Originally pressed in 1981, "Evidence For Real" is the debut album from the enigmatic Los Angeles-based soul-jazz, funk and fusion musician Ambonisye Lord Shepherd, a drummer, composer, and bandleader who chose to spend his lifetime walking his own path, well outside the mainstream. Forty-four years after it was first released, "Evidence For Real" was recently reissued in vinyl and digital formats by the New York-based label, Frederiksberg Records. This is his story.

Robert Charles Sheppard Jr., later known as Ambonisye Lord Shepherd, was born on March 25, 1956, in Omaha, Nebraska, the second child of Robert Charles Sheppard and Verline Sheppard, née Triplett. During his childhood, Robert's parents moved him and his five siblings to Los Angeles, where he would later spend most of his adult life. In August 1965, tensions were running high during the Watts Uprising in South Central. Amid the uprising, Robert’s parents got into an altercation. His father shot his mother, killing her. In the aftermath of this tragic event, the siblings returned to Omaha to live with their extended family. For Robert, in particular, the trauma of that loss had a lasting, lifelong impact.

Back home, Robert moved in with his uncle Leon Triplett, a former saxophone player and boxer who competed in the Golden Glove boxing competition as a middleweight, near the historic 24th and Lake district. From the early 20th century, 24th and Lake emerged as a hub for Black-owned and operated businesses in Omaha. Given the era, jazz was the soundtrack. When Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong and their peers brought their big bands through the city, they played to appreciative audiences in venues like the iconic Dreamland Ballroom. Music was ever-present, but Robert and his siblings were also raised around faith. Every Sunday, they would attend church with their grandmother.

Reflecting on their childhood, Robert’s brother Larry recalls him as a fighter and a fierce protector of his siblings. Robert wouldn’t take anything untoward from anyone, but he also had an inner mental strength. Galvanised by the spiritual power of music and the transformative speeches of Omaha’s most famous son, the Black American leader Malcolm X, he began his lifelong quest for deeper knowledge at a young age. Thanks to his grandmother, Robert began learning to play the piano and drums through summer school courses and church groups. His favourite drummer was the Panamanian-American jazz fusion/progressive rock musician Billy Cobham, who played with Miles Davis and the Mahavishnu Orchestra.

By his late teens, Robert, or Bobby as his friends called him, was playing around the city of Omaha in a series of Top 40 soul, funk and R&B cover bands - most notably Wild and Peaceful and Timespan - tempering his avant-garde interests with steady grooves. During those years, he met two musician brothers, Norman and Richie Love. Their father was the legendary Omaha saxophonist Preston Love. Before becoming a big band leader, Preston made his name in the big band era, playing with the Lloyd Hunter Orchestra and the Count Basie Orchestra.

In the Lloyd Hunter Orchestra, Preston played alongside the Greek-American musician and future impresario Johnny Otis, the father of the psychedelic funk artist Shuggie Otis. Preston and Johnny were lifelong friends and musical collaborators. Much like Bobby and his siblings, the Love brothers spent part of their childhood in Los Angeles, where their father worked for a decade as a session player and sideman to stars like Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin, as well as leading Motown’s West Coast backup band.

As teenagers in Omaha, Bobby and the Love Brothers frequently discussed moving back to Los Angeles. Having already had a taste of the City of Angels, life was too slow for them in Nebraska. Their dream was to follow in the footsteps of Preston Love and another Omaha musician done good, Buddy Miles, a soul, funk and rock drummer who played with Jimi Hendrix in the late sixties. Bobby was the first of the group to leave Omaha. Nate Bray, who played bass alongside Bobby in Timespan, remembers Bobby rolling out of town in a two-tone brown Cadillac. All he took with him was a nice drum set, a bag of clothes, and a thirst for more.

In Los Angeles, Bobby pursued his musical dreams in the nightclubs and recording studios of Hollywood while working casually as a security guard to sustain himself financially. Alongside music, he began to educate himself about Islam, Hinduism, and other religious beliefs and practices, as well as studying The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge by the writer Carlos Castañeda. Rather than devoting himself to one faith, he chose to walk his own spiritual path. During this process, Bobby changed his name to Ambonisye Lord Shepherd, altering his last name from "Sheppard" to "Shepherd" to distance himself from his father. Over the next few years, the Love brothers and other young Omahans from their circle made the move as well.

In 1980, the Rockford, Illinois, saxophonist and vocalist Reggie “Vision” Alexander relocated to Los Angeles after spending seven years playing in Las Vegas with the Kansas City showband Clyde N’em and Her. Not long after he arrived, Reggie started sitting in on a Sunday jazz session held at Mr. J’s, a seafood diner and bar in Inglewood. After a month, the owner asked Reggie to run the house band. Reggie had Mr. J’s humming six nights a week for over a decade. The Love brothers were regular players at Mr. J’s, and on occasion, Ambonisye would join them on stage. Some nights, even members of Stevie Wonder’s band would drop by to join in.

At the time, the Dutch pianist and composer René van Helsdingen was living with a group of jazz musicians in a nine-bedroom house, 6216 Fountain Avenue, Hollywood. Having released his first album in 1978, René had moved to the US to study jazz under Terry Trotter and Lazlo Cser. One of René’s housemates was the jazz double bassist Essiet Okon Essiet, who went on to play with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers and Bobby Watson's post-hard-bop group Horizon. Essiet spent his teenage years in Portland, Oregon, where he started studying jazz at fourteen. In Portland, Essiet befriended a jazz guitarist and composer, John JB Butler, who later on became a regular guest at 6216 Fountain Avenue and eventually moved in.

While they were living at 6216 Fountain Avenue, René, Essiet, John, and their housemates would participate in daily jam sessions with musicians from around Los Angeles. Reggie, the Love brothers and Ambonisye knew René, Essiet and John from Mr. Js and other gigs around the city. Sometimes they’d drop by the house for jam sessions, smoking marijuana and drinking wine well into the early hours. Thinking back on it, Essiet also remembers the legendary Latin-jazz percussionist Willie Bobo coming around for band rehearsals with one of their housemates, the bassist Brian Batie.

Once René, Essiet and the rest of the housemates had gotten comfortable with him, Ambonisye started talking to them about his plans for his debut album as Lord Shepherd, Evidence For Real. One time, he visited, and Ambonisye pinned a promotional photograph of himself on their wall, writing "I bless you all" on it. As René puts it, "He was a fun person and a great drummer." Although he thought it was unusual for a drummer to make an album, Reneé was more than happy to help him develop melodies and harmonies for the record.

After securing some funding assistance from his uncle Leon, Ambonisye got to work. Drawing from the pool of musicians he’d surrounded himself with in Los Angeles, he recorded an album's worth of material over several years of intermittent cut-price late-night studio sessions at Media Art Studio and Hot Rock Studio in Hermosa Beach and North Hollywood, respectively. By 1981, the album, "Evidence For Real" by Lord Shepherd, was ready for release through his own Verline Records label.

With "Evidence For Real," Ambonisye bared his soul over nine intentionally titled songs that paid homage to his geographic history, personal inspirations and most crucially, his greatest loss: the death of his mother. Across the record, he maps out a righteous fusion of spiritually minded soul-jazz and cosmic disco-funk, music that stands defiant while also asking deeper questions for the searching listener. Decades later, songs like 'Fight For It', '24th and Lake Street Omaha Nebraska', and 'The Day the Little Shepherd Boy Became a Lord', remain vital and invigorating. John JB Butler, incorrectly credited on the album as John Bugner, remembers Ambonisye as very organised in the studio, with clear ideas around his project and its conception. Unfortunately, due to under-promotion at the time, "Evidence For Real" quickly slipped into obscurity with the passing of the sands of time. Undeterred, Ambonisye continued walking his own path, picking up out-of-town gigs playing in Omaha, Nebraska, Minnesota, the Dakotas and Missouri along the way.

In 1987, he followed "Evidence For Real" up with his second album, the aptly titled "Second Coming," again pressed through Verline Records. In the six years since Evidence For Real, Ambonisye had folded the influence of eighties boogie and electro into his songs, fully embracing the potential of synthesisers and drum machines. However, by the time he released "Second Coming," his life had changed, and so had the world around him. The sprawling house on Fountain Avenue had been knocked down to make way for condos. René, Essiet, and John were working as musicians in Europe, and Reggie’s jam sessions at Mr. J’s were no more.

Two years earlier, Ambonisye met Marlene Stephaine at a local supermarket. Three months later, she was pregnant with their first and only child, Princess Verlene. By the time he’d released "Second Coming," Ambonisye had full custody of Princess and was raising her in a one-bedroom apartment in Los Angeles’ Koreatown neighbourhood. When she was a child, her father slept in the living room, and during the days, her bedroom served as his music studio. She remembers him keeping a drum set, piano, stereo and various pieces of music equipment in the corner of the room. You could hear Ambonisye playing from down the street, but no one ever complained.

As she puts it, Princess had the best childhood with her father. Ambonisye would tell her stories of turning up to concerts at showtime, acting like he was with the band, and sneaking on stage to play with Stevie Wonder and Herbie Hancock. He’d also take her to visit churches and temples, and they often spent long afternoons at the library. Later on, he’d take her to concerts to see some of her favourites like Zapp & Roger, Prince and Dru Hill perform. Ambonisye had a way with words, and more often than not, their cheap tickets would turn into front row seats.

By 1992, Ambonisye was working towards his third album, "Guerrilla Warfare, The First Assault." That year, in an interview with the journalist Barbara Kachadoorian for The Corsair (a Santa Monica college student newspaper), he explained that his music was about keeping “in tune with the universe” before stating, “It’s a spiritual thing to me.” The article also mentioned that he was collaborating with Wayne Lindsey of Lindsey Group to create work possibilities for Los Angeles street gang members from The Bloods and The Crips. The program allowed them to assist Ambonisye with producing live performances he was making with a twelve-piece band. Sadly, however, "Guerrilla Warfare, The First Assault" was never released.

During the early nineties, Princess remembers her father’s musical focus shifting towards hip-hop. Although she found it funny at the time, he picked up rapping with ease. However, due to the industry politics of commercial hip-hop radio, Ambonisye became discouraged and returned to playing jazz.

Although her younger years with him were wonderful, Ambonisye became increasingly strict and controlling as Princess grew older. When she was fifteen, she pushed back and decided to move across the city and live with her mother. After she left, Ambonisye began to slip into depression. When she reflects on it, Princess recalls seeing medical prescriptions in the bathroom cabinet. She also remembers him talking to her about conspiracy theories and the corruption he saw in the world. He’d often warn her about the evils of Hollywood, which he nicknamed Hollyweird.

In the late 2000s, Princess lost contact with her father for several years. In early 2010, the Los Angeles authorities got in touch with her to inform her father had passed away. He died of natural causes in a courtroom while awaiting trial for a firearms charge. That night, Ambonisye appeared to her in her dreams. He said, “Hey, don’t worry about it. I’m in God's hands now.” When she woke up the next day, Princess decided to leave it at that. To this day, the truth of Ambonisye’s final days remains a mystery.

Lord Shepherd's "Evidence for Real" is out now in digital and vinyl formats via Frederiksberg Records (order here)