Roy Ayers

Profile of the performer Roy Ayers: American funk, soul and jazz composer and vibraphone player born 10 September 1940 in Los Angeles.



Thanks to his trombone playing father and piano teaching mother, he became immersed in music from day one and the story goes that he was given his first set of vibe mallets by his hero Lionel Hampton at the age of five.



Constantly performing and recording since the 1960's, he is the most well known jazz vibraphonists. He has produced some of the most loved modern soul-jazz records of all time. Classics beyond genre such as, "Everybody Loves The Sunshine", most influential afro-jazz with musician Fela Kuti, "Africa - Centre Of The World", and the most seminal jazz-funk, such as "Running Away".



2004 saw the release of "[url=http://www.discogs.com/Roy-Ayers-Virgin-Ubiquity-II-Unreleased-Recordings-1976-1981/master/56721]Virgin Ubiquity: Unreleased Recordings 1976-1981[/url]" which were 'lost' sessions tapes that he had discarded, along with various contemporary remixes. DJ Gilles Peterson described this as the equivalent of finding a lost [url=http://www.discogs.com/artist/Beatles,+The]Beatles[/url] album. No doubt this helped him win the Gilles Peterson Worldwide Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004.



Roy Ayers is ageless and evergreen, and as per the title of another one of hits, remember "We All Live In Brooklyn Baby".



Father of Roy Ayers III.

1. http://www.royayers.com
2. http://www.myspace.com/royayersubiquity
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Ayers
4. http://www.whosampled.com/Roy-Ayers/
5. http://www.allmusic.com/artist/roy-ayers-mn0000345168