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Roy Ayers Connection

@royayersconnection

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A multimedia project highlighting the life and legacy of jazz legend Roy Ayers and all that is connected to him (aka the @royayersproject, est 2010).

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A couple bullet points:

- The Roy Ayers Project short film is available to view in my bio and at royayersproject.com. Please check it out!

- You can watch the stream of the Roy Ayers Tribute at Grand Performances in the bio link.

- Thanks again to all who have supported me this far, who made this film possible, who came out to support, and special thanks to Michael and Juan who came down from the Bay to be at GP.

- I didn’t get a chance to say my prepared speech at before the film played at Grand Performances, so I copied and pasted it in the comments below

- Shout out to @way2majorarchive for the photo. Excellent work as always.

- Check the second slide for my words on stage. (That was tough, lol)

- Big shout out to @ecoleye, @pabloaguilarstudio, @mochilla and the @grandperfs staff and crew, as @sly5thave and all the stage performers, and @thefrancescaharding for the lovely introduction.

- I look forward to building on this project in the future.

Thanks, yall. ✌🏽 by @royayersconnection

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2 months ago

The Roy Ayers Project short film is linked in the bio! It took 15 years to get here but here we are.

Thank you all who made this night and project possible at Grand Performances (@grandperfs), especially @mikeflossin and @wonwayposibul who came from the bay to be in attendance. I wouldn’t be standing here without the people who invested in me. I’m grateful. taken in Grand Performances by @royayersconnection

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2 months ago

This day is 15+ years in the making. I’ll be showing the Roy Ayers Project documentary short film at Grand Performances (@grandperfs), Los Angeles, August 1st, 6pm - 10pm PST (screening will be 7:30ish).

If you are unable to attend, the entire show will be live streamed and archived on Grand Performances’ YouTube page.

Thank you to all the folks who have made this event and documentary possible (I don’t want to mention names because I don’t want to forget anyone, but you know who y’all are!) by @royayersconnection

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3 months ago

I wanted to take some time to acknowledge some of the folks leading up to the Roy Ayers Tribute event at Grand Performances on August 1st.

Something that I’ve spoken about during my time working on the Roy Ayers documentary is the relationships that I developed along the way. In between filming for the documentary, I built and managed a blog at royayersproject.com, where I wrote articles and shared music, photos, and videos about Roy Ayers and the people surrounding his world, illustrating Roy’s influence through six degrees of separation.

This photo is a screen grab of our old website, royayersproject.com.

One of the things I’m most proud of creating through the website was the Roy Ayers Beat Submission initiative, where I invited producers to submit beats that sampled Roy Ayers. The response became much bigger than I could have imagined. I received submissions from cities I’d never heard of and countries I had only seen in photos. The purpose was to show just how far and wide Roy Ayers’ influence reached, and the impact was, and still is, global. In addition to posting individual beat submissions on the website, I released them as compilations, which received tens of thousands of downloads. Big shout out to @dart_adams, who consistently promoted the compilations on producersiknow.com. Through these compilations, we featured producers such as @knxwledge, @tallblackguyproductions, @sevseveer, @itsmeneedle, @abjonian, @ojedot, and many others.

In addition to the beat submissions, I also put out a call for writers to help populate the blog. This is where I was fortunate enough to meet @paulclabourne and @hayling, who contributed pieces that I still think about today. Sev Seveer also contributed a couple of writings as well. What started as a call for blog contributors turned into in-person hangouts, discussions about music, and lifelong friendships that I will always value.

Because of technical changes to the web that eventually left the site incompatible, I had to discontinue the blog around 2016. While the site ultimately ran its course, the relationships that came from it have lasted far beyond the life of the website. by @royayersconnection

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3 months ago

On the back of yesterday’s post, I wanted to acknowledge other folks outside of the initial team that helped out with the Roy Ayers project. After a couple of setbacks and transitions, the production side of the project stayed afloat with the help of my brother Marquis (@silencelastsforever), who I was introduced to through @rockpaperson (around 2014?), and my partner, Lexx. Marquis, Lexx, and I did a number of shoots in both NY and LA, interviewing Roy Ayers’ contemporaries like Justo Almario, Mark Adams, Ricky Lawson (RIP), the legendary Gerald Wilson, and many others. We spent hours traveling, in conversation, in kinship, and through the project grew what I would consider a lifelong bond.

In 2020 or so, in efforts to once again revive the project after another hiatus, I reached out to Traci (middle, slide 11) who is a professional archivist, with the hopes of focusing on Roy Ayers’ archives in a way to expand the project. While those efforts stalled, Traci and I developed a bi-coastal friendship where we remain in contact. Just another example of the invaluable connections that were made out of this project, despite the disappointment of not completing the intended goal. I guess all of these tangential projects are embraced as “side quests” now. Regardless, I’m forever grateful.

Slides
1-5: Marquis when he visited LA on a rainy day (35mm film)
6: Me and Marquis on the Upper West Side
7: Shooting with Roy Ayers’ daughter, Ayana
8: Lexx and Marquis in the Subway
9-10: Marquis
11: L-R Me, Lexx, Traci, Marquis, and Alethia
12-14: Roy Ayers and Gearld Wilson, 50+ years apart
15: Justo Almario in his home
16: Ricky Lawson (RIP) holding his Grammy
17: Mark Adams in his home
18: Roy Ayers and I in Mr. Ayers’ home
19: Roy Ayers playing with his idol, Lionel Hampton
20: Screenshot from Roy Ayers’ video collection

Thank you to REL, Marquis, and Lexx for capturing these moments. by @royayersconnection

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3 months ago

On August 1st, Grand Performances (@grandperfs)is doing a Tribute to Roy Ayers featuring @sly5thave @kassaoverall @linafornia (shout out @ecoleye) and more where we will publicly show footage (FINALLY!) from the Roy Ayers Documentary I began in 2010. With all photos comes a story so let me give some context to this gallery (Check the pinned post for more information/thoughts about the documentary).

These are some photos from the production crew’s first trip to NY. With the help of a Kickstarter campaign (donors that I’m still forever grateful for), three Virgin America 2 for 1 vouchers, and a AirBNB-type rental, we were able to fly out and house six people for $2000. These were different times. These are photos of some of our shoots, our traveling from place to place, our meetings, our gatherings, our drunken nights doing parkour and ultimately our passion to document, and tell the story of the great Roy Ayers. We probably did three interviews a day for five days straight. We not only documented music history, but also documented ourselves in our own collective and individual journeys. It was a trip I’ll always cherish for many reasons.

This showing on August 1st at Grand Performances is a benchmark that is important for this project. I didn’t intend for so much time to pass between then and now. I think much of it was the search for a bar of perfection that is impossible to reach. But, we’re here now, and now is the time. I’ll be screening a snippet of the documentary with more clips on the way.

Big shout out to the fam @rel.mov @mikeflossin @djtonedef @_laloguzman @wonwayposibul

Photos by @djtonedef, music by @zakdamundo

There are so many people to thank who took this ride with me, and never finishing the documentary will always be regret that I hold, but the relationships that were built along the way is something I’ll always treasure. I’ll share more photos and stories leading up to August 1st. Peep the last slide to see the first clip that we released in 2012. by @royayersconnection

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3 months ago

There have been so many great tributes to Roy Ayers since the announcing of his passing through photo and video, and the common them through many of them is that people loved Roy Ayers’ music, but what they loved just as much was Roy Ayers the person. I love this video by @ashakagivens because it encapsulates what I loved about his persona, someone to make you feel good but also someone to drop a nugget of wisdom that would cause you to self reflect. There are so many photos with fans I’ve seen because he took the time to reciprocate the love, showing the person he was. Thank you for all the tribute posts, and looking forward to sharing many more.

Video: @ashakagivens via IG by @royayersconnection

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2 years ago

I wanted to share a few words on Roy Ayers’ passing. There is so much that I can say about Roy himself, but I wanted to take this time to thank others as it pertains to the Roy Ayers Project.

Roy Ayers Project was a project that was meant to celebrate the life and legacy of Roy Ayers. What initially started out as a goal to complete a full length documentary eventually grew into friendships, extended family, connections, and so much more. While mourning Roy Ayers’ passing, I also think of the countless hours spent trying to promote the greatness of Roy’s legacy, from music to influence as well as the many friends and family members who helped me along the way with their time, labor, and support. Over the years, I’ve gotten to know parts of his family, and my family has welcomed him into their lives from afar. It was more of a friendship that I could’ve ever asked for.

While the documentary was the crown achievement, there were other subsidiary projects that began to take form, like the Roy Ayers Project blog, the Beat Submissions compilation, fundraising efforts including merchandise and in-person events, and much more. Through these initiatives, I met people along the way who I am still friends with to this day.

Eventually, as life took its course, I could no longer maintain all of the aspects of the project, and I took a break. What was supposed to become a week became a month, which eventually became six months, and before I knew it, I had stopped the project all together. While I feel disappointment for not completing what I initially set out to do, I am also filled with immense gratitude, from the people who donated to the initial Kickstarter goal of $2000 that enabled us to do our first round of shooting in New York, to the most recent revival of the Roy Ayers Connection, I appreciate everyone who has been along for the ride. While the target was continually shifting, the objective of promoting the life and legacy of Roy Ayers never wavered.

(Cont. in comments) by @royayersconnection

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2 years ago

Happy Birthday to Roy Ayers!

We owe so much to you and we thank you for all of our fabulous contributions to music.

Artwork by @lexx_valdez. by @royayersconnection

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2 years ago

Shout out to @paradisemusician who has an entire feed dedicated to chords! Love to hear Roy Ayers’ music stripped down to expose the beauty in the details. Check out their page to hear more (including lots of Roy Ayers chords).

(Repost @paradisemusician)
・・・
Roy Ayers Together Forever Chords 🎹😎 #RoyAyers #CarlaVaughn #TogetherForever #RoyAyersChords #70sRhodesPiano #RhodesSound #neosoulchordprogressions #chordprogressions #chordprogression #neosoulchords #neosoulvibe #MusicianParadise #lofivibes #chillhopmusic #lofipiano #chillhoppiano #howtoplay #lofipiano #pianochords #ChordPresets #MIDIfiles #JazzMusic #Sampling #Songwriting #MusicProduction #MusicalInstruments #CollaborativeMusicCreation #0v1RecordsPlutonium by @royayersconnection

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3 years ago

Big shout out to @diajoymusic and her lovely bass playing, covering Roy Ayers’ timeless tune “Searching”! (Check out all her other bass covers on her feed as well!)

(Repost)

Song: Searching - Roy Ayers
Bass player: William Allen

(My bass is so quiet sorry🥲)

#bassguitarist #fender #fenderjazzbass #jazzbass #flatwounds #bassfeatured #notreble #bassplayeruniverse #lowendnation #bassplayersunited #leftyguitar #lefthandedbass #leftybass #lefthandedbassist #femalebassist #femalebassplayer #femalebassplayers #femalemusician #basscover #royayers #70sfunk #70ssoul by @royayersconnection

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3 years ago

Happy birthday to the legendary Roy Ayers (@royayerssunshine), who on this day celebrates his 83rd birthday. The mark you have left and continue to leave on this world is one that is truly unique and will never be forgotten.

We are grateful for the millions of people around the globe who keep your music and legacy alive!

Play some Roy Ayers today, yall!

(Photos by David Redfern) by @royayersconnection

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3 years ago