In a recent post about being friends with the illustrious (and elegant!) Ron Carter, via Facebook, I discovered a Roy Ayers album he appears on that I’d not seen before. Daddy Bug & Friends (1976), pictured above.
I initially confused it with this, plain ol’ Daddy Bug (1969):
I only learned of it via an album cover photo montage on another website (see below). It piqued my interest. It appears to be an odd rag-tag selection of numbers, drawn from several diverse sessions, and released on Atlantic, with some of the music edited, and a couple of tracks (Slow Motion and Bonita?) that were hitherto unreleased.
Released in 1976, it bears all the hallmarks of a speedy cash-in, by a former label, designed to capitalise on Ayers growing mid-‘70s popularity. 1976 was, after all, the year Ayers’ Ubiquity group released their breakthrough and now evergreen classic, Everybody Loves The Sunshine.
I found a nice piece on the latter here. And as that article points out, this was the track/album that catapulted Ayers to what was then referred to as ‘crossover’ fame. Something very few jazz artists achieve. Herbie Hancock, George Benson and The Crusaders are some of the rare big name exceptions.
When I first saw the Daddy Bug And Friends image, in the montage of album covers pictured below, it had an immediate allure. That has been rather tempered by finding out it’s an unofficial cash-in. Also, at the smaller scale in which I first encountered it, I even felt I preferred the artwork to the genuine and ‘original’ Daddy Bug album.
Now, seeing it more clearly, visually and within the Ayers canon, I’m rather less sold on it. I had thought it was a photo, a bit like the weird Katy Lied cover, by Steely Dan. But it turns out it’s a rather dated looking piece of airbrush style artwork. Never mind! It’s all interesting to a fan of Ayers’ work like me.
* I have over half – at least fourteen – of the 25 albums pictured. Carter’s discography is mind blowing!