Ayo - Gravity At Last

Ayo - Gravity At Last

01.I Am Not Afraid

02.Maybe (Ayo Blues)

03.Slow Slow (Run Run)

04.Love And Hate

05.Get Out Of My Way

06.Better Days

07.Change

08.Piece Of Joy

09.Lonely

10.Sometimes

11.What's This All About?

12.Mother

13.Thank You

AYO is a German born artist, the offspring of a Nigerian father who had come to Germany to study in the 1970s, and sometimes worked as a DJ, and a mother who is a gypsy. AYOs rather unusual name means joy in Yoruba. Her rich cultural background is also reflected in her musical influences. She grew up amidst Pink Floyd and Fela Kuti, the Soul Children and Bob Marley, and many others.

AYOs nomadic lifestyle brought her to live between Paris and New York, two capitals that accurately sum up her musical identity. In Paris, word got around fast, and she held initial solo concerts with her guitar, opened for Omar, the British soul brother and jammed alongside Cody Chesnutt.

AYOs entire album, Joyful, was recorded in New York under live conditions. She cries, laughs and moves us with her simplicity. To accompany her, producer Jay Newland put together a group of open-minded musicians that, with a note on a B3 organ or with a stroke of slide guitar melodiously enter this unusual world, which is studded with a few words in Pidgin, the street language of Lagos, and unveils recollections of gypsy life. In addition to her parents, two other influences helped her set the tone of this album, which very well could have been recorded some 35 years ago. Firstly, theres mentor Donny Hathaway. Her other reference is Jimmy Cliff. Like her predecessors, she strives to naturally and sincerely share her stories and touch others, boosted solely by her life experience and her dreams

No se me ocurre un adjetivo que defina mejor a esta alemana de raices nigerianas y espíritu francés de veintiseis años. Su nombre, que en Yoruba significa “alegría”, empieza a sonar desde que el año pasado sacara el que ha sido su álbum debut, Joyful.

Ayo tiene una voz de cantante de jazz de los años cuarenta y una vida complicada a la que echar mano para desgarrar las letras de sus canciones. Su primer single es Down on my knees y su estilo es la tónica que define todo su trabajo. Su ritmo suave, lento, con una raíz reggae, olor a jazz y sabor a intensidad te captura. Habrá quien escuche en ella a una seguidora de la corriente iniciada por Norah Jones y tan pobremente continuada, en mi opinión, por Corinne Bailey Rae.

Ayo no sólo presenta un disco cargado de estilo, elegancia, producido cuidadosamente y en el que su voz es la auténtica protagonista. Ella misma es una mezcla musical en la que se conjugan perfectamente estilos totalmente diferentes.

Aquí os dejo un acústico en París de diez minutos de final redondo. Merece la pena verlo del tirón.