Bah Samba/Roy Ayers At Beachdown
By Bah Samba/Roy Ayers 19th Aug 2008

Roy Ayers and Bah Samba first joined forces in November 2002 at Southport Weekender. The show was endorsed by Grammy Award winner Louie Vega to play in between his set with Masters at Work partner Kenny Dope. They went on to headline the 40th birthday of Southport Weekender to great critical acclaim.

A musical match made in heaven, this heavyweight team of crowd rockers features some of the UK’s finest musicians, Vanessa Freeman from Reel People and Tasita D’amour on vocals who have worked with Herbie Hancock, Sly and the family stone, Madonna, Omar and Max Sedgley and The Shoots. Mark Ralph on guitar, Tristan Banks on drums who has worked with Da lata, Marcos Valle, Terry Callier, and Nitin Sawhney. Dominic Glover on Trumpet , the founder of The Stella Horns who have worked with just about everybody . Oil Savill on percussion from Basement Jaxx. Finn Peters on flute and sax who tours and has recorded for Jelhisa Anderson , Sam Rivers , Bembe Segue, Matthew Herbert and Two Banks of Four. Level Neville on bass from US3 and BBC Radio One Gilles Peterson’s label Brownswood. Scotty Baylis on keys from Reel People and Julian Bendall on Fender Rhodes.

We are now delighted to announce that the Roy Ayers and Bah Samba shows are now available to book worldwide. Vibraphonist/vocalist Roy Ayers is among the best-known, most-loved and respected jazz/R&B artists on the music-scene today. Now in his fourth decade in the music business, Ayers, known as the Godfather of Neo-soul, continues to bridge the gap between generations of music lovers. In the ’60s he was an award-winning jazz vibraphonist, and transformed into a popular R&B bandleader in the ’70s/’80s. Today, the dynamic music man is an iconic figure still in great demand and whose music has been sampled by music industry heavyweights, including Mary J. Blige, Erykah Badu, 50 Cent, A Tribe Called Quest, Tupac, and Ice Cube.

Ayers recently recorded with hip-hop artist Talib Kweli (produced by Kanye West) and jazz/R&B singer Will Downing. Many of Ayers’ songs including “Everybody Loves the Sunshine,”, “Searchin”, “Running Away” have been frequently sampled and remixed by DJ’s worldwide.

The Bah Samba story began with founding member Julian Bendall who started producing soul, funk and Jazz at an early age, gathering some serious momentum in 1994 when he worked with Hacienda legend DJ Graeme Park on Inner City’s’ Share My Life ‘followed swiftly by a similar venture with the Brand New Heavies ‘Back to Love’. In 1995 Bah Samba released their first 12 inch on Loaded/Skint records and have toured the world 3 times over the last 10 years, five albums later and residing in Brighton Julian has since gone on to write and produce for the likes of Phil Asher, Alexander O Neal, The Fatback Band, A Man Called Adam, Ultra Nate, Blaze, Quentin Harris, Monique Bingham , Jepthe Guillaume , Marvin Gaye. Soul legend produced by Barry White ,Miss Gloria Scott l, Nadirah Shakoor from Arrested Development, Osunlade and many of the underground artists in New York. Julian is currently in the middle of writing and producing two artist based albums living between New York City and Brighton.

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