Thirty years can turn a band into an institution, but longevity means considerably less when the music itself stops moving. Ray’s Music Exchange have avoided that problem by making movement central to their identity. Rooted in Cincinnati’s improvisational scene and shaped by jazz, funk, progressive composition and an almost instinctive appetite for collaboration, the collective have spent decades treating written material as a starting point rather than a boundary. A Live Family Rayunion 2025 captures that philosophy in perhaps its most natural environment: onstage, surrounded by musicians who understand that uncertainty is part of the performance.
Recorded at Cincinnati’s historic Woodward Theater, the six-track album marks the first live Ray’s Music Exchange recording in 15 years and arrives as the group celebrates three decades of music. Guitarist Brad Myers, trumpeter Michael Mavridoglou, bassist Nick Blasky, percussionist Matthew Hawkins and drummer Jason Smart form the veteran core, joined by saxophonist Josh Kline, trombonist Spencer Merk and members of Cincinnati Afrobeat-funk institution Ernie Johnson From Detroit. The expanded personnel turns the performance into something larger than a conventional reunion, connecting different generations of the city’s instrumental community through improvisation.
There is history throughout the record, including compositions by founding keyboardist Paul Hogan and a closing interpretation of Miles Davis’ U ’N’ I, but nostalgia never becomes the album’s primary language. The musicians repeatedly describe Ray’s as a space built around listening, risk and responding to whatever happens in the moment. That philosophy explains why a recording initially intended largely as an archive became something worth releasing. The chemistry was simply too alive to remain undocumented.
Apricot Magazine spoke with members of Ray’s Music Exchange about returning to the live-album format, the enduring Cincinnati community around the band, improvisation, physical media and what three decades of musical evolution have taught them about listening to one another.
Interview with Ray’s Music Exchange
Brad Myers: The energy at Woodward is always contagious. The Rayunion shows are something I really look forward to every time we do them. 2026 was the third year in a row that we have done the annual show at Woodward Theater. They were a little more spaced out between the first big one in 2010 and 2018, which celebrated the 20th anniversary of our first recording. The 2025 recording was done with a core band local to Cincinnati and some amazing musical friends who are really lighting up the Midwest’s strong reputation for great improvised live music.
It was released at the Woodward show this year as a way to celebrate 30 years of Ray’s Music Exchange being around as a musical entity. We also brought in some RME alums who live out of town as a way to make this year’s show really something unique. The local guys get to play together in various formats throughout the year but we don’t play this material. Getting to hang and play with our old bandmates from out of town is the icing on the cake. Of course, connecting with both newer fans and seeing our old RME fans coming out to reconnect with each other, some from all over the country, is very special. It feels like a family.
Jason Smart: Playing with my brothers in Ray’s Music Exchange is exciting and a blessing. What everyone brings to the table musically is always at a high level and evolves as we all explore our own personal musical journeys.
Brad Myers: The 2025 Rayunion show coincided with a long-standing Thanksgiving Eve tradition of Ernie Johnson From Detroit playing a very packed and sweaty free show at MOTR Pub right across the street. We thought it would be great if we started earlier in the evening and had a bunch of them up on stage to see what happens, and then just continue the party late into the evening across the street, where a few of us went to go sit in with them.
We co-branded it Mayhem on Main Street with EJFD and it was an outstanding night all around. Musically everything was pretty off the cuff with very minimal rehearsal. I was recording it mainly as an archive of what happened but the energy and chemistry of what happened on stage was too good to keep under wraps.
Jason Smart: RME is very improvisational, textural and has always explored many musical styles. When we add talented folks to our mix, it brings fresh ideas, energy and pathways of expression that we feed off of to keep the music vital.
Jason Smart: The piece called Quartalchondriac/12 Tone Jam is one that OG Ray’s keyboardist composed to give us a platform to explore nonstandard harmony and guided improvisations. The result leads us to musical areas that we wouldn’t otherwise end up in together that are exciting and fun for us.
Michael Mavridoglou: That was a Paul Hogan specialty. Modern classical inflections with a decidedly hip hop backing. Everything can work if executed well.
Brad Myers: That’s what we have always strived to achieve. The balance between composition and improvisation, interpretation and interaction, predetermined and completely unknown. We are playing off of each other within a loose framework, some of which can be guided in the moment by a band member that is conducting us, so to speak. That also involves the audience in various ways, too. We feed off of each other.
Brad Myers: That track is basically two improvised solos from guest saxophonist and trombonist Josh Kline and Spencer Merk respectively. A blank canvas to explore over a very simple chord progression. The title is a subtle nod to the bigger musical context from which it was excerpted during the show.
The visceral act of composing spontaneous music live in the moment, especially with other people, is the core source from which we all draw as musicians. It is futile to try and talk about it though. It must be experienced to be fully understood.
Jason Smart: We try to approach each performance in RME with fresh ears and hearts. That is one of the most satisfying aspects of playing this music with these friends for so long. It will always be of the moment and be performed with honesty from all these great players.
Brad Myers: Paul’s tunes were always a springboard to lots of fun musically. What we all love to see as we get older is how much better and more musically mature we have all grown. Approaching any of our old tunes with open minds and drawing from the experiences we’ve all lived helps to keep it feeling fresh and still challenging after all these years.
Jason Smart: Brad Myers and Ashley Shepherd took Nick Radina’s recordings and worked their magic mixing them through their impeccable ears and musicality. They would offer more than I can speak to about their mixing process.
Brad Myers: Working with real humans who know what they are doing is important to me. In an era that is increasingly reliant on AI and quick fixes, I think it helps the music stand out among the 100,000 tracks per day that get released to the world.
Brad Myers: I have always focused on producing music in an album format on physical media. I don’t mind if the recordings must have a life in the digital realm that relinquishes my control over how, and in what order, people listen to the album. But for me, part of the art in releasing music to the public is the frame in which you put it.
For me, as a producer, it was important to have the technical limitations of physical vinyl media to focus on putting out the best highlights from the show. After 15 years without a new RME recording, I wanted this to be memorable and unique, just like the music.
Jason Smart: The band members and many of our fans are from former generations who felt that quality physical packaging of music enhanced the listening experience. It lets the listener in on more information about the songs, performance and musicians, which provides a clearer picture of the live evening that was captured.
Jason Smart: To me, some common threads in our music include honesty, openness, evolution, deep listening, supporting each other and simply that we are fans of a wide variety of music who always want to honor it with a stellar performance.
Michael Mavridoglou: Something interesting or different has to be happening melodically, the groove can take care of itself. When improvisation is open, the band has to have its ears on the ensemble as a whole. I don’t think we have ever had a real common thread in our sound beyond those things. I have always felt like Ray’s could take care of business rhythmically, kind of like a band of drummers.
Brad Myers: An adventurous spirit on stage with each other and our audience. Improvisers say, Yes, and. I think when this group of musicians gets together they can’t help but be honest and authentic with their shows.
Brad Myers: U ‘N’ I is a Miles Davis tune off of the album Star People that the band used to play back in the day. It’s a very playful funk riff and horn melody that ended up being a relatively concise way to highlight our guest musicians Josh Kline on tenor sax, and trumpeter Jonathan Wiseman, saxophonist Wayne Kilgard, trombonist Collin Thompson and keyboardist Jackson Steiger, all from Ernie Johnson From Detroit.
It wasn’t the only thing they did with us that night but it was definitely super cool. The crowd loved the collaboration and the energy was amazing.
Michael Mavridoglou: I don’t think it was anything intentional. It was a Miles Davis melody from the 1980s that I felt was very Ray’s-like. Thick and deep groove and a quirky, cute melody.
Jason Smart: The musical work of Miles Davis is something we all admire. U ‘N’ I is a funky tune of his that our guests and the band picked to have fun with.
Jason Smart: It has been exciting releasing new RME music to the world. Through listeners and reviewers picking up on it, it can’t help but open new avenues of performing, recording and writing which will keep us moving to the next chapter with something current to say.
Brad Myers: Well, we recorded the show this year, too. It went very well and included a totally different cast of guest musicians and RME alumni playing some different tunes than the previous year. I’d love to make a recording of the best moments from each Rayunion show available in some capacity going forward.
The first in a potential series of recordings is always going to be special. The response has been great so far so we can focus on putting out new music that keeps us finding new listeners, keeps the older fans happy, and keeps the Ray’s Music Exchange story evolving forward.
Summary
What emerges from A Live Family Rayunion 2025 is not simply a celebration of longevity. Ray’s Music Exchange sound most convincing when their history becomes material to improvise with rather than something to preserve behind glass. Paul Hogan’s compositions can be revisited because the musicians approaching them have accumulated decades of different experiences, while new collaborators alter familiar structures simply by bringing another set of instincts into the room. The past remains audible, but it is never allowed to dictate exactly what happens next.
That philosophy is particularly clear in the way the musicians talk about listening. Technical ability matters throughout these performances, but virtuosity alone is not the objective. Smart describes openness and deep listening as fundamental characteristics of Ray’s, Mavridoglou emphasizes hearing the ensemble as a whole, and Myers repeatedly returns to interaction and the unknown. Their descriptions make the record’s genre collisions easier to understand. Jazz, funk, hip hop, progressive composition and Afrobeat can coexist because the musicians are responding to one another before worrying about where the resulting sound belongs.
The physical edition extends that same sense of occasion. Three hundred hand-numbered and hand-stamped jackets turn a spontaneous night at the Woodward Theater into something deliberately tangible, preserving not only music but the context around it. For a band whose identity has been shaped by communal performance, that framing matters. The record becomes evidence of people gathering in the same room, musicians reacting in real time and an audience influencing what happens next.
Thirty years into the Ray’s Music Exchange story, A Live Family Rayunion 2025 ultimately feels less like an anniversary retrospective than proof that the experiment remains unfinished. Another Rayunion has already been recorded, new combinations of musicians continue entering the picture, and Myers can imagine the live releases becoming an ongoing series. For a collective built around the idea that the best destination may be the one nobody predicted at the beginning of the song, that open-ended future feels entirely appropriate.
