Roy Ayers

South Park to the vibraphone

Roy Edward Ayers Jr. was born on September 10, 1940 in Los Angeles, into a musical family, with a father who played trombone and a mother who played piano. He got his first vibraphone mallets from Lionel Hampton at five, grew up in South Park in Los Angeles and attended Thomas Jefferson High School. He began recording as a bebop sideman in 1962, made his debut West Coast Vibes with Curtis Amy in 1963, and joined Herbie Mann in 1966. In the early 1970s he formed Roy Ayers Ubiquity; KQED says the band took its name from the 1970 album Ubiquity, and sources differ on whether He's Coming is from 1971 or 1972.

In 1973 he scored the Pam Grier film Coffy. He recorded for Atlantic, Polydor, Columbia, Ichiban and others, and founded the labels Uno Melodic and Gold Mink. Late in the 1970s he spent six weeks in Nigeria with Fela Kuti, and in 1977 he produced RAMP's Come into Knowledge.

Everybody Loves the Sunshine and Lifeline

Everybody Loves the Sunshine was released on May 12, 1976 on Polydor, credited to Roy Ayers Ubiquity, and recorded at Electric Lady Studios in New York and Larrabee Sound Studios in West Hollywood, with Ayers and Maurice Green producing. It reached number 51 on the Billboard 200 and number 10 on the R&B albums chart. Lifeline (1977) was produced by Ayers with Edwin Birdsong and William Allen, and reached 72 and 9 on the same charts; Bay State Banner's Mike Freedberg wrote in 1977 that nearly every song parodies a popular soul act.

Wikipedia calls "Running Away" from Lifeline his biggest hit. Later records include Mystic Voyage (1975), No Stranger to Love (1979), In the Dark (Columbia, 1984, with Stanley Clarke), Wake Up (1989), Nasté (1995) and Mahogany Vibe (2004, with Erykah Badu). He contributed a solo to Whitney Houston's "Love Will Save the Day" in 1988, played on Guru's Jazzmatazz Vol. 1 in 1993, voiced the radio station Fusion FM in Grand Theft Auto IV in 2008, and played vibes on Tyler, the Creator's "Find Your Wings" in 2015.

Godfather of neo soul

Ayers was called the godfather of neo soul. Erykah Badu called him neo-soul's king, Pharrell Williams cited him, and he played vibes on Badu's "Cleva" (Mama's Gun, 2000); Jill Scott sampled "Node" in 2000. The pianist Robert Glasper told KQED it just has a Roy Ayers sound. He received a lifetime achievement award from CORE, and performed live until 2023. He died on March 4, 2025 in Manhattan, aged 84. A documentary, The Roy Ayers Project, was reported as in development.