RAMP - Come Into Knowledge (1977) [LP Reissue 2018]

“Come Into Knowledge was recorded by the Cincinnati-grown, Ayers-curated jazz-funk pioneers before their split that same year. Uniquely, Ayers didn't actually perform in the band he created. Instead, he and fellow funk icon Birdsong carefully cherry-picked top-of-the-line session players to bring their writing contributions to life: Spinners drummer John Manuel and guitarist Landy Shores as the nucleus, Cincinnati bass legend Nate White holding down the groove, and spitfire lead vocalists Sibel Thrasher and Sharon Matthews on the front lines.

As a result, RAMP (an acronym for Roy Ayers Music Productions), hit on a funky alchemy. These are heavily grooving songs of romantic devotion and spiritual clarity — "Heaven and Earth are one, if you can see / You are heaven in reality," Thrashers and Matthews insist on the assertive title track. It was all reflective of Ayers and the groups' mental state at the time. As Manuel put it to Mixcloud, "Roy himself had the essence of being somewhat tuned into worldliness. He inspired the group to be conscious. We wanted it to have a spiritual impact. Goodliness, cleanliness, wholesomeness." The music expands upon and refracts those lofty, ethereal topics — soul's bleeding heart and funk's keening edge as two sides of the same coin.”