He's Coming captures
Roy Ayers at the absolute top of his game, masterminding jazz-funk grooves as taut as a tightrope. Profoundly inspired by the Broadway musical Jesus Christ Superstar (and including a reading of the soundtrack's "I Don't Know How to Love Him"), the album is a deeply felt exploration of
Ayers' spiritual and social beliefs, celebrating the life and rebirth of Jesus with "He's a Superstar" and its follow-up title cut before delivering the equally impassioned political manifesto "Ain't Got Time to Be Tired," a wake-up call for slumbering revolutionaries. Aided by an exemplary backing unit featuring saxophonist
Sonny Fortune, bassist
John Williams, keyboardist
Harry Whitaker, and drummer
Billy Cobham,
Ayers channels the intensity of his message into his music, creating the most vibrant and textured music of his career to date. The atmospheric "We Live in Brooklyn, Baby" is an absolute masterpiece, a haunting hybrid of jazz, funk, and soul that exemplifies the
Ayers aesthetic at its most far-reaching and inventive. ~ Jason Ankeny