Roy Ayers celebrated his 82nd birthday yesterday. He was born in L.A.
on 10 Sep 1940 to musical parents, his father played trombone and
mother the piano.
He began his musical career in 1961 and released his first album "West Coast Vibes" in 1963 on United Artists. Later that year he featured on
vibraphone on "The Jack Wilson Quartet" album and another in 1966
"Ramblin'" joining flutist Herbie Mann the same year. The first Jack
Wilson Quarter album was released on Atlantic who must have seen
something in him as he proceeded to release his next three albums on
the label in 1967, 1968 and 1969 all produced by Herbie Mann. Some
jazz heavyweights were on the sessions including Gary Bartz (sax), Ron
Carter (bass), Grady Tate (drums).
Story has it that Ayers was taken to see jazz band leader and
vibraphonist Lionel Hampton at the Paramount Theatre when was 5
years old and during the concert Hampton interacted with the crowd and
handed him a pair of vibraphone mallets, and the rest is
history!
Ayers is regarded as a pioneer in both jazz-funk and also acid jazz.
As a predominantly album artist he didn't trouble the charts too much
with singles with none reaching the Billboard Hot 100 although he had
a total of fifteen enter the R&B chart with six reaching the top
40. His two biggest records must be "Everybody Loves The Sunshine", which has legendary status amongst hip-hoppers having been heavily
sampled, and of course his biggest chart success "Running Away" (#19 R&B)
"Running Away" was first sampled by Eastbound Expressway on "Never Let Go", a
disco song contrived by Ian Levine with Fiachra Trench in 1978. The
most well know sample of it is probably by A Tribe Called Quest in
1989 on "Description Of A Fool".
A lot of music to wade through, but here's a selection of 20 of his
best!
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1 comment:
Excellent vibraphonist. Among all his recordings I will especially remember his first which is a pure marvel but the rest still deserves all your attention.
Yves
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