Roy Ayers (born September 10, 1940, Los Angeles)[1] is a funk, soul and jazz vibraphone player. Ayers began his career as a jazz player, releasing several albums with Arista Records before his tenure at Polydor Records, during which he progressed a new R&B style, slowly molding the new Disco genre.[2]
Biography
Ayers grew up in a musical family. At the age of five, Lionel Hampton gave him his first pair of mallets, which led to the vibraphone being his trademark sound for decades. The area of Los Angeles that Ayers grew up in, now known as "South Central", but then known as "South Park", was the epicenter of the Southern California Black Music Scene. The schools Roy attended (Wadsworth Elementary, Nevins Middle School, and Thomas Jefferson High School) were all close to the famed Central Avenue, Los Angeles' equivalent of Harlem's Lenox Avenue and Chicago's State Street. On any given day, Roy would have been likely to be exposed to music as it not only emanated from the many nightclubs and bars in the area, but also poured out of many of the homes where the musicians who kept the scene alive lived in and around Central. Thomas Jefferson High School, from which Ayers graduated, gave to the music and jazz worlds some of its brightest stars, such as Dexter Gordon.
Ayers was responsible for the highly regarded soundtrack to Jack Hill's 1973 blaxploitation film Coffy, which starred Pam Grier. He later moved from a jazz-funk sound to R&B, as seen on Mystic Voyage and especially the title track from his 1976 album Everybody Loves the Sunshine. Other notable songs by Ayers include "Running Away", "Searching", and "Sensitize" (co-written by Ayers protegé Wayne K. Garfield).
In 1977 Ayers produced an album by the group RAMP, Come Into Knowledge, commonly and mistakenly thought to stand for "Roy Ayers Music Project".
In 1980 Ayers released Music Of Many Colors with the Nigerian Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti.
In 1981 Ayers produced an by the singer Sylvia Striplin, Give Me Your Love (Uno Melodic Records 1981).
In popular culture
- Music
- Videogames
Discography
- West Coast Vibes (United Artists) (1963)
- Virgo Vibes (Atlantic) (1967)
- Stoned Soul Picnic (Atlantic) (1968)
- Ubiquity (Polydor) (1971)
- He's Coming (Polydor) (1972)
- Coffy (soundtrack) (Polydor) (1973)
- Red, Black & Green (Polydor) (1973)
- Change Up The Groove (Polydor) (1974)
- A Tear To A Smile (Polydor) (1975)
- Mystic Voyage (Polydor) (1975)
- Vibrations (Polydor) (1976)
- Everybody Loves the Sunshine (Polydor) (1976)
- Lifeline (Polydor) (1977)
- You Send Me (Polydor) (1978)
- No Stranger To Love (Polydor) (1979)
- Love Fantasy (Polydor) (1980)
- Music Of Many Colors (With Fela Kuti) (Celluloid) (1980)
- Africa - Centre Of The World (Polydor) (1981)
- You May Be Surprised (1985)
- Mahogany Vibe (BBE) (2004)
- Sunshine Man (Aim Records) (2005)
- My Vibes (2007)
References
External links
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