Rest in Peace Roy Ayers ️
Roy Ayers has left us all with many memories and an incredible catalogue of recorded music and productions that we have enjoyed over the past 50 years + and will continue to do so for many more. For me he was one of the pioneers of the Jazz-Funk genre, from the very early 70s and forward.
I bought into Roy around the time of his ‘Mystic Voyage’ album (I remember Dave Godin recommending it in his Blues & Soul column) and every album after that until the mid 80s, then discovering his earlier Polydor albums like ‘He’s Coming’ and ‘Red Black and Green’ during the rare groove era in the 90s. The first time I saw him was at Hammersmith Odeon circa 1978/79 with Ubiquity. It was an amazing gig full of vitality and great musicianship. After the encore, the crowd refused to leave singing ‘Hey Uh What You Say Come On’ for a good 10 minutes, before he came back on for a final bow, everybody left on a high. I saw him many times since, as a leader or part of the New York Jazz explosion, always great and with such a sense of humour. I was fortunate to meet Roy a couple of times at weekenders, he seemed like a really nice guy. We have been privileged to have reissued several of his late 70’s/80’s albums on CD our label, most sadly now out of print.
Roy was one of most prolific and innovative musicians our scene has ever seen, making over 40 albums of a consistently high quality, and becoming a great catalyst for discovering up and coming musicians and singers (James Mason, Lesette Wilson, Phillip Woo and many others). His productions include RAMP, Sylvia Striplin, Eighties Ladies, Justo Almerio and collaborations with Fela Kuti and Wayne Henderson.
Roy’s music has been sampled in numerous Hip Hop and Neo-Soul tracks and he will be best remembered for ‘Everybody Loves The Sunshine’ but his catalogue of great tracks is too many to list here. However, ‘Running Away’, ‘Can’t you See Me’, ‘Searchin’ and ‘We Live In Brooklyn Baby’ take some beating.
️ Thank you for the music and memories Roy R.I.P ️
