As interest in his the sleek, sentimentality jazz style waned in the mainstream, it found a new life in the underground, with crate-pilliaging upstarts like A Tribe Called Quest notably borrowing from Ayers's" Runnin' Away" for their 1989 cut "Description of a Fool" and slicing up bits of "Feel Like Makin' Love" to make "Keep It Rollin'." Ayers continues to be a profound sample source for hip hop artists to this day, with his work propelling the beat and vibe behind artists as diverse of Madlib and Tyler, the Creator.
Ayers hasn't released a full-length album since 2004's Mahogany Vibe, so it's pretty special to see him step back into the studio almost twenty years later for a collaborative effort with two artists whose music careers the master idiophone player made possible. Adrian Young has earned his salt by making beats reminiscent of the era that Ayers came up in and Ali Shaheed Muhammad was a member of A Tribe Called Quest, so enough said.
While Ayes's influences are most pervasive in the fusion scene, his debut album for the Jazz is Dead imprint focuses more on his pre-Sunshine era, reviving the soul and R'nB melds of the mid-70s just as the quiet storm was gaining steam on FM radio. "Synchronize Vibrations" is an exquisite, soothing funk opener, and along with its follow up "Hey Lover," manifests a moving romance of body and soul that will sweep the shard of the supreme being that sits at your core off the seat of her charkha. There are some uncharacteristic experiments as well, that while they don't fit neatly into Ayers's back catalog, are still resounding successes, such as "Sunflowers" with its distinctly bossa nova flavor, and the hard, hip-hop bonded bop of the cranked-up "Solace."
While stylistic trial runs and '70s era romantic soul anchor this release, but that doesn't mean that the album is totally devoid of fusion jazz. Both "Soulful and Unique" and "African Sounds" feature laughing, tickles of futuristic bass and pure flowing tributaries of refreshing, electro-captured starlight that hint at Ayers indomitable influence over later future seeking jazz artists.
More than a living tribute to a master of his form, Ayers's collaboration with Younge and Muhammad is a celebration of the legacy of 21st Century jazz that he has had a hand in crafting and the lives he has touched through his transcendent sonic medications.
