Performer: Roy Ayers
Roy Ayers is a legendary funk, soul and jazz vibraphone player and his influence on contemporary music is undeniable. From the outset of his career, Roy has been establishing new music standards when working with other jazz and disco musicians, R&B artists and many other legendary performers from different music genres.
Roy has always enjoyed experimenting and improvising. In each decade since the 1960s he has worked with a new generation of musicians. In the mid 1970s, he was at the centre of a new and different kind of sound that was brewing, which Americans called fusion and the British jazz/funk. Roy’s mix of fluent improvisation, dance floor friendly rhythms, and incredible showmanship quickly established him as a leader of the scene.
In the 1990s, Ayers started working with hip hop band The Roots, recorded Jazzmatazz with Gang Starr’s Guru, and has counted many other names amongst his studio partners, including Erika Badu, 4 Hero, A Tribe Called Quest, Notorious Big and many others.
Roy is the best when it comes to mixing jazz, soul and disco. Many of his songs have been sampled by modern artists. He may be best known for his song ‘Everybody Loves the Sunshine’, the title track to his 1976 album, which has been sampled by numerous hip-hop artists, soul singers, and DJs – but Ayers never stops writing new music and is constantly working with performers from various music genres, always surprising audiences.
