and vibes. I’ve got one of Victor Feldman’s albums, In The Pocket actually. Victor Feldman is a great musician and someone I admired. I worked with Victor on a Curtis Amy album remembering at the time I was nervous as hell! It was one of my first sessions on Pacific Records and Victor was on the piano. Victor was an all round musician and in fact all the musicians then were wonderful to me. You certainly served your apprenticeship between 1961 and 1969 showcasing your artistry making your debut 1963 album West Coast Vibes with Jazz musicologist Leonard Feather. Liaising with established jazz maestros drummer Chico Hamilton, saxophonist Curtis Amy, pianist Herbie Hancock and flautists Hubert Laws and integrally Herbie Mann. Tracks like Native Dancer of the Daddy Bug And Friends album alongside Can You Dig It with Herbie Mann were inspiring, can you remember the latter track? Yes I can; it was written by yours truly and Edwin Birdsong. We did the music but not the words and you reminded me of some of the musicians you mentioned. Yes those were wonderful years. How was that vibrancy working with such illuminates and taking jazz and R&B into a new dimension? It was wonderful and the creative aspect was great. I have a lot of respect for those artists and really enjoyed it.
You mentioned one of my dear friends Leonard Feather, a great artist and writer, who after a session asked if I had recorded an album. I said no as I’m not ready and he said yes you are, and Leonard got me my first album with United Artists in 1963 West Coast Vibes. From an outside observation as someone who comes from a Jamaican heritage growing up in this country, it’s clear that the swinging sixties and political climate were the roots of the fruit of what we were to experience from you in the Ubiquitous years. That historical decade saw the Civil Rights, Nation Of Islam, Mohammed Ali, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, President Kennedy and the Black Panther movements. Never shy in proclaiming your proud African blackness, how did all that stir the social, conscious, universal and spiritual creativeness in the forthcoming 1970’s? All those people were very influential for my mind and growing up. Some of them were around my age and it was a wonderful learning time. Being in Los Angeles we didn't experience the same level of prejudice that the black people in the deep south did. I had three sisters who are all retired school teachers. They guided me to stay away from drugs and alcohol because those substances destroyed Billie Holiday and Charlie Parker. To see Mohammed Ali was a great inspiration, watching him fight and all his acknowledgments. It’s sad to see him now debilitated through his disease. Martin Luther made me feel proud and I played a couple of gigs for the Black Panthers who got taken out by the FBI. How did you get the attention of Polydor seeing as you were associated initially with Atlantic and then collate the core structure of your Ubiquity musicians that included in those early years, Edwin Birdsong, Alphonse Mouzon, Harry Whittaker, Jumma Santos, Billy Cobham, Dennis Davis, Chano O’Ferral, Bernard Purdie, Wilbur Bascombe, William Allen, Calvin Brown, Phillip Woo, Greg Phillingaes, Justo Almario, James Mason, Chicas and Dee Dee Bridgewater? My manager got me a very small deal with Polydor and they were 12 great years which made me very popular around the world - like Japan, China, Russia and the European continent. Most of the artists you mentioned came to me at different times. There were some like Dee Dee Bridgewater who I asked to perform with because I admired her. Interesting you mention Philip Woo who lives in Japan, he’s very talented and it’s a shame he’s not here in America. After he left me he went to work with Ashford and Simpson travelling as their musical director. From He’s Coming to Lifeline, those nine albums are full of improvised freedom material and showcased some very educational and prophetic songs. Starting with He’s Coming, there’s He’s A Super Star, We Live In Brooklyn and the subliminal Ain’t Got Time. These car-
ried a lot of conscious weight in 1972, where was your mind at during that period? He’s Coming was part of that conscious era but for me the starting point was the Red Black and Green album. I was always conscious of the politics that happened in the USA with the Black Panthers and some of the things Stevie Wonder was doing like with Superwoman. There were other albums that were very strong that also influenced me like Gil Scott Heron’s whom I loved and worked with. We were young people talking and proud to be black. It was all transitional, with Lonnie Liston Smith doing his Cosmic albums, he’d also worked with Pharoah Sanders. I have 4 versions of Sweet Tears, one from David Fathead Newman’s Newmanism, one from Lets Do It 1978, the Nu Yorican Soul version from 1997 (with Louie Vega) and the first I believe was from He’s Coming. I remember djing at one of your Jazz Cafe dates and you saying it was inspired by your mother, how so? Yeah it was inspired by my mother and my son whom I was leaving behind to travel on the road. Even though my son stayed with my ex wife whose now deceased, he’d often stay with my mother. It was a heavy period for me so the words say “baby though I’m leaving don’t you cry, I’m the one whose grieving you know why, love is like the wild bird you can’t tie, free to stay forever or to fly, though my heart will always stay, gotta make my getaway”. My getaway was to go on the road to entertain people. Wow you got a good memory to remember that. How did you get to making the Coffy Soundtrack with Pam Grier ? The president of the company, Jerry Shumbo, asked me to do the soundtrack which I said of course because I wanted to do it, even though I had never done one before. American International Pictures flew me to California and it all worked out fine. I met Pam Grier and the other actors which was great and later when Pam did Jackie Brown, Quentin Tarrentino used some of the Coffy soundtrack in his film. I got two soundtracks under my belt and I felt a sense of achievement in the way Quincy Jones had done. More prophetic and poignant pencilling came via Red Black & Green in 1973 sampled by X Clan for the epic Raise The Flag. The lyrics “Red Black & Green if you think about it you know what I mean” always reminds me of the colours of the traffic lights which was invented by a black man but not widely publicised. How important was it for you to make such a statement? Well check this out, myself, Roselle Weaver who wrote most of the words and Edwin Birdsong worked on that. Roselle wrote the lyrics “Red Black & Green” and Edwin added “if you think about it you know what I mean” so I said let’s add those lyrics together.
AGMP.CO.UK MP P.CO.UK 08444 771000
READ THE FULL INTERVIEWS, REVIEWS AND MUCH MORE IN ISSUE 51
You can find copies of the Soul Survivors magazine in various venues and clubnights around the UK or sign up to become a Soul Survivor Member for £25pa and recieve all copies through the post including our ‘Members Only Issues’.
Alternatively, if you are technical minded, you can sign up to the Soul Survivor App and read at your leisure for just £14.99 pa. Check out our Soul Survivors Shop on the website to register. http://www.thesoulsurvivors.co.uk/shop/