Ricardo Jay composes and performs music inspired by Jazz and Latin traditions. At the ripe age of 37, Ricardo decided to begin a professional career and life as a musician, in order to create and give the gift of music to others.
Ricardo's music studies began as a middle school student in Kernersville, North Carolina, with the alto saxophone. He soon found the piano to be a more suitable instrument, and spent several years in private lessons with a teacher in nearby High Point and later with the NC School of the Arts summer program, where he gained his first real exposure to written jazz music. At age 16 he became interested in the guitar, and being able to teach himself the mechanics of the instrument he initially absorbed a blues-based repertoire. During his university years at UNC-Greensboro he formed an electric quartet called Papa's Brand New Bag where he gained some early experience writing, performing, and collaborating with experienced musicians.
However, Ricardo was never satisfied with popular music styles, and due to artistic differences the group disbanded. While exploring private lessons in Greensboro he became exposed to the classical guitar repertoire, and found a real resonance with the composers of the Romantic tradition (particularly involving the Spanish guitar). For years he continued to appreciate the music alone as an amateur, until around 2004, when while living in the Bay Area, California and teaching design at a university he formed a trio with Vanessa J (voice) and Carl Johns (alto flute) in order to play acoustic versions of traditional Cuban music. Within the groups intimate afternoon sessions, he further evolved his ear and appreciation for Latin music. Around this time his interest in divers guitar musics of Brazil was also kindled – an interest and passion which informs his playing today.
Around 2008 he collaborated again with Carl Johns on the Earth Tones Project, a musical suite for meditation. The duo made several recordings of their original compositions in which Johns played Bansuri and other wooden flutes in a style reminiscent of free and cosmic jazz, expressed with woodwinds and strings.
In 2010 Ricardo, having realized his musical potential had yet to be truly explored, decided to devote his life to living, and giving, music. He set out on a quest to create original works which explored the themes of his own experience, using the musical vocabularies that he loved – Jazz, Latin, and Classical music. Inspired by the great composer Bill Dixon (who at 37 years of age released his first orchestrated jazz opus), as well as other composers who work with jazz as an art form presenting unending possibilities, Ricardo fervently immersed himself in furthering his knowledge of forms, and the history of art music in the Black American, African, and Latin traditions, as well as the many European art music works performed today.
It is towards creating a unique and new kind of music which Ricardo Jay is dedicated. Today he is busy creating a new ensemble which will explore original medium and long-form works with an organic instrumentation of jazz, classical, and percussive traditions. Although Ricardo's life in music began later in his life, it has been worth the wait, and the adventurous listener will be rewarded.