Rudy Royston & Flatbed Buggy - Day

2023 release

Rudy Royston, first-call drummer with Bill Frisell, Dave Douglas, JD Allen, Rudresh Mahanthappa and a host of others, is proud to present DAY, his fifth release for Greenleaf Music. DAY is the second outing from Flatbed Buggy, the adventurous, sonically varied small group that Royston premiered on the acclaimed 2018 album of that name. Marked by the low-register richness of John Ellis on bass clarinet and Hank Roberts on cello, the tonal subtlety and harmonic depth of Gary Versace on accordion and the virtuosic authority of Joe Martin on bass, the band debuted with a musical evocation of Royston’s youth spent in rural Texas. On DAY, with the same lineup intact, Royston captures the turbulent emotional landscape of a day under quarantine.

“This record is a little more aggressive than the first,” Royston says, remarking on what he calls the “dusty” sound of Flatbed Buggy and the comparatively swinging DAY. “I’m playing a little more aggressively because the scenes I’m portraying lend themselves to that. The scenes on the first record are all outdoors so you want to feel that space and air and dust. The scenes on this one, I was inside the whole time.””

Royston dedicates DAY to two beloved souls who have passed: his brother Ritchie, and his mentor and musical brother Ron Miles, acclaimed cornetist and composer, pillar of the Denver music scene and inspiration to Royston and so many others. Coming up in Denver under Ron’s wing paved the way for Royston to impact the global jazz scene as he has, both as a leader and charter member of the JD Allen Trio on the releases Graffiti, Americana, Radio Flyer and Love Stone.