Harlem Stage to Host Pete Rock & The Robert Glasper Experiment for Roy Ayers Tribute, 4/24

Revive Music Group's tribute to the legendary jazz musician Roy Ayers features an amazing lineup of music pioneers including legendary hip hop producer Pete Rock, jazz trailblazer The Robert Glasper Experiment and special guests. Honored Guest Roy Ayers will be there to bask in the glory. For this very unique event, the featured artists will collaborate in tribute to the extraordinary career of vibraphonist Roy Ayers and his influence and contributions to contemporary urban music.

Featured artist, Pete Rock, has produced many hip hop milestones from Ayers' source material, inspiration and influence. Revive Music Group is focused on revealing the roots of music culture by uniting two legends, two genre's of music, two generations and examining the foundations of emerging and established artists.

To bridge the gap, blue note recording artists The Robert Glasper Experiment featuring Chris Dave on Drums, Derrick Hodge on Bass & Casey Benjamin on Alto/Vocoder will perform sequences between Roy Ayers selections transition them into Pete Rock productions that were created from his musical influence. The live reinterpretations and interpolations of both works serve as the conduit to understanding the harmonic relationship between the past and present.

Since 2006, Revive Music Group has been presenting as series of conceptual concert events called REVIVE DA LIVE that specialize in illuminating the historical influence and relevancy of jazz with today's popular music. In the past year Revive Music Group has produced events like, Hip Hop 1942 w/Phonte of Little Brother, Hip Hop 1953 w/Pete Rock and Roy Hargrove & Guru. Revive Music Group is planning many events in the near future inspiring the education of music, the influence of jazz and the future of hip-hop.

Once one of the most visible and winning jazz vibraphonists of the 1960s, then an R&B bandleader in the 1970s and 80s, Roy Ayers' reputation is now that of one of the prophets of acid jazz, a man decades ahead of his time. A tune like 1972's "Move to Groove" by the Roy Ayers Ubiquity has a crackling backbeat that serves as the prototype for the shuffling hip-hop groove that became, shall we say, ubiquitous on acid jazz records; and his relaxed 1976 song "Everybody Loves the Sunshine" has been frequently sampled. Yet Ayers' own playing has always been rooted in hard bop- crisp, lyrical, rhythmically resilient. In the 1980s, besides leading his bands and recording, Ayers collaborated with Nigerian musician Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, formed Uno Melodic Records, and produced and/or co-wrote several recordings for various artists. As the merger of hip-hop and jazz took hold in the early 90s, Ayers made a guest appearance on Guru's seminal Jazzmatazz album in 1993 and played at New York clubs with Guru and Donald Byrd. Though most of his solo records had been out of print for years, Verve issued a two-CD anthology of his work with Ubiquity and the first U.S. release of a live gig at the 1972 Montreux Jazz Festival; the latter finds the group playing excellent straight-ahead jazz, as well as jazz-rock and R&B. www.myspace.com/royayersubiquity

Rapper, DJ, and producer Pete Rock first emerged in 1991 as one half of a duo with C.L. Smooth, debuting with the All Souled Out EP. A hit LP, Mecca and the Soul Brother, followed before the two went their separate ways in the wake of 1994's The Main Ingredient, with Rock remaining a prolific studio presence prior to the release of his solo debut, Soul Survivor, on Loud/RCA four years later. Dropped from the label, he continued his career as an independent producer, and later signed to Rapster/BBE in 2001 for PeteStrumentals. Two years later, the label released a two-part compilation of mid- 90s LPs with Lost and Found. In 2004, Rock produced the sequel to his debut, Soul Survivor II, with features coming from Pharoahe Monch, Dead Prez, Talib Kweli, and former partner C.L. Smooth. During the next few years, Rock focused on producing for other artists, including Edo G and Ghostface Killah and releasing his next solo album, NY's Finest, in early 2008. http://www.myspace.com/petestrumentals

Hailed by listeners and critics, Glasper has garnered the respect of the toughest audience of all: musicians from across the jazz spectrum. In a May 2008 blindfold test for Down Beat magazine, a fellow pianist instantly identified Glasper and praised him as "a fantastic musician," pinpointing characteristics of his unique style, "a harmonic maze, but also an insistent rhythm, certain turns and filigrees and ornaments, some of them sort of gospelish." With Double-Booked, Glasper further develops all these elements and pulls them together in a new synthesis, continuing his ascent to the top ranks of modern jazz artistry. www.robertglasper.com

TheTribute to Roy Ayers will take place April 24th at 7:30pm at the Aaron Davis Hall. Tickets for the event are $25 and may be purchased online at www.harlemstage.org or by calling the box office at 212-281-9240 EXT. 19 or 20.

For more information, visit www.harlemstage.org.