Multi-artist Dave Guy will release his debut album Ruby on September 20th via Big Crown Records (Brainstory). Along with the news, Guy also shares the album’s lead single, “7th Heaven” featuring vocals from Claire Cottrill (Clairo). The track is one of the first that Guy along with friends and longtime collaborators Nick Movshon and Homer Steinweiss recorded in the studio.

“It has a groove and is more in line with what the guys and I are known for with Menahan Street Band, but it is also in-your-face and catchy,” notes Guy. “It’s a bit of an ode to Tijuana Brass too, a Herb Alpert-esque track with a tight horn line and has that energy that pops.”

Raised in NYC’s East Village, Dave was surrounded by hip-hop and the hustle that defined the city in the ’90s. In those formative days, he and his playing were influenced by jazz greats like Donald Byrd and Hugh Masekela but also by the Native Tongue sounds of A Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul. His time at LaGuardia Performing Arts High School furthered this path. Dave remembers sharing playing time with Big Crown co-founder Leon Michels and drumming powerhouse Homer Steinweiss. “Being in the All-City Jazz Big Band, I would see them rehearsing all the time,” Dave recalls. “They were already doing things with the Dap-Kings back then—which was crazy.” It was here that Dave’s voice as a player began to take shape and continued to be refined through his studies at the Manhattan School of Music and The New School, and then playing with Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, Charles Bradley & Menahan Street Band, The Sugarman 3 and more and lending his playing to records from the likes of Amy Winehouse, Mark Ronson, Pharell, The, Lee Fields, Al Green, and many others.

As fate would have it, a classic case of “when one door shuts, another opens” was really what got the ball rolling on the album. “I never wanted to force my own project,” Dave explains. “There was always a lot going on between things—the timing was never right.” But then, The Tonight Show had to pause during the 2023 Writers’ Strike and, unexpectedly, there was a free moment. Within days Dave started recording at NYC’s fabled Diamond Mine studio with Steinweiss and Movshon. What started out as just looking to make music and create, quickly took shape and direction and they ended up laying down something wildly special and authentic. An album of songs that capture different moods and an invitation into the world as Dave Guy sees it and feels it.

Ruby is a record that mixes Dave Guy’s musical influences with the energies of the city that raised him. It also features stunning cover art by renowned NYC-based multidisciplinary artist Derrick Adams.

Dave Guy
Ruby
Big Crown Records

01 – 7th Heaven
02 – Footwork
03 – I’ll Follow You
04 – Morning Glory
05 – Pinky Ring
06 – Diamond Encore
07 – Still Standing
08 – Dave Wants You
09 – Drony Boy
10 – Quesodillas
11 – The Green Door
12 – Ruby’s Rubies

Pre-order Ruby by Dave Guy HERE