Roy Ayers Announces New Collab Album With Ali Shaheed Muhammad And Adrian Younge

Roy Ayers JID002 is out on June 15.

Roy Ayers is releasing a new album alongside Ali Shaheed Muhammad and Adrian Younge. Titled Roy Ayers JID002, the collaborative project is Ayers' first album in nine years, according to Pitchfork. Along with the album's announcement has come the release of a new song, "Synchronize Vibration."

"What is Jazz in 2020? I can answer that this way: jazz artists have not only been an inspiration that has shaped my development as a musician, but their music is deeply rooted into the foundation of the Hip-Hop culture," Muhammad wrote in a press release for the album. "We have risen because their head nodding beats, lush chord progressions, soul ripping melodies and bellowing basslines have given us a musical back beat to poetically flow on until the break of dawn. To me, it's all freedom music and Jazz Is Dead is motivating a movement."

Roy Ayers JID002, which is the first studio album to be released on Younge and Muhammad's new label Jazz Is Dead, will have eight tracks, and features drummer Greg Paul, vocalists Loren Oden, Joy Gilliam, Saudia Yasmein, Elgin Clark, and Anitra Castleberry, and Phil Ranelin and Wendell Harrison of Tribe Records. The album is out on Friday, June 15. Physical copies are scheduled to drop in late July. Ayers, Younge and Muhammad had previously worked together on the Jazz Is Dead 001 compilation album.

In related news, Ayers recently released "Reaching The Highest Pleasure." The track was recorded in June 1977 — 43 years ago — and discovered among Ayers’ Virgin Ubiquity studio session tapes.