Nduyanyu
Nduyanyu
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About Nduyanyu
NDUYANYU (pronounced IN-DO-YAHN-YOU) was born in the late forties and a few months after his birth his parents moved from Memphis, TN, to Long Beach, CA, then eventually Pasadena. The eldest of ten children, his father worked for the railroad as a porter and his mother as a vocational nurse. His relationship with his father was strained, but two things his dad loved, boxing and jazz, were also among his favorites. His first album was "Kind of Blue" by Miles Davis because his dad played it so much. When he was in high school he used to carry with his books albums of Miles and John Coltrane (no Walkmans or iPods then) while his friends were listening to Motown and James Brown. Nduyanyu loved that music as well, but jazz catapulted him to worlds beyond his imagination. After college, he worked as a writer for a number of publicity firms dealing primarily with R&B and jazz groups. During that time Ndu worked with and was exposed to some of the greatest artists of that generation – Earth, Wind & Fire, Bill Withers, Miles Davis, Billy Preston, War and Herbie Hancock. He took some time off living in L.A., moved to San Francisco and became roommates with trombonist Julian Priester, who had moved from New York City to the Bay Area after the breakup of Herbie Hancock’s band in 1973. Ndu had a great time living there, but it wasn’t wonderful for employment. So by 1975 he found myself moving back to Los Angeles to take a publicity job at United Artists Records. UA owned Blue Note Records, one of the great labels in the history of jazz. Wayne Shorter, Horace Silver, Donald Byrd, Lou Donaldson, Bobby Hutcherson, Earl Klugh and Lee Morgan among others were under contract and It was great being in that environment. He did some producing, working on samplers and promotional albums. A couple of years later Ndu moved to A&M Records, whose top jazz artists included Quincy Jones and Chuck Mangione. He left A&M in 1978 and started a business designing and installing audio video systems for office and homes. It was the beginning of the home theater business that we know today. He didn’t miss the music business, but he did miss the music. One day in 2004 friend and co-producer Curtis Robertson, Jr. told Nduyanyu he should try doing something more with his musical knowledge and look into using GarageBand, a software program found on Apple computers which allows a person to create music using professionally recorded loops. Before too long he was writing songs. Then it stopped being a hobby and started sounding more like a real musical project. On and off, he worked nearly six years with the loops to get the desired sound and feel. After getting most of the tracks recorded Arthur Walton from Hawaii was brought in to do the mastering and final mix. Multi-faceted reedman Tracy Wannomae was brought in for both his playing and arranging skills. Singer/songwriter Nailah Porter added much needed vocals for "Riding High on Life" and "Whatever" and "NduSpeak" was then ready for release.
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