The Man-The Legend Roy Ayers live-Prince of Wales Melbourne Australia

The Man-The Legend Roy Ayers live-Prince of Wales Melbourne Australia
By Asanka-Brendon Ratnayake

Another journey down St Kilda’s Fitzroy street to the Prince of Wales, home to trashbags & fluro on a Saturday night but also home to some of the best musical live events ever witnessed in Melbourne. Generally I only go to ‘the prince’ to witness ‘good music being played by good musicians’, every time it’s the same, me walking down Fitzroy street, smoking a cigarette, avoiding drunks, junkies & buskers however I’ve always made the return trip afterwards in a musical state of nirvana, would this prove to be another happy trip back to my car?

Those who know me, know I can be a bit of a music nazi wether it be judging music or judging a live performance (obviously one of the lingering traits of my former career in the music biz), a few nights prior I witnessed a hero & legend in Stevie Wonder & was left satisfied however not blown away. The man that is Stevie Wonder is hard to top but my gut was telling me ‘Roy will bring it’, not that it was a competition, but I just left Stevie having not got the full fix of world class live entertainment I was expecting.

As a jazz lover at heart I was overly excited about seeing Roy, as Jazz heads like myself have been a little disappointed with the lack of big name internationals coming to Australia this year. To be honest I was surprised Roy Ayers would come down, then again Chris Brown & Rhianna could sell more tickets than Stevie Wonder so anything can happen right? Now that ive upset the younger demographic lets get into shall we.

Nostaglia 77 (dj set) was the appetiser to the funk soul session that was about to be, lifting the crowd with a nice concoction of Afro-Latin ‘riddims ‘ & funk horns & deep bass lines. Then followed an act whom ive heard a lot about but have never bothered to see & I can guarantee you I will see them again, the Bamboos with the amazingly strong vocals of Kylie Aludist. When it comes to choosing a good support act its harder than you think, you want someone who can rally the crowd but not too much & you don’t want anyone who will kill the mood, the Bamboos were perfect in that respect, they left the crowd happy & amped.

Speaking of the crowd, you could not generalise the crowd at all, in the same way you cant generalise Roy Ayers. Roy is the Rubik’s cube of music; he takes the good parts of every genre of music & morphs it into labyrinth of rhythm that only he can produce. I figure since Roy Ayers is one of the coolest people on the planet, his fans must be pretty cool too right?

As always I was right, you had opinionated jazz heads (me) next to smooth soulful house heads next to hip hop heads with backpacks next to rock heads with torn tees next to gunja reggae heads. It was fantastic, I will guarantee you 90% of the ‘cool’ in Melbourne was at the Prince of Wales that night.

So how does one of the coolest muso’s on the planet make his entrance? Does he get escorted on stage by some blondes in bunny suits, of course not he is too cool for that, who needs an entrance when your Roy Ayers. Roy just walks on stage with his technicoloured dreamcoat colourful North face jacket, puma trackies & kangol hat! Brilliant. No suspense, no crowd warming, no ‘Its so good to be here’ bullsh*t, he just got it started straight away and there was no turning back.

I know im not the only one that was in disbelief about how casual he was & I mean that in a good way. No fanfare, no extravagant outfits & scientifically rehearsed playing, it was more like a jam session between Roy & his band & it was fu*king brilliant. Never before have I been so engaged by not only the artist but also his band. Generally the band just adds the garnish, but Roy is too cool for that & happily shares it around. In terms of chemistry between the band VS artist/singer, this was by far the best example I have ever seen, it was almost a case of ‘whatever you can do I can do better’ with a lot of banter added in for good measure, for example Roy would do his usual gymnastics on the vibraphone only for his Alto sax/keyboard/ BV Ray Gaskins (an amazing muso in his own right & also Jocelyn Browns cousin), to take centre stage & mesmerize the audience by moving his fingers up & down his sax quicker than a Chinese ping pong player while charming the crowd with his adorable granddaddy teddy bear persona, Ray definitely was a highlight, in particular his solo when playing the legendary Dizzy Gillespie jazz standard ‘A night in Tunisia’. Now that ive put my own sexual orientation into question did I mention his drummer Lee Pearson, Roy himself has been quoted as saying “I think probably he’s the greatest drummer in the world”. Imagine a real life version of animal from the muppet show except this one conducts his craft with more precision & finesse. That is Lee Pearson. Then you also had the talented Mark Adams on keys, Donald Nicks on bass & John Pressley doing vocals/ hypeman duties in his new jack swing back up dancer outfit. It would be criminal if I didn’t mention the band members individually, those that were there im sure would agree.

Collectively they just reminded me of bunch of childhood friends whom have got old & having a reunion catching up & having fun doing what they do best, play music, if they can make fun of each other along the way so be it.  If the Harlem Globetrotters were muso’s they would be the Roy Ayers band. Musically they played everything you’d expect, the ‘Cant you see me/Running away/ Evolution’ medley was out of this world, the album recordings & the live versions are incomparable & in truth you cant listen to the originals after hearing it live, its like watching ‘One night in Paris’ as oppose to having one night with Paris (Hilton).

The lack of seriousness mixed with the casual almost blase attitude only made this show even better. It was an honest performance. In truth I think Roy had no idea that Melbourne would come en masse & react the way we did. On that note a big props to the Melbourne crowd, as im sure Roy & co would love to comeback given the reception he got & I hope he tells his fellow jazz cats to come ‘down under’.  As far as live entertainment goes I got my fix in a double shot & I walked up Fitzroy street leaving ‘The Prince’ in that state of Nirvana I’ve become accustom to. I’ve seen a lot of live shows but this one is definitely one I will not forget anytime soon, actually I never will.

Also a big shout out to James at ‘Niche Productions’ for taking a punt & bringing this legend down & doing so with great success and also CJ at ‘Keep it moving media’ for the hook up.

Photographed & written By Asanka-Brendon Ratnayake

All images are property of Asanka-Brendon Ratnayake represented by 5ft5 creative pty ltd
Myspace.com/asanka1

This music make me feel thankful to be alive. I can hear, see, feel, think. Yea, thankful is the word. Thanks for posting.
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